A woman observing a trial was arrested and jailed for 48 hours because she wore a t-shirt with a political slogan.
Are you curious about the political slogan? Can this be legal? Would you agree that the specific slogan would be a crucial part of the news reporting this story? Now try this actual event, reported in the Chicago Tribune:
“Jennifer LaPenta, 20, was jailed this week by Lake County Associate Judge Helen Rozenberg who held her in contempt for wearing a T-shirt in her courtroom emblazoned with the words: “I have the (slang for female body part) so I make the rules.” LaPenta was sitting in the gallery waiting for a friend’s case when the judge called her forward.
This is a horrible incident—a judge jailing someone not even on trial because she didn’t like the woman’s T-shirt. But the Tribune is so busy protecting readers’ eyeballs from being burned by the “slang for female body part” that we don’t get to evaluate the judge’s actions for ourselves. We don’t get to be outraged that whatever-the-word-was landed someone in jail.
On the progressive side, the Huffington Post was no better—in fact, they were worse. Huffington ran the headline and lead, then simply directed readers to the Lake County News Sun, which of course couldn’t possibly mention the word that made the woman a criminal. Worse, Huffington ran a photo of the woman wearing her T-shirt—with the word blacked out.
In recent years adults have been insulted by media inventions like “the N word” and “the F bomb.” These are the same media that are willing to not show 4,000 American corpses being shipped back from Iraq. The media don’t trust us. They’re busy protecting us from the truth instead of reporting it.
The words on the T-shirt are a crucial detail. Without them, the LaPenta story is reduced to gossip, to a reality show. Instead of being angered, we chuckle.
So here’s what the T-shirt said across her chest:
“I have the pussy, so I make the rules.”
Stupid? Sure.
Offensive? Contemptible?
Not as much as a judge jailing her for it. And not as much as the national media refusing to let us know exactly what happened.
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She has the gavel and robe,
She has the gavel and robe, so she makes the rules.
No, we make the rules
I was always under the impression that the reason everyone is allowed in a court room is so that we, the public, can keep an eye on the judicial process. And once upon a time We (as in 'the people') made another rule called the first amendment; "Congress shall make no law ...abridging the freedom of speech" and a judge putting a 20 year old in jail for calling her vagina a 'pussy' on a t-shirt is just the kind of thing 'we the people' need to be on the look-out for.
As for the press representing 'we the people', how could they not investigate and report whether or not the judge, not the 20 year old who gave her friend a ride to the courthouse, but the judge, is in fact following a valid law?
If she had a PhD in gender studies and expressed it as 'my vagina gives me power over men' would she have to spend 2 days in jail too?
When it comes down to it...
Wearing a hat or your pants below your waist in a courtroom is to be dressed inappropriately. Because either your clothes are exposing too much (low pants) or your clothes are expressing disrespect for a sitting judge (hat). However, this t-shirt that got Jennifer arrested did not have areas cut out of it, leaving her nipples/breasts/bra exposed - believe me, if it had, we'd have heard ALL about it. Therefore it is not the same as the other clothing requirement rules. She was not arrested for her clothing but for what was written on it.
Now I figured her shirt said "cunt" - because I thought that was the only word referring to a woman's snatch that even a fundamentalist could possibly find offensive enough to jail someone over. When I read that the word in question was "pussy", I had another thought. I doubt she was jailed for the word "pussy". I now believe she was jailed because what her shirt said (when you take out the slang) was "I am a woman and I make the rules because I am a woman and as such I have power over men". Now you have to be insane or utterly unobservant not to have noticed that many women have overwhelming influence over many men, simply by virtue of being women and being sexually desirable to those men over whom they have influence. So the judge jailed her for having a statement on her shirt that reflects accurately a condition of our culture.
Can you think of anything stupider, even if the judge was within his (or her, but more likely his) legal rights to do so?
Yes, but
I'm not sure what the laws are in Chicago, but here in Texas it's illegal to portray certain words in public. Bumper stickers with the word "shit" are even illegal. Maybe this is the case in Illinois as well. Jennifer may have been breaking the law just by wearing the shirt in public.
hey, they'll hold you in
hey, they'll hold you in contempt for even wearing a hat in the courtroom, or wearing your pants lower than your waist. they've just got standards of dress for the courtroom, no big story here
This is nothing new. Years
This is nothing new. Years ago I recall a story of the same thing happening to a guy wearing a t-shirt that said "If assholes were airplanes, this place would be an airport." I suppose the idea is that you should show respect to an elected official. This dates from the days when most public officials deserved respect of course.
First Amendment: something
First Amendment: something the judge needs to read