Thursday, January 18, 2007

There Oughta Be a Law

As of this moment, it is not against the law to jump off the Empire State Building, according to this story in the New York Times.

Seems that last April, a guy named Jeb Corliss was arrested for trying to leap off the observation deck of the New York City landmark. To his credit, he did bring a parachute. He also, according to a New York court, studied the traffic patterns so he wouldn't hit anyone on landing. Corliss was described as a skilled BASE (Bridge, Antenna, Span, Earth) jumper who has previously jumped from the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. In short, while Corliss is a freaking nutcase, he is a very skilled and experienced nutcase. He's good at the whole nutcase thing. Therefore, the judge reasoned, he could not be guilty of "reckless endangerment with depraved indifference to life," which is what he was charged with.

The D.A.'s office is considering an appeal, and the defense attorney predicts there will probably be a move in the Legislature to specifically ban leaping off buildings. In the meantime, however, it's fair game, so long as you plan your insanity carefully.

So if you were wondering how to amuse yourself at Thrillerfest....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What was really annoying is watching the guy on local tv last night (bragging about how he knew he'd get off) ... his first concern, he said, was "for other people's safety" ... yeah, right. He claims he checked the traffic direction, wind, etc., as if that/they would guarantee him (and everybody on the ground) a safe trip.

Scary stuff in my city ... the judges here (like the genius who let the mafia cops off because of a statute of limitations on a RICO charge); he actually said, "They probably are killers but the law is the law."

One reason I'm moving in a couple-few years ...

JD Rhoades said...

Charlie: I'm still baffled as to why they prosecuted murderers under a racketeering statute (which has a statute of limitations) instead of a murder statute (which has none). Can you shed any light on this?

Anonymous said...

I'm not positive, JD, but I think they had originally brought those clowns (mafia cops) in on a RICO investigation that extended back a few years but didn't originally have anything to do with them. For lack of a better word/phrase, they were collateral damage.

But another issue was one of the big shot mob turncoats (Gasspipe Casso) had given the mafia cops up when he made his deal several years ago (and halfway through the RICO case), but nobody listened.

I think you're right, though. If I'm not mistaken, the game plan now is to re-indict them under state murder charge(s) and to proceed from there.

It's guys and cases and deals like these that give the dopey books I write some credibility (because you can't make some of this stuff up) ... Whitey Bulger ... Greg Scarpa ... and now the mafia cops

Unknown said...

Dusty..well, if some people (who shall remain nameless) show up at ThrillerFest in New York (as they did in Phoenix) with a gi-normous bottle of vodka in a plastic bag ... then I can assure you that a lot of people will be flying (and without parachutes) by the end of the evening.....
:) :) :)