Spoiler: nobody actually got punched. There wasn't any Nazi, or at least I don't think so. And it wasn't an incident instigated by a
"progressive." But someone
could have gone to jail, and it was an eye-opening example of discrimination by people with authority. It really
made my blood boil.
Here's what happened:
I had to be in court yesterday for a traffic ticket. I live in a very rural area where "camo" is considered a color, everyone wears ball caps, and
hunting season is almost a multi-week public holiday. Mossy Oak and Realtree are fashion statements here, lol. As I walked into the lobby outside the
courtroom, I noticed two bailiffs having an argument with a man.
He was youngish, maybe 35, and dressed in a Mossy Oak shirt much like the one below with a t-shirt underneath, nice jeans, and tennis shoes. Pretty
standard here, and the shirt was actually very nice.
T-shirt example (his was more shades of brown):
Being the nosy person that I am, I listened to what was going on for a minute. The bailiffs were telling the guy he couldn't go into the courtroom in
that shirt. He asked why. They told him no camo allowed in the court. He told them he could take it off, but the shirt he had on underneath was
short-sleeved (which is not allowed in court--how odd). They told him they'd find him another shirt but no way, no-how was he going into the
courtroom in his nice Mossy Oak long-sleeved T. This went on in a circular fashion for a few minutes.
I peeked into the courtroom to see if the judge had arrived and things were starting. Saw a woman wearing a camo hoodie jacket in much the same print
as the shirt of man who was getting hassled. Hmmn. I read the "what's not allowed" list by the courtroom doors. No short sleeves, no shorts, no
caps...not a word about camo. Double hmmn.
When I came back out, the bailiffs were trying to get the guy to wear an inmate's jail shirt they'd brought up from the jail (interestingly, it had
short sleeves.) He was getting quite upset. Not yelling or cursing, but obviously thoroughly pissed off. I went back into the court and sat down. Camo
man never appeared.
As the docket list was read, anyone who didn't immediately stand up and say "here" had a warrant issued for them immediately. A couple of people
showed up 5-10 minutes after their name was read and were arrested for failure to appear.
Camo man still didn't appear. Court went on for about an hour and a half, then the judge called a break. After a few minutes Camo man came in. When
the break was about to end, the bailiff came and told him he had to leave the room, that he couldn't wear his camo shirt in the room. Camo man said
he'd spoken to the judge during break and was told it was fine.
The bailiff called him a liar and proceeded to try to make him leave. Camo man refused, saying the judge had okayed it. Finally the bailiff (and the
bailiffs are sheriff's deputies, btw) went and asked the judge-- who told him it was fine for camo man to wear camo in his court.
Mind you, through all this at least one other person wearing not just camo but the SAME KIND of camo had been sitting in the courtroom unmolested.
When camo man was called up to hear the charges, it turned out he was there for the exact same type of ticket I was there for--but he was fined twice
as much.
So. This guy COULD have been arrested for failure to appear, because he wasn't allowed into the court for wearing something that WASN'T on the
"unacceptable" list. He was denied the chance to speak to the prosecutor before his case was called, which every other person in the court was able
to do. He was fined twice as much as me for the same thing. The bailiffs tried to make him go into court wearing inmates' clothes, which imo would
have been very prejudicial. AND he had his whole day ruined by two jerks.
Why? I don't think it had anything to do with his shirt.
The problem was that Camo Man looked like a Nazi. He had a neck tattoo. He had gauges in his ears. He had a super-short, buzzed, Nazi-looking haircut.
He had a "cocky" walk and a soldier's stance. He just looked like a Nazi to these two hicks. And because he looked like a Nazi, these fine
upstanding sheriff's deputies decided to give him a hard time. Luckily he didn't yell at them or cuss them or he probably would've ended up in
jail.
What was he in court for? A ticket for driving with an expired driver's license.
NOTE: When court was over, I searched him out and asked him, just in case I'd missed something, what happened, what started the whole situation etc.
As it happens, I'd seen pretty much the entire incident. He went to walk into the courtroom, the bailiff barred his way and escorted him back to the
lobby, he asked why, and that was about where I came in.