Injustice: rather pleasant, actually

Phil sends a must-read story that nicely illustrates what I have thought for a long time, which is that affable nitwits in close proximity to each other will buddy up, no matter what. Says Phil:

There's something very charming about this story. It's not just that the man they wrongfully arrested is so damn agreeable (just wait until they start quoting him -- he's such a trooper!). It's that the cops in this story aren't really demonized in spite of their rather ridiculous mistake. We set up these massive legal and procedural systems to maintain civility in this country, but human error always eventually manages to trump justice. I think we usually tend to think of human error as this terrible, exasperating thing, but in this story it seems much more innocent and forgivable. It, in a sense, humanizes human error. Very much like Milos Forman's "The Firemen's Ball."

I would add that I think there's also something distinctly American about the cheerful ineptitude on display at every step of the way that puts a distance between our somewhat serious and melodramatic national mission statement--we are the birthplace and guarantor of freedom, humanity's last best hope, a nation of laws and due process!--and the typical demeanor of actual Americans, which is roughly that of a distracted golden retriever.