Good Reason to Kill #36: Dubstep; and #37: King of Pop

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From an Aug. 23 press release by the SF Public Defender's Office:

San Francisco, CA — A 52-year-old man accused of smashing a champagne bottle over his 30-year-old coworker’s head after the younger man changed the music from classic Michael Jackson to dubstep has been acquitted of all charges, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced today.

The defendant was arrested after what was described as a "bloody incident at a team-building happy hour," the kind of incident that generally means the team-building effort has failed. Witnesses testified that the younger man repeatedly insisted on changing the music to "the bass-heavy electronic dance music" known as "dubstep," and that the last straw for the defendant came when the younger man dared to interfere with Michael Jackson's Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'. The defendant approached to rectify the situation, the dubstepper "rushed to commandeer the computer" with "an angry look," and the defendant whacked him in the head with a champagne bottle. Felony charges followed.

The defendant argued he had acted in self-defense against someone known to be violent, a claim the dubstepper disputed:

On the stand, the younger man denied being violent. However, he was contradicted by witnesses who testified he engaged in a spree of violence months earlier at the office Christmas party, including sneaking up behind two men separately as each used a urinal, poking his finger in one man’s eye and smacking the other man’s head against the wall. The complaining witness, when questioned on the stand about the urinal incidents, characterized his conduct as “utterly hilarious.”

That does sound like a riot, but the jury apparently disagreed.

The whole press release is worth reading, largely for the full recitation of the dubstepper's antics.