Order! Order!
"You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch, but you might avoid jail" by Andy Rosen Globe Staff December 23, 2015
Law enforcement and legal experts around Massachusetts agreed to weigh in this holiday season on what a prosecution might have looked like if authorities had chosen to throw the book at the classic Christmas menace.
Bob Harnais, president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, said it could be argued that the Grinch’s heart condition could sway a jury to a more sympathetic view of his actions. If he could actually prove his heart had grown three sizes that day, even better.
“Unfortunately, he’s a disabled person. His heart is the size of a peanut,” Harnais said. “Don’t you think you’d lash out?”
Attorney General Maura Healey said the Grinch made the right move when he showed up at the Whoville feast and carved the roast beast.
Healey said she’d recommend no jail time for the Grinch’s actions, but she would like to see him return to Whoville every year to perform additional community service, such as cleaning the chimneys.
He's part of the elite cla$$!
She added that his seeming self-rehabilitation was an opportunity for restorative justice.
“You have to think about what is the sentence that would be most appropriate,” Healey said. “Here, I think that he will do more good by performing and continuing down his path of community service.”
If the prosecutors, judges, and jurors of Whoville were less forgiving than the Massachusetts attorney general, the Grinch, who acknowledges being at least 53 years old, could conceivably spend the rest of his life behind bars for the totality of the crimes.
There’s even a possibility of a hate crime charge, given that the Grinch targeted those who celebrate Christmas.
If the Grinch were tried and convicted in Massachusetts, and if a merciless judge chose to impose consecutive sentences, the theft charges alone could lead to life behind bars.
But the consensus among the commentators was that his punishment would be light — if he was even charged at all. Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon said investigators there would take a hard look at whether the Grinch had learned a lesson on his own.
“The most important thing is having the person see the outcome of their actions,” Solomon said. “I like to see a happy ending from a negative experience.”
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They will have the opportunity for a test case in Vermont:
"Christmas dinner, walkers stolen from senior housing facility in Vt." by Sarah Roberts Globe Correspondent December 25, 2015
Residents of the Pittsford, Vt., community awoke Friday morning to find that all of their food and other items for their Christmas Day celebration were gone.
Among the items stolen were Christmas cookies, salad, frozen chicken, several turkeys, hot dog rolls, dinner rolls, canned vegetables, 10 pounds of potatoes, several loaves of bread, Christmas CDs, puzzles, TV, stereo, and 10 walkers, according to a Vermont State Police statement.
Word of the theft quickly spread, and local residents donated items to make sure the celebration could go on.
“Unfortunately for you, Mr. Grinch, Christmas has been saved by the AMAZING community,” police stated, adding that people gave so much food that the facility should be covered for meals lasting into next week....
See you then, readers.
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