Deadspin has taken up the cause of Mike Cooper, a sad sack of a fella’ who had the misfortune of getting caught by the local news team while masturbating in the public library. Jesus. Local news really has sunk to the depths of the sewer, hasn’t it? Watch video of our intrepid reporter, the uncannilly-named Carl Monday (or should I say, CARL MONDAY!) shaming the poor schlub — just before likening him to a child molester — here.

Deadspin notes that the local judge set Cooper’s bail at an astonishing $500,000, more than four times what one local man got for breaking into an elderly woman’s home and beating her, and ten times the bail given to an area woman accused of shooting her sister.

Yeah, the story is sorta’ funny. But come on. The guy took a stupid risk . He wasn’t intentionally exposing himself to anyone. The video seems to show he’s the only one in the room. Seems to me that the national embarassment he’s endured ought to be enough.

And man. God help him should prosecutors try to tag him as a sex offender. If that happens, the guy’s life is over. And which point the story isn’t amusing anymore, but pretty damned sad.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 3:27 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.