Pushing someone off a 50-foot bridge seems like a serious thing to me, regardless of what the victim wants. No, I don’t think the bridge-pusher should spend her life in jail. Maybe she should be fined or get probation. I don’t know. I just don’t get why it is or should be up to the victim to decide what happens.
If someone stabs me, but I don’t think they should be arrested (The stabber is my buddy, I think I was somehow at fault, I don’t want the stabber’s life ruined) does that matter?
My younger brother pushed me off the top of a couch when I was in 1st grade, and I dislocated my elbow. I don’t think I would have pressed charges.
I didn’t have to do my schoolwork for weeks due to it being my writing arm. Score!
In terms of how likely it is that a prosecutor could win a conviction? Absolutely it matters.
The criminal justice system serves multiple goals.
One is to reduce the rate of crimes by punishing people under the assumption that if they did it once they will do it twice without some external unpleasantness happening. In some cases after “doing it once” it is pretty obvious that they didn’t like it, and won’t be doing it again. That may or may not apply here.
Another is to reduce the rate of crimes by making sure the injured party doesn’t feel that they have to take justice into their own hands (i.e. if bob goes around punching women who don’t do what he wants on a date, and bob doesn’t end up in jail some dad is likely to shoot bob in the face…or one f the women he punched will, after the fact).
(proper form reduces or eliminates bodily injury. If you’re pushed off the bridge, proper form may be difficult to achieve)
This kind of arsehole behaviour is fairly typical in male “friends”, and often passed of as youthful ebulliance. I wonder is this a story and are we judging the perpetrator harsher because she is a woman?
Friends with benefits assets.
Probably, yes.
The countdown, the knowledge that other people jump there regularly, the group of people watching expectantly. It adds up to stupidity. She maybe made the jump herself and felt her friend needed a little ‘help’, not expecting her to belly-flop as a result.
I’d say a stern talking-to and the fact that her friend was injured will teach her enough lessons to last a lifetime.
I think I first saw this on Youtube or somewhere. That’s fucked up. Friend or not, when I get out of the hospital I’d want to kick her ass.
I’m wondering if criminal charges (or lack thereof) would have any impact on a civil suit. There were injuries and health care costs involved.
News Flash - No means No - doesn’t just apply to men and sex.
Look up “diving board peritonitis.” Those with female type anatomy are not terribly well suited to these kind of stunts. Of course, having your testicles crushed in this manner is not all that much fun either!
Nope. The girl has no “court.” The DA decides this.
The famous Acapulco cliff divers always enter the water feet first. Anything else means injury.
You can generally use a guilty verdict in a related criminal case as evidence in a civil suit, I’m not a lawyer (I took a few law classes in high school decades ago) so I don’t know how frequently that results in a “responsible” verdict in civil court. I naively assume “almost always” (criminal standard is “beyond a reasonable doubt” while civil is “preponderance of the evidence” so criminally guilty ought to always be enough for civil suits), but I could be wrong.
I grew up going to Moulton Falls (although I prefer Sunset Falls a few miles upriver).
Although it doesn’t seem that high in pictures, from the top of the bridge it’s absolutely terrifying. And especially in summer, when the water is low, I would feel like pushing anyone from up there would lead to a good chance of them hitting the rocks.
It takes a looooooong time to get an ambulance out there too.
Stupidly, I’ve done something like this. The rule where I was was “feet first, with shoes on”.
It was crazy. Hurt my feet (even with shoes). Had time to think “wow, this was really a bad idea” on the way down. And when in the water, it’s really scary to look up, and only see a little shimmering circle to tell you which way you should be going…
I’m not sure. I was once on a jury of a domestic violence case that was brought to court by the DA although the victim and perpetrator had reconciled and the victim didn’t want the case to be prosecuted. We ended up convicting the perpetrator despite the victim’s objections because as we on the jury were informed, the only issue was whether the assault occurred, and the evidence clearly showed that it did.
AFAIK domestic violence cases are always fully prosecuted, no matter what. The idea is that too many victims are overwhelmed and change their mind at some point.
My wife works for CPS and at one point, the brother of our brother-in-Law (got that?) was arrested and tried for pushing his girlfriend down the stairs. She made a statement at sentencing that she made the whole thing up as revenge for a bad fight they had. The judge was like, “well, I hope you’re happy, because he’s going to prison anyway.” That’s when my wife explained to me how that works.
It adds up to a CONSPIRACY to THROW SOMEBODY OFF A BRIDGE
maybe there should be some MORE prosecutions
