"Nasty little fellows such as Brian Sumner always get their comeuppance."

And I'm happier today for having read that Brian Sumner, a professional unemployed street agitator and cop-pesterer in Fresno, CA, was convicted by a jury of his peers people who likely have jobs and lives and a stake in their community on a misdemeanor charge of vandalism after he videotaped himself writing anti-cop garbage on a memorial dedicated to twelve Fresno officers who have been killed in the line of duty. Sumner, along with his fellow Occupier-trash Andrew Wittmore, was arrested and charged with the vandalism last month after writing on the memorial. Sumner has an extensive history in the Fresno area of following the police around with a video camera and trying to incite them into responding to his antics. He claims that he does it "to protest police brutality", yet the fact that he has yet to be taken into an alley and beaten senseless by the police officers that he continually taunts would suggest that the "brutality" that he claims that they regularly engage in doesn't happen like he says it does.

And for the record, I'd be perfectly fine with the police tuning him up a bit when he gets out of line. Society was a politer, more orderly place back in the day when knuckleheads knew that they could get their asses kicked for acting like assholes in front of the police.

My opinion aside, it seems that the community has had enough of this ass-monkey and others like him as well, because a jury found him guilty and he's looking at a fine and maybe even some jail time for his actions which were clearly "intended to be disrespectful and annoying", according to the case against him. It doesn't matter it if was just chalk or that it could be easily washed off. What matters was that the memorial wasn't his to deface. Period. He chose it specifically because he hates police--all police--and he admitted as much.

[Prosecutor Amy] Cobb said Sumner’s words to the arresting officer proved his malicious intent: “I’m not apologizing. We were disrespectful. It’s how we get when cops come around. We’re not big fans of police officers.”

I hope that he gets jail time. I really do. And I hope that he gets a sentence of community service, perhaps doing 40 hours of yard work for each of the families of the officers memorialized on the monument that he vandalized. I personally have had enough of these clowns acting as if they are some sort of rebel heroes for harassing the men and women that do a job that they themselves would never do, and I also tire of them claiming that any military service that they engaged in somehow confers legitimacy on what they do, even when they ended up getting tossed out of the service for misconduct like Sumner was.

Good job, ADA Amy Cobb and jurors in Fresno. Idiots like Sumner will always have a few fellow-traveler supporters behind them but the bulk of America stands solidly behind our police officers and law and order. I know that I do.