XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, sac.general   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: nanny-land@latimes.com   
      
   A Canadian woman who was arrested for not holding on to an   
   escalator handrail has been awarded $20,000 in damages by the   
   nation's Supreme Court.   
      
   Bela Kosoian was riding an escalator at the Montmorency Montreal   
   Metro station in Laval, Quebec, in 2009 when an officer stopped   
   her because she wasn't holding on to a handrail, as she was   
   looking through her purse. A sign that stated "caution" and   
   "hold handrail" was located near the escalator.   
      
   The officer told her to hold on to the handrail during her ride   
   down the escalator, and the officer stopped her once she got to   
   the bottom. He asked her to follow him and she refused, "because   
   she didn’t think she had done anything wrong," and also refused   
   to give her identification, according to the case brief posted   
   online.   
      
   Kosoian was subsequently detained and when she was released, she   
   was given one $100 ticket for disobeying the sign, and a $320   
   fine for obstructing an inspection worker.   
      
   She was acquitted of the infractions in 2012, and she sued   
   Montreal's transit authority, the city, and one of the officers   
   for $45,000, CBC News reported. In 2015, the lawsuit was   
   rejected in Quebec court, and again in 2017 by the Quebec Court   
   of Appeal, which said Kosoian was the "author of her own   
   misfortune."   
      
   But the Supreme Court "unanimously disagreed," and said the sign   
   in the Metro station that said to hold on to the handrail "was a   
   warning" and not a law. They found the officer "was wrong to   
   stop and search her for breaking a law that didn’t exist."   
      
   "A reasonable police officer should have known that people   
   didn’t have to hold handrails. Or at least they should have had   
   some doubt," the court ruling stated, adding, "Even if Ms.   
   Kosoian didn’t act in the best way, she had no legal obligation   
   to hold the handrail."   
      
   The decision continued: "This case was about civil liability for   
   doing something wrong. In a free and democratic society, police   
   officers can’t interfere with people’s freedoms except where the   
   law says so. They have to know the law and act within it."   
      
   The court ruled Kosoian be paid $20,000 in damages in Canadian   
   dollars, or roughly $15,000 in USD.   
      
   Kosoian said she was pleased that the judge "recognized the rule   
   of law," telling the CBC she felt it was important to take her   
   case to the Supreme Court of Canada.   
      
   "I knew that I didn't do anything wrong. It was the principle of   
   it," she said. "I knew, I knew, I knew."   
      
   https://www.foxnews.com/world/canada-woman-awarded-damages-   
   escalator-handrail   
        
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)