A judge in Colombia has ruled that a bicycle courier be jailed for four years for grabbing a woman’s bum while he whizzed past her on the street. When the grabber was caught, Diana Marcela Diaz, the grabbed, was given three choices: let him go, file a complaint, or slap him. She chose the precedent-setting but perhaps less-immediately gratifying route of filing a complaint. Now that cyclist will have four long years to think about what he’s done.
The Colombians may have overreacted just a little, but the Italians could take a clue from their playbook. Last weekend it was reported in the Times that Italy’s highest court ruled that sexually abusing a girl who is not a virgin is a less serious crime than sexually abusing a virgin. I’d like to face the judge of that court with the same three options that Diana Marcela Diaz had; I think I’d take option 2 AND 3.
