The Jack-Booted Thug(s) of the Week...

... are the Tampa Bay, Florida police officers who arrested local resident Walsh Ian Nichols for wearing a Batman costume (including a presumably expensive custom-made mask, which was confiscated) in public:

"Nichols' attorney, Kevin Hayslett, said police didn't read the whole law. It is only illegal to wear a mask, he said, if the person is violating someone's civil rights or committing a crime.

"He was eating sushi," Hayslett said."

The judge in Hillsborough County, John Conrad, ordered the confiscated mask returned and dismissed all charges in the case.

Nichols is apparently well-known in the area for walking around Ybor City in his get-up. Even if he wasn't, what trouble was he possibly causing by doing so, and why did the cops feel like they needed to jail him in the name of public safety, except for maybe to assuage their burning need to roust someone before they got off duty? Those officers must get real busy down there at Halloween, locking up all of the revelers because of their criminally poor interpretation of that obscure law.

Sure, the man sounds a little odd, but since when is that illegal? He was obviously not bothering anyone, wherever he got the sushi was happy to sell it to him, and no one called 911 in a panic about him, which would admittedly have necessitated an investigation, so leave him alone already, willya?