Luke V. Gatti stands before Judge John Payne Monday morning
I'll let the Amherst Police Department "Statement of Facts" speak for itself. I'm beginning to wonder (If I may speculate) if Mr. Gatti has Tourette's syndrome.
Click to enlarge/read
And yes -- in the interests of being fair and balanced -- I did reach out to Mr. Gatti for comment:
The students, even the Blarney Blowout offenders, have been getting off easy, it's been an inexcusable slap in the face of law enforcement by the local courts. I don't make a habit of wishing bad for others, but this time I really hope this guy goes to jail. Richard Marsh
ReplyDeleteIt's so cute how he copy and pasted his lawyer's response to you. Awwww... freshman. You can do no wrong in MY book (except by injuring people, acting beligerent and generally being menaces to society).
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said... "It's so cute..."
ReplyDeleteHis email sounds like a sincere response from a high level student and not like the wording of legal council.
Just because you are incapable of speaking for yourself with any level of sophistication it's rather small minded of you to assume that others can't either.
Well if he spoke with a bit more "sophistication" those two nights on Phillips Street, he would not now be in such a pickle.
ReplyDeleteHis speech didn't het him arrested Larry, his actions did. If had told the officer what he thought of him in conversational tone as he left the area, he doesn't get arrested. Refuse to leave and bring attention to ourself when is three cops versus 100+? Easy one there…cops may have been able to charge failure to disperse…
ReplyDeletebtw: cannot blame the courts for this one..the only remedy for disorderly conduct is a civil fine. The a&b on a cop? Non-arrestable misdemeanor. Low level stuff really
Well if he spoke with a bit more "sophistication" those two...
ReplyDeleteAgree Larry a smart kid with no priors...I wonder if there is anything to your Tourette's Syndrome guess?
Hey, 1:23 PM. You missed a comma.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what freshman uses "imprudent?" Either a lawyer or Daddy wrote it. Believe me, I know what college freshman are capable of writing and it would surprise me if "someone" did not vet his missive.
My assessment: he's just a brat. It's a simple case with farther-reaching cultural implications. In other words, "kids these days...," etc.
I love how LG is logging on here and defending himself anonymously.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm calling the kettle black, but why don't you man up and post with your name, L.?
Hey, 1:58 PM. I'm not that fast to judge.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you find "imprudent" to be unfamiliar language you should try to associate with some smarter people, it is not a uncommon word.
Your assessment: is irrelevant. It is apparent that the 'farther-reaching cultural implications' have already effected your ability to think or even consider that there may be more to this than we are aware of.
I love how you so righteously observe a person's grammatical/linguistic abilities, while decimating the language yourself. Brilliant display of cognitive dissonance, friend. How can I "surround myself with smarter people" when the smartest among them (which, you likely believe, is yourself) can't even spell?
ReplyDeleteBTW, it's "affected," and you missed a comma after "language."
at 3:43 PM: Really?
ReplyDeleteYou are right, it's a blog so I don't check my grammar and spelling.
Instead, I put thought into my ideas, so lets stay productively on topic.
attention grammar police:
ReplyDeleteeffect |iˈfekt|
noun
1. a change that is a result or consequence of an action or other cause: the lethal effects of hard drugs | politicians really do have some effect on the lives of ordinary people.
nice try :)
As my friend Rodney would say, "I get no respect."
ReplyDeleteNot to feed this fire, but I am correct. It should have been "affected," not "effected." Your definition was for a noun. "Affected" is the adjective. "He was affected." "It had the opposite effect." Si?
ReplyDeleteThanks, LK, for allowing this very relevant debate.
No problem. Slow news day.
ReplyDeleteActually in that context, "affected" is the past tense of the verb to affect:
ReplyDelete____ affected ___
as in "The polar vortex affected winter temperatures last year." The adjective "affected" means something different, as in "He tried to impress people with an affected accent."
Both affect and effect can be used as nouns or verbs, each with a different meaning. So 3:43 is correct, but not very nice. I am not going to judge someone by their typing or spelling. It's not an academic paper; it's a blog.
I don't see any need to make jokes about Tourette's Syndrome, however. I don't care how you spell it, but it's not especially funny. And if it turns out that this young man is struggling with the onset of some kind of behavioral or neurological disorder, none of this is funny. I don't think there is enough information to conclude that he is a brat.
If he does have a medical condition then he could have made that known to the arresting officers, or any of the District Court personnel.
ReplyDeleteYou know, the ones he's now interacted with twice in two weeks.
And he should probably avoid Phillips Street in the late overnights on weekends -- medical condition or not.
@nina
ReplyDeleteI think that you can rule out any neurological disorder straight outta the gate. Behavioral/conduct on the other hand, perhaps, but:
A) Daddy or attorney probably would have brought it up in court during appearance #2 when the judge acknowledged his return.
B) Most judges won't care in these circumstances, especially after Jr assaulted a cop.
There's plenty of folks locked up with ODD and IED and although it may not be funny, it certainly is the truth.
I am struck by the similarities between his conduct and the conduct of the homeless person you were talking about a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's entirely possible that he has a condition and his parents don't know it yet. Certain psychiatric diseases tend to emerge in late adolescence.
And unfortunately, the organ in charge of making the decisions is the one with the disease. So you tend to see lots of poor decisions.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and posit that he is perfectly healthy, just a drunk who can't control his behavior. Just a dime a dozen spoiled brat who doesn't like cops, or being told what to do. Also, I'm not really getting why folks seem to take the assault and battery on a police officer charge so lightly. That officer is injured due to the actions of this kid who has no regard for the laws designed to protect the rights of people who would like to live in peace in their neighborhoods, but cannot do so, due to his complete disregard for their rights. I'm guessing that if someone injured an Anon for no reason other than the perp was drunk, they'd take it seriously, instead of worrying that he may be ill. Richard Marsh
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Nina here -- cops who weren't worried that I quite possibly was having a heart attack in front of them aren't going to care about lesser things...
ReplyDeleteA little googling produced this:
ReplyDeleteSwearing In Public
Robert D. Lewin
Submitted Wed, 07/18/2012 - 11:21.
The First Amendment protects the use of profanity in a public place. The state typically tries to prosecute people who use profanity by charging them with disorderly conduct in violation of Chapter 272 section 53 of the General Laws. In the case of Commonwealth vs. A Juvenile, 368 Mass. 580 (1975), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that profanity laced speech is protected by the First Amendment. In that case an unhappy customer in a department store began yelling at the saleswoman using such phrases as "f...ing a...ole" and "f...ing pig". The loud swearing attracted the attention of a crowd. The customer was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The court ruled that the speech alone was protected speech and ordered the case dismissed. Generally speaking only "fighting words" are not protected. Fighting words are words which by their very utterance tend to cause infliction of injury or tend to excite an immediate breach of the peace. So, I do not think the kids broke the law by swearing.
Attorney Robert D. Lewin
-Richard S. Bogartz
Mr. Marsh,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, flip it around and say the Officer assaulted this young man. It would be all over You tube by now!
Larry,
ReplyDeleteYou can't breach the peace of a peace officer.
The purpose of a peace officer is to maintain -- not breach -- the peace officer is supposed to not react violently to fighting words.
I think he breached the peace of all the little darlings nearby.
ReplyDeleteAs someone in one of the UMass eateries on campus, I unfortunately had a very similar run in with this student on Friday 9/5 at closing time. When he was told the place was closing up and it was time to exit, he immediately flew into a rage -- he simply did NOT want to be told what to do. The arms were flailing, the swearing was rampant -- to the point other students came over and said "we don't know him, but we'll help you get him out." At one point, he even charged back towards me to confront me near the exit, but fortunately enough good samaritans were able to herd him out the door. I did not call the police because this is after all academia. For years, I've said 'good kids still do dumb things', and chalked the incident up as such, all the while very mindful that UMPD had much 'bigger' problems going on that night at that very moment. Knowing what I know now -- I wish I called.
ReplyDeleteSend him back to Bayville. Let Mommy and Daddy keep feeding him with his silver spoon.
ReplyDeleteHe sounds like a spoiled brat who is still acting out like a two year old. UMass should send him home until he can act like a grownup.
ReplyDeleteI am sure there is plenty of entitlement behavior going on at UMass, but to flip out like that because the cafeteria is closing sounds pretty unusual to me. Note that other students found it strange.
ReplyDeleteIf you witnessed this directly, I would report it to the UMass authorities even though it was two weeks ago. This might be happening in classes, at the library, all over campus. Something is not right with that young man. The sooner people figure that out, the better for everyone.
I hate to tell you Nina but if you expose anyone to enough stress, he/she/it will snap.
ReplyDeleteEven you would.
UMass treats students badly and stuff like this happens as a consequence...
....and then there will be the day when something really happens and it'll be a Federal Grand Jury doing the investigating afterwards.
Sorry, but while I'm looking back, I still don't see anyone calling out the "council" reference as opposed to "counsel". It's killing me.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, my vote is that he's a coddled and entitled middle-class young-un who believes that he is far more important than he really is.
Little darling is back in the media for being drunk and disorderly in public, this time at a new school in a new state. Parenting fail for not keeping him closer where they can keep watch over him.
ReplyDeleteThe simple truth is this kid is piece of crap, for whatever reason and should be treated as such. The problem with many (but not all) of todays youth is that they feel "entitled". They are incredibly selfish and think they are the center of the universe. And it's not their fault...we've built them like that with the "everybody gets a trophy" theory. Then you have helicopter parents hovering over their kids, believing their kid could NEVER do anything wrong. Throw in the trash they watch on TV/Movies, hear on the radio and see in role models and they are destined to become selfish, ill mannered pigs, just as this kid is. Thank goodness not all kids have fallen into this trap.
ReplyDelete