oomis: I completely disagree with you. She only cursed at him after he doubled her bail. Derech eretz? For what? Why are secular courts necessarily DESERVING of derech eretz besides the fact that they have people with guns? Do you have any idea how corrupt the court system is?
“And the law is the law. Even when you think it is frivolous and not in keeping with our own Halacha.”
Fasle, our halacha determines the framework that the umos haolam are OBLIGATED to follow. “dinei demalchusa…mishum darchei shalom” is basically “they have guns and we don’t so let’s not get killed.”
The basic concept of any court system the goyim are supposed to create is to not favor the rich over the poor (or poor over the rich). Do you have any idea how much benefits the rich have in our “modern and civilized” court system when they can pay for an expensive lawyer? Certainly without a doubt, I would not want someone who is osek in Torah and mitzvos to go to jail for such a reason and not be able to keep shabbos, learn and daven properly.
They are by zero means being osek in avodas Hashem. Xanax is assur but public displays of homosexuality and putting up billboards promoting atheism in the middle of Brooklyn is perfectly ok? Imagine if someone kidnapped you and put you in their basement for 30 days until you payed them 50 weeks worth of your pay because you said “adios” and had Xanax. How would you feel?
Persoanlly, I agree with popa… “I suppose I can’t convince you all, but I think this issue goes straight back to just about everything we discuss here about kids and chinuch. It is bizarre that this little kid is going to jail for doing no harm, and all the reaction society has is “look at that funny video; I bet she learned her lesson good.”
Don’t get me wrong I cannot stand rude girls like her but that does not give people the right to kidnap her and demand ransom money.
Mainly though, this is not about what we personally feel. The point I am trying to make is what halacha calls for.