Posted by mmbb at 5/6/08 12:02 a.m.

Huh, no charges? I thought a mandatory arrest was required.

The law requires a police officer responding to an incident of domestic violence to make an arrest if the officer has probable cause to believe that a domestic violence assault or other serious domestic violence offense was committed within the previous four hours.

If the officer determines that family or household members have assaulted each other, the officer will arrest only the person he or she believes to be the primary aggressor.

http://www.seattle.gov/courts/prob/dvprob.htm#mand

Posted by USAGYM08 at 5/6/08 7:35 a.m.

Nope, it's not mandatory. Discretion is allowed. And you don't know that either of these people were not arrested. "Arrest" means anything from placing them in temporary custody (read: handcuffed, or just being asked questions without the freedom to leave) to booking in the county jail. You just know they weren't charged.

In any case, they are not required to book anyone into jail.

Posted by unregistered user at 5/6/08 11:00 a.m.

another instance of the growing underlying anger in our society, with the stupid and inane able to spark this sort of disturbance.

This is a bubble in a cauldron.

Either that or siblings fight - even when they are 20+ years old. America's Top Model is one of the dumbest shows in the world outside of American Idol. I can't believe that people still watch this garbage, but hey - I watch my own garbage, so I can't judge too much.

But people don't fight over video games or Tv, they fight over other things going on - ATM is a sort of spark igniting a larger underlying issue.

I like to hypothesize that the man was laid off and is now unemployed (thus can play video games all day) and can't find work in the crappy economy. The girl is working in some dead end job and all she wants to do is go home and watch ATM, and when she gets there she finds a guy beat down by life and is drowing his sorrows in some violent Iraq War simulation video game like Call Of Duty, and is on the edge of a nervous break down because they are about to be kicked out of their apartment because they cannot afford it as well as gasoline to make it to work in their SUV they bought when things were a bit more carefree in the 90s.

Posted by USAGYM08 at 5/6/08 11:09 a.m.

I take offense at that, unregistered. I happen to think ANTM rocks :)

Posted by mmbb at 5/6/08 12:05 p.m.

Thanks for the clarification, USAGYM08; I guess I'm not a very good armchair police officer (but, to be fair, my armchair quarterbacking isn't very good, either...).

I certainly hope that their parents punish them with something appropriate. No TV or video games for a month, a week's worth of restriction from leaving their rooms, extra chores around the house, take away their comic books and bicycles, and maybe suspend their allowance, too.

Posted by USAGYM08 at 5/6/08 12:13 p.m.

Heh .. thanks for making me giggle :)