20070525 Examiner editor arrested on assault charges

Examiner editor arrested on assault charges

May 25, 2007

This is certainly a fine kettle of fish.

Although I was not there and do not know what happened… And I understand that the story was written by Examiner reporters - - but the Frank Keegan being depicted in this story is not consistent with the gentleman with whom I had lunch with several months ago.

Then again, as many understand, an unpleasant neighbor dispute can cause a bishop to kick out a stained glass window…

More often than not, unfortunately, it is just the nature of the beast that when the police get involved at this juncture in a neighbor dispute, everyone loses.

The police lose. And the two antagonists lose. Everybody is right and everybody is wrong…

And there will be no end to the pissing contest. Folks who do not like the police will blame the police. Some folks will adamantly blame the Examiner editor and others will come to his defense.

And no one will ever really know what really happened. Folks who have ever watched or read “Rashomon” will readily see how this will play out.

The 1950 Japanese classic movie “Rashomon” directed by Akira Kurosawa, tells the story of a crime event in 12th-century Japan. Old notes in my files, without a source cite, reveal that the movie is based upon a story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa in which a famous bandit ambushes a wealthy merchant and his wife.

The crime is retold from four separate points-of-view: that of the bandit, the wife, the dead man, and a lowly peasant, with each character offering a very different version of the same story.

All four characters recount the same story, but each tells a different “truth.”

Bias, perception, and the ability to recall are “primary source” material for an historian, but are obviously problematic. The ‘true history” of the event has become relative and there are as many truths as there are eyewitnesses.

And if the liberal Maryland media, who has been consistently threatened by the very existence of the Examiner in the Maryland market gets involved… No one will ever know the truth, but everyone will believe they know what happened and who to blame…

Examiner editor arrested on assault charges

Luke Broadwater and Stephen Janis, The Examiner

May 25, 2007 3:21 AM

BALTIMORE –

City police arrested Baltimore Examiner editor Frank Keegan early Thursday morning after a neighbor, complaining of cigarette smoke, accused Keegan of pointing a shotgun at him.

Keegan, 58, of Baltimore, is charged with misdemeanor second-degree assault and gun violations against neighbors David and Christine Ayers and their 3-year-old daughter, who, according to the police report, was being carried by her father as he confronted Keegan.

At 11:29 p.m. Wednesday, police were called to Keegan’s Federal Hill residence. Ayers told police he is involved in an “ongoing dispute” with Keegan regarding cigarette smoke “seeping” through to his home from the Keegan residence and causing respiratory problems for his daughter, Sophie.

Ayers attempted to confront his neighbor about the smoke by “pounding” on Keegan’s door, according to police. From inside the house, Ayers said he heard Keegan yell, “You [expletive] lunatics, get away from my door.”

Ayers, holding his daughter, shouted back at Keegan, “Look what you’re doing to my daughter,” according to police charging documents.

Ayers claims Keegan “racked” a shotgun while inside his house — a charge Keegan disputes — whereupon Ayers told police he said, “Whoa, whoa” and backed away from the house.

You may read the rest of the story here if you must…Examiner editor arrested on assault charges

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