You want to ignore that speed-camera ticket -- good for you. Heck, we even encourage it.
But we also encourage authorities to prosecute to the fullest those who would commit violence as some sort of malicious protest against photo enforcement. The fatal shooting of an innocent photo-radar van worker earlier this year made the whole Valley queasy.
Now another horrible -- though, thankfully, less brutal -- incident has occurred. This time, a process server delivering a speed-camera ticket in Gilbert was punched so hard, he was knocked out, according to an article today by Channel 15 (KNXV-TV).
The article by Corey Rangel 's a bit light on details, with no name of the victim or date of the altercation, but we'll assume for the time being the facts are essentially correct.
The process server dropped off his paperwork for the woman in the speed-camera photo and was suddenly cold-cocked by the woman's husband. The punch knocked out the server, the article says. Denny Dobbins, a lawyer for the process-serving company, AAA Photo Safety, had this to say to Channel 15:
I think if you knock somebody out, and they're knocked out and they take a free fall to the pavement, and hit their head and their shoulder, and they have to go to the hospital, I think it should be a felony...
The palooka who threw the punch was convicted after being arrested by Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies, but was sentenced only to mandatory anger-management classes and a $500 fine.
That seems a bit light -- sounds like the injuries to the server could have been worse.
Dobbins has been lobbying state lawmakers to increase the penalties in similar attacks on process servers. (Though, gee, if the penalties need to be raised for assault cases, maybe they should be raised no matter who the victim is).
