DanMargarita.com

By now you've probably seen the video footage of a man shooting a lawyer outside of a courtroom in Los Angeles. Fortunately, 64-year old William Strier chose to shoot Gerald Curry outside of a courthouse where numerous camera crews happened to be on site for a hearing for accused murderer, actor Robert Blake. He could've only gotten more coverage if he'd shot someone outside of Scott Peterson's courthouse.

On TV, murderers often try to perpetrate "the perfect crime" to avoid capture. Mr. Strier seems to have gone on to attempt "the imperfect crime." Prosecutors must be licking their chops at the thought of trying Mr. Strier. You don't need the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes to solve this case. In fact, a middle school student could probably prosecute this one and win (although I kind of thought that about the O.J. Simpson case, as well).

Lawyers are an often despised segment of society, hence all the lawyer jokes such as: Q--What do you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A--A start; or: Q--What's the difference between a dead skunk in the road and a dead lawyer in the road? A--There are skid marks in front of the skunk.

All of these are grossly unfair to the legal profession, a necessary job that has to be done by someone (he says so as not to be sued for libel by his lawyer friends). While I may have often said rhetorically that someone "should be shot," that's not a form of justice that I endorse.

Fortunately Mr. Curry was not seriously hurt, despite being shot in the neck and arms, or I wouldn't be so flip about it. Hell, I'm still avoiding making Lincoln assassination jokes because I don't want to offend the Lincoln family.

Let's recount the scene for those of you who have not witnessed it. Mr. Strier, described by some as "disgruntled" (of course, who would do this if they were "gruntled?") is shown on tape shooting at Mr. Curry, who, standing behind a tree, moves from side-to-side, dodging bullets. Either Mr. Strier has the worst shooting eye since the nearsighted "Vanderbuilt" character from "F Troop" or Mr. Curry should be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

At first glimpse one isn't sure if it's an outtake from the farcical TV show "Police Squad" in which a cop, played by Leslie Neilson, would sometimes be engaged in a shoot-out with a suspect while each would hide behind trash cans three feet apart. Or perhaps a scene from "Benny Hill." All that was missing were Strier and Curry racing around the tree in fast motion to the tune "Yakkity Sax." Clearly, I watch WAY too much TV.

In L.A., a show business town, many of the major crimes appear to be caught on videotape. It seems that every other day there's a car chase being shown on the news, taped from a helicopter. No wonder the traffic on the highways is so bad out there. The helicopter traffic people are too busy watching police pursuits unfold to tell motorists which roads to avoid.

Then again, what do you expect in a town where people are likely to use videotape of themselves committing a crime as an audition tape for their resume?