Lock 'Em Up and Don't Even Have a Key

I know, I know, right-minded alternative weekly journos are not supposed to read the PR Newswire, but they have a cute story involving a Santa Ana bail bondsman that deserves repeating (or relinking or whatever it is you webizens call it).

While vacationing in Beijing, China, Bob and Anne Miller of Orange County Bail Bonds stepped into a small police station outside town. They introduced themselves to a Capt. Lu Cho, who graciously gave them a jail tour. Bob Miller says that when he asked if he could post a bail bond, the Chinese copper "looked at me like I was crazy."

"When I explained to him what bail is and that it's an 8th Amendment right allowed to all Americans in the Bill of Rights. Lu said, 'There's no bail bond in China. If I arrest you here, you stay here until I say you can go!' He thought the idea of bail was not good, 'All people in jail are guilty, why would we let them go?'

"I tried to explain the concept of innocent until proven guilty," Miller said, "but, he didn't get it."

Funny, you'd think an Orange County bail bondsman would be used to that kind of thinking among law enforcement.