Seriously now. What’s the deal with LA County/City these days? Obscenity trials? No lapdancing?
I’m referring today, to the following court transcript(Warning, if opening at work, there is graphic language): http://www.adultvideonews.com/legal/leg0903_01.html The “detective” on this case, People v. Shoemaker is an absolute moron. The transcript is a real hoot if you have the time and won’t get in trouble for viewing it.
He investigates videos and pictures and websites and images for the following things- “hardcore bondage, hardcore S&M, fist insertion, stump insertion, urination, defecation [and] bestiality,” was “hot wax,” which Takeshita described as “sexual activity where a burning candle is lit and the hot wax is melted and dropped upon the body of the person.”
BTW, the definition of fisting is so “loose”(pun intended), that anything over 3 fingers is considered “fisting”.
Obscenity prosecution in California? Even worse, in L.A.? Holy shit…I expect this kind of behavior from the Deep South, but not in my state, dammit.
I don’t have much truck for obscenity laws myself, but the detective in this cross-examination did a brilliant job IMO. It’s very, very hard trying to chop logic with an attorney who’s trying to make you contradict yourself with misleading yes-or-no questions, and I didn’t see Takeshita stumble once in the entire first half (I didn’t read the second half as carefully, as the defense attorney’s questions kinda pissed me off.
Well, I found his answers idiotic, without fact, based solely on a subjective opinion. To say the least, his answers pissed me off as they themselves defy logic.
If black dogs are considered obscene, and for 3 years running Newsweek, USA Today and Time do at least 6 cover stories a year on them, would it be safe to say that what society considers, “obscene”, is changing?
It’s an important question, and one of the 3 prongs to an obscenity conviction-Societal norms and attitude.
NATIONAL publications are irrelevant to COMMUNITY standards. The only true judge of community standards is a local jury; the police and DA can only guess otherwise, and their only guide for guessing is precedent – i.e., the convictions obtained from other cases.