Thursday, February 15, 2007

Protests, And Cross-Dressing

Down the rabbit hole (the picture is precious):
A New Zealand lawyer who took to wearing an Alice in Wonderland costume in court to highlight an alleged cover-up by the army has been found guilty of contempt. ... (H)e was convicted for publicly releasing a court-suppressed report about the fatal 1994 collapse of an army-built bridge on a property owned by his elderly clients.

Moodie admitted releasing the report, which apportioned much of the blame for the collapse on the New Zealand Army, and not his clients.

... But the court disagreed today, finding Moodie guilty of contempt and suspending him from practising as a lawyer for three months. He was also fined $NZ5,000 ($A4,430), and ordered to pay costs.

Moodie, 68, found himself named by a columnist for The Times newspaper in London as winner of the world "award for bizarre conduct by a lawyer" in 2006.

He had officially changed his name to Miss Alice and began donning women's clothes in court as part of a protest against what he said was the "old boys' network" running New Zealand's judiciary.

... In its judgment, the High court said that if Moodie wanted to highlight an injustice, he should have done so through proper channels and formally sought authority to release the report.
Relatedly, two days ago, I walked past the semi-continuous, evening drive-time anti-war protest at 16th and J St. in Sacramento, and noted that Sacramento's own boa-sporting protestor (previously-mentioned in this blog) has now assumed a different style - some kind of Meso-American or Incan-looking headdress. I think it looks better than the boa, and if this stupid war never ends, I nevertheless hope to see a succession of similar sartorial statements.

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