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Aug. 26th, 2010 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oakenguyThe thing I keep telling myself is that it's not my fault. It's Elvis's.
Here's what happened: I have a friend, Cady, who's a living statue. About a month ago she posted on Facebook that she was feeling angry and upset because she was being sued for libel by another street performer. When I asked she gave me the details: last year while statueing she'd been groped and then verbally harassed for over an hour by an Elvis impersonator who wanted her performance spot. She'd gone to the cops to complain about him, and (much to her surprise) he'd been arrested. The actual court date was months later and got pushed back several times, so that she was actually out of the country when it finally rolled around, so charges were dropped...and now, over a year after that, she and a witness who'd testified on her behalf (!) were being charged with libel (!!) to the tune of $100,000 (!!!) for the emotional distress they'd caused.
My immediate emotional responses were as follows:
1)...BuhWHA?
2) Outrage!
3) I must help in some way!
4) Seriously, buhWHA?
5) A bizarre story like this must be shared.
The combination of 2,3 and 5 made me think of a couple friends who are reporters, and when I asked Cady about alerting the media she thought it was a great idea. Fast-forward a couple weeks, and what resulted was this:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/08/06/duel_performance_in_provincetown/
A good story, balanced, no problem with that...but 99 comments weighed in, and a depressing number were along the lines of "I would hope the courts do what is right and tell them both to get real jobs."
Which....yeah. Unwashed masses, right? Until the Globe ITSELF weighed in with an editorial a few days later, which basically said they were both jerks.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/08/09/provincetown_a_drag_on_both_their_houses/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Editorial%2FOp-ed+pages
This both depresses me and drives me nuts...Cady's at fault? For what? For being sued? For not just ignoring someone groping her while she's trying to work? For performing in public in the first place?
So that's where things stand now...by attempting to help, I instead got my friend scolded by the region's biggest newspaper.
Next time I get the urge to jump to someone's aid, I'm going to do it by baking them cookies.
Here's what happened: I have a friend, Cady, who's a living statue. About a month ago she posted on Facebook that she was feeling angry and upset because she was being sued for libel by another street performer. When I asked she gave me the details: last year while statueing she'd been groped and then verbally harassed for over an hour by an Elvis impersonator who wanted her performance spot. She'd gone to the cops to complain about him, and (much to her surprise) he'd been arrested. The actual court date was months later and got pushed back several times, so that she was actually out of the country when it finally rolled around, so charges were dropped...and now, over a year after that, she and a witness who'd testified on her behalf (!) were being charged with libel (!!) to the tune of $100,000 (!!!) for the emotional distress they'd caused.
My immediate emotional responses were as follows:
1)...BuhWHA?
2) Outrage!
3) I must help in some way!
4) Seriously, buhWHA?
5) A bizarre story like this must be shared.
The combination of 2,3 and 5 made me think of a couple friends who are reporters, and when I asked Cady about alerting the media she thought it was a great idea. Fast-forward a couple weeks, and what resulted was this:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/08/06/duel_performance_in_provincetown/
A good story, balanced, no problem with that...but 99 comments weighed in, and a depressing number were along the lines of "I would hope the courts do what is right and tell them both to get real jobs."
Which....yeah. Unwashed masses, right? Until the Globe ITSELF weighed in with an editorial a few days later, which basically said they were both jerks.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/08/09/provincetown_a_drag_on_both_their_houses/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Editorial%2FOp-ed+pages
This both depresses me and drives me nuts...Cady's at fault? For what? For being sued? For not just ignoring someone groping her while she's trying to work? For performing in public in the first place?
So that's where things stand now...by attempting to help, I instead got my friend scolded by the region's biggest newspaper.
Next time I get the urge to jump to someone's aid, I'm going to do it by baking them cookies.
