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March 29th, 2024

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The Justice Angle

News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

By News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

Published August 27, 2014

The Justice Angle

In the midst of the city of Detroit's water crackdown -- shutting off the spigots of residents delinquent on their bills -- the Council of Canadians has come to the rescue. First, the council pressed the United Nations to label Detroit's program a "human rights" violation (the denial of clean drinking water to the 3,000 homes per week being shut down). Said the council chair, "I've (only) seen this (oppression) in the poorest countries in the world." Second, the council arranged a convoy of "good Canadian, public, clean water" into Detroit in July to modestly help the estimated 79,000 homes in peril. [Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News, 7-3-2014]

Ms. Ajanaffy Njewadda and her husband recently filed a lawsuit against New York City's transit authority (MTA) following her tumble down some stairs at a subway station (which caused a broken ankle, concussion and lingering trauma that has required psychiatric care). The MTA had placed a large ad for the serial-killer TV series "Dexter" on station stairs, positioned to be seen just as visitors left the subway. Ms. Njewadda said she was momentarily terrified by the ad and lost her balance. [New York Post, 6-25-2014]

Oh, Dear!: A man whose name was withheld ("D.B.") filed a lawsuit in April against medical clinics and physicians who performed his colonoscopy in Fairfax, Virginia, in 2013, based on what the patient learned from audio his smartphone recorded while he was unconscious. Though he originally intended to record only doctors' instructions, he was dismayed to know that they began "mocking" him the second he went under, making disparaging and untrue statements about his health, feigning disgust at his body ("Oh! Oscar Mike Goss!") (slang for "OMG" -- oh, my God), threatening to "fire a gun up his rectum," "diagnosing" him with syphilis or "tuberculosis in the penis," and threatening to (falsely) note hemorrhoids on his record -- all done amidst gales of laughter. [Fairfax Times, 5-13-2014; Courthouse News, 4-22-2014]

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