Homeless man jailed after charging cellphone at public park

[Squipples]

SARASOTA, Fla. -- A homeless man spent the night in a Southwest Florida jail after a police officer accused him of stealing by charging his cellphone at a public park.
An arrest report says that a Sarasota police sergeant spotted 28-year-old Darren Kersey charging his phone Sunday evening in a public picnic shelter at Gillespie Park. The sergeant told Kersey that the "theft of city utilities will not be tolerated during this bad economy" and then arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of theft of utilities.
Unable to pay the $500 bond, Kersey spent the night in jail. But the Sarasota Herald-Tribune ( http://bit.ly/W4frm0) reports that Kersey was released Monday morning after a judge threw the case out, saying the sergeant lacked the legal justification to make the arrest.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/12/3094232/homeless-man-jailed-after-charging.html

 

[dprogram]

Isn't that crazy?!!

 

[kokomojoe]

Cops will arrest you for anything and the only people who say otherwise are the people who haven't been harassed.

 

[Evie217]

They tried pullin this shit on me back at the Drag in Austin. I plugged my charger in and he(cop) harrassed the fuck out of me saying he had every right to lock me up. Fuckin pigs, Fuckin pigs

 

[Tude]

That's ridiculous - what did he use? $.05? We have outlets in the bus shelters - up high, so I imagine they are for the bus station's use - but the agile are able to plug in - there's always a phone hanging from them - cops just keep on walking ...

 

[daveycrockett]

seriously they have no other way to make revenue or ..

 

[Sprouticus]

a little off topic but Tude i just noticed you're from Rochester...me too!

 

[LeftCoast]

Meanwhile at the cop meeting:

"Alright you guys, we all know the whole capitalism thing is failing, so let's just try and extort money from people! It's a great idea. We can just pick on people who don't have jack shit and give them debt. They wont be able to pay it so they will be in our total control! Yeah guys come on let's go get on this and book us some homebums n shit!"

meanwhile, cartman jumps homeless people in colorado....