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Alleged Orange Line monkey spanker nabbed
By adamg on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 11:38am
A Roslindale man was charged with open and lewd grossness on Thursday after several passengers on his Orange Line car told police he stood up, opened his fly and began masturbating as the train hurtled through Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
MBTA booking photoMil Delacruz, 28, of Roslindale, pleaded innocent to a charge of open and gross lewdness the next day in West Roxbury District Court. Judge Kathleen Coffey set bail at $300 and ordered him to stay off the MBTA until his case is decided, to undergo alcohol-abuse treatment and attend AA meetings, the DA's office says.
The DA's office says passengers getting off the train at Forest Hills around 5 p.m. told MBTA Transit cops at the station about this guy in their car and his hand show; the DA's office reports he was not hard to find: "They observed his fly to be open and his genitals to be exposed."
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
It was a cry for help -
It was a cry for help - society has failed him.
A THOUSAND cries for help
Seeing as his first name means .... a thousand.
Can I just say...
...that it pisses me off when courts order people to attend AA/NA specifically (rather than just leaving it at "substance abuse treatment") Twelve-step is one very specific form of substance abuse treatment, and it's also SELF-HELP, so someone has to want help in order to get anything out of it. One can also go to the meetings and sit there and do nothing and be ignored, which can't really happen in treatment with a professional. Also, why is the court determining which substance abuse treatment approach is appropriate for an individual? The various approaches are variably effective depending on the person's specific issues, and twelve-step in particular requires the individual to accept (or at least tolerate) the idea of a higher power, and some people won't buy into AA/NA whatsoever because of that. You don't see the courts mandating that someone complete a particular brand of driver education or that they see a therapist with a particular theoretical orientation -- they leave the specific type of treatment up to the individual and the providers. When are the folks in the court system going to realize that AA/NA is not a generic referring to any type of substance abuse treatment? Jake Wark, any thoughts?
We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion about some dude wanking.
AA and NA are at least free
although you're right that they don't work for everyone. Other forms of treatment might require a significant state expenditure, and there's no guarantee that they will work either.
That said, this guy probably has more problems than drugs and alcohol, IMO. I hope there weren't any kids on the train.
there are other free options out there...
that use different models. after i got into some trouble when i was younger, i was mandated to attend 2 years of AA or NA meetings, 3 meetings a week. i went, and i got some useful stuff out of it. but i spent my time trying to find other methods to work on sobriety, as some of the basic philosophical beliefs of AA both irked me, and i felt weren't useful for my personal recovery.
i found some other information through secular sobriety, rational recover, women for sobriety, etc.
not every model works for every person. for successful recovery, you need to find the one that works for you. AA didn't work for me, but through alternative methods, i've been clean and sober for 21 years.
but i do agree with you that this man probably had other problems. alcoholism or drug abuse may have contributed to it, but he didn't just start masturbating on a public subway because he was drunk. plenty of people have been drunk on the T. almost all of them keep it in their pants.
How flexible is the system about AA alternatives?
I would think that mandating AA, with all the religious undertones and overtones, would be tantamount to establishing religion, no? Not that it doesn't work for a lot of people, but requiring a program that is structured around strong religious belief doesn't sound very compatible with the first amendment.
If somebody wanted to switch to a more personally compatible program, would this be allowed under terms of probation? Is there any case law or lawsuits around the AA mandates?
ps Bandit: good work!
they're supposed to be flexible...
... in the u.s. federal appeals court, Robert Warner vs. the Orange County Department of Probation, the court ruled that sentancing an athiest to attend AA was an infringement on his religious freedom. the court stated that "...it seems clear enough that Warner should not under the First Amendment have been required to participate in religious exercises". the case was actually a damages case, which was a little less clear. but the gist was that you can't send somebody to AA if they have religious objections to it.
the court has not made it clear, however, if you can send somebody to AA if it simply violates their philosophical objections.
There's no question that it
There's no question that it does work for some people, but I have real problems with treating all drinking as a "disease" and demanding acceptance of and guidance from a higher power. By taking the first approach, you're basically ignoring the shades of grey among problem drinkers and not teaching any personal responsibility or self-control by forcing people to abstain. "Out of sight, out of mind" doesn't address problems, it hides them. As for the "higher power," that's just swapping one crutch for the next. That works for a lot of people, and there's merit to the argument that a void filled with religion trumps a void filled with booze. However, it doesn't address the void itself or the personal relationships that formed it.
Also, the court's public mandate...
....kind of removes the anonymity from Alcoholics Anonymous.
This is what usually happens.
They aren't really "court ordered" in the sense. Usually they let the person choose what program they want to go into, and the court (or probation dept) approves it. More often than not that persons attorney and/or doctor sets up court accepted plans as well.