A good reason not to key a Marine's car

The judge may have been a Marine. [Link]

A few weeks ago, there was considerable buzz around the blogosphere about a Chicago lawyer who didn't care for the military. He saw a car with Marine Corps license plates (not official ones, but "vanity" plates the owner, one Sergeant Mike McNulty, had paid for, and the proceeds go towards the Navy And Marine Corps Scholarship fund, which benefits children of fallen sailors and Marines) and decided to strike a blow for freedom and justice and peace by "keying" the car. The owner spotted him and, remarkably enough, did NOT beat the living shit out of him (and beating the shit out of a lawyer like this one is a very difficult task; there is so much shit, it could take hours to beat it all out). Instead, he had the man arrested for vandalism.

The lawyer thought he had a good defensive strategy: offer to pay for the damages, or at least a part of them, and stall the proceedings until the Marine in question was re-deployed on active duty and could not stick around for the trial.

Nice plan, didn't work.

Noted attorney and asshole Jay R. Grodner (Google bait) had his day in court this past week. In the courtroom, he found a lot -- a LOT -- of current and former military there.

But far more troublesome for asshole Jay Grodner than the two dozen military behind him was one Marine in front of him.

Judge William O'Malley wasn't born on the bench. In the 1960's, he was known as Lance Corporal William O'Malley, and is known to still wear a Marine Corps pin on his lapel.