Judge Dismisses Charges Against BASE Jumper
NY State Supreme Court Justice Michael Ambrecht dismissed charges against BASE (Building, Antenna, Span, Earth) Jumper Jebb Corliss.
Corliss was charged with reckless endangerment for trying to parachute from the 86th floor (observation floor) of the Empire State Building on April 27th, 2006. He snuck his equipment in the building and through security by hiding it under a fat suit.
The prosecution argued that Corliss was placing bystanders and Empire State Building personnel in danger with what he intended to do. The judge said he wouldn’t be putting others in danger.
The judge decided that Corliss has a constitutional right to free expression and that jumping off the Empire State Building was free expression. (Source)
My question is why wasn’t he charged with, say, tresspassing? The fact that he snuck in his equipment says that he knew that his actions wouldn’t be met with, shall we say, open arms.
The owners and management of the Empire State Building have property rights that should trump Mr. Corliss’ individual freedom of expression…
Vote For Sgt. Hook
Via Fausta, The VA Mortgage center is having a contest for best Military Blog. Please vote for Sgt. Hook so he can travel to Washington D.C. and visit the hospitalized troops there and attend the Milblog conference!
Plane Lands in Tree
A small plane landed in a tree in December in Colorado. The sign nearby directs one to a flight school. True picture.
Breaking – Art Buchwald, R.I.P.
Art Buchwald died today at 81. He was a Pulitzer Prize winning political humorist/columnist.
According to Fox News he was on dialysis last year and went into hospice and then he got better and got out of hospice and wrote a book about it.
His son said he went the way he would have wanted – on his own terms.
AP Story here.
