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Tuesday, Mar. 04, 2003 - 8:37 a.m.
Happy Mardi Gras

My good friend Saab went off to Egypt for the month of February and got back last Wednesday night where he had either the Norwalk virus or the West Nile virus. It came from both ends! (Sounds like a 50s B movie title.)

I knew that he as due to arrive last night, and was just thinking that when I arrived at the metro station on my way home. Guess who's sitting there waiting for the bus home?

So he told me about his New Orleans experience. Less than 18 hours after he flew in from Egpyt, he drove 40 hours to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras Ultimate (Frisbee) tournament, as he does every year. A string of bad luck follows:

1. Four guys from Austin, Texas who promised to play with Saab's team bailed, and played for some other fucking team.
2. A teammate got arrested Friday night. More on this later.
3. Another teammate hurt his back in the first half of the first game. They were down to seven players, or what they call, "Savage Sevens". That means, no subs all day for the tournament. Four games. Brutal.

Despite all that, they still managed to go 3-1 for the day.

About the guy who was arrested: Right now they are having their Mardi Gras celebrations (Happy Fat Tuesday everyone!) that will last into the week. As you may know, Mardi Gras celebrations involve parades, strings of beads and lots of bare breasts (and exposed cocks, if that's your thing). The beads get thrown from balconies and parade floats, and can end up anywhere, often in trees. Seekers of beads often use sticks of some kind to grad beads from trees. In fact, people these days buy retractable "light saber" things solely for this purpose.

For some reason, some asshole cop decided that he didn't like these things, even though there was no by-law stating that they were illegal. Saab's teammate had one. The cop told him to put it away or it would be confiscated. He tried to explain that all he wanted to use it for were to gt extra beads. The cop repeated himself. So he said, "Okay, I'll put it away." But then Mr. Power Trip decides to confiscate the item anyway.

"No, really, I'll just put it away."

Fuckhead wants the light saber anyway, and takes it.

"Well, you don't have to be a jackass about it."

That was probably a mistake, but it's not as though he didn't have just cause. The cop isn't putting up with anything, so he was arrested on the spot, and was only released on $200 bail sometime later, late enough for him to miss the tournament the next day. It gets better.

His hearing was scheduled for yesterday, but everyone else was leaving Sunday night to come back to Montreal. He had to fork over more money to get home. He was charged with the following:

• Resisting arrest;
• Public intimidation (menacing light sabers, I guess);
• Disturbing the peace (right, the peace of Carnival in New Orleans);
• Some other bullshit I can't recall;

But get this: the arrest report mysteriously vanished. Imagine that! What are the odds, especially when the charges are 100% bullshit?

I await the results of yesterday's hearing. The guy is expected to sue, if only to get back his money that he had to spend to get home. It's no wonder that so many people hate cops.

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