Mug Shot. Best viewed small.

For Jonathan Zook and his family, it was a difficult day. The jury found him not guilty of resisting arrest, not guilty of disorderly conduct, and not guilty of assault. However they found him guilty of "interfering with a peace officer." That happens when anyone "refuses to obey a lawful order by the peace officer," as quickly, seamlessly, and unquestioningly as that officer expects. For this offense, the judge decided Zook should serve two days in jail, spend a year on probation, do eighty hours of community service, and pay $400.

The judge could have chosen to assign Zook a few hours of community service, which is what happens to people like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton when they engage in drunken binges and endanger other people's lives. Basically the judge threw the book at this middle-school teacher who got singled out because, as his lawyer argued, the police officer "was looking for easy pickings, and what could be easier than a father holding onto his child's hand?"

Zook told me his message for the movement is, "Don't be intimidated by what they're doing to me." He and his partner said they will be out protesting again, with their kids and all their friends, and he hopes to see more people having the courage to stand up for what they believe.

Interfering with a peace officer. Peace officer. That's a person with a gun and can of pepper spray, wearing a black uniform with a bullet-proof vest and heavy black boots,  and carrying a club. We have a very strange language.

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