Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Tale of a Tragic Torontonian

In May 2013, a frustrated Toronto Blue Jays fan, Joe, jumped onto the field and was arrested for criminal mischief.  The hilarious police report that followed paints Joe as a tragic figure who, "in an attempt to inject some kind of spark into [the] listless Jays," jumped onto the field, interrupting the game, but giving Jays fans a "brief respite from their season long agony."  The officer notes that, thankfully, Joe was sitting in the 100 level seats and wasn't "forced to jump from the 500 level out of sheer frustration."  An article about the incident and a copy of the police report can be found here
 
That report, however, is not quite as hilarious as the prosecutor's subsequent letter to Joe's attorney, who had apparently inquired about how Joe could avoid prosecution for the incident.  The prosecutor seems to agree with the officers that Joe may be a tragic figure, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, faced with the decision of "whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them."  In my favorite part of the letter, the prosecutor concludes that "[w]hile Shakespeare would arguably support [Joe's] flight onto centre-field, the criminal law tends to be firmly planted in the 'suffer the slings and arrows camp....'"

All's well that ends well for Joe--he apparently escaped prosecution by donating to a Jays' charity and is still allowed to attend games at the Jays stadium. 

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