Bad ideas have had free rein in 2016. From a Muslim registry to a taxpayer-funded Pitbull music video, there’s a lot for America to be embarrassed about in the past 12 months.
by The Miami News Times’ Jessica Lipscomb
December 20, 2016
But the year isn’t over yet, and neither are the awful ideas. This past Sunday, the Miami Herald published a skepticism-free story proposing something called a “civility court,” in which regular people could be forced to answer for their “bad,” but not criminal, behavior in front of a judge. Even worse, the person pitching the idea is a licensed Florida attorney and the chief strategy adviser to Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado.
At an editorial board meeting where Mikki Canton pitched her idea, others mentioned the viral video of a white man berating a black barista at a Coral Gables Starbucks as an example of someone who might be sent to such a civility court. The man yelled that he had voted for Trump and claimed “anti-white discrimination.”
“Sometimes what you do doesn’t rise to the level of breaking the law, but it sure does break civility rules,” Canton said. “If I were the judge I’d say, ‘What was it’ and ‘Where did he commit this offense that didn’t rise to the level of breaking the law,’ and I would put him out there and make him be the spokesperson and make him work some community hours.”
Do we really need to spell out why this is a godawful plan? First of all, this is Miami — 95 percent of the population would be in the civility gulag if yelling and swearing were punishable offenses. [READ MORE]