St Louis, Missouri – When does hugging to far? Men have been asking this age-old question for years, well not really, but there is one man in St. Louis who may be forced to find out the answer. A man who was dubbed “Jack the Gripper” is what is called a serial hugger. According to ABC News the Gripper would approach women and pretend to know them and then they would be tricked into giving him a hug.
If this wasn’t bad enough, it isn’t so cut and dry that the Gripper could even be charged with anything. Prosecutors in Missouri are now trying to determine if hugging 36 women is serious enough to warrant a criminal charge.
Des Peres, Missouri Detective Marshall Broughton told ABC News,
“He’d say, ‘Hi, remember me? I lived down the street in the corner house. How ya been?. Obviously [the women] didn’t remember him, but he did it so quickly and convincingly that they felt embarrassed that they didn’t know him.”
Broughton told the Riverfront Times said the 44-year-old Gripper was identified after one of the victims of the alleged improper hugs took down the license plate of his car and gave it to the police. Police looked at security tapes from a local supermarket where the Gripper was seen in the process of criminally hugging more than one woman. Broughton further confirmed that one of the Gripper’s victims picked him out of a lineup.
Website Jezebel goes into the ins and outs of serial hugging saying that,
“He’s banking on the razor-thin line between being friendly and being harassed. Will it save him from prosecutors?”
I think it entirely depends on what he looks like. If he is gross, then it's a crime. If not, then it's not.
Add 'smells' to looks.
You have no idea how perfectly you`ve NAILED it, X.
Easy solution….If you aren't 100% sure that you know someone…don't hug them.
So what you're saying is you should be charged by your looks??? Hate to be you 30 years from now, you gonna be fugly too
I'll be sure to stop my serial groping by then, Rick.
Nobody is saying someone SHOULD be charged by their looks.. but they often ARE charged & judged by them. Not condoning what he did, either..in any way. Just a valid point to consider in this situation, I feel. If he`s a Brad Pitt lookalike, the chances of him being slagged, sliced & diced is pretty small..wanna bet?
What's next being charged with assault for having bad breath?
What he is doing is creepy, but I'm not sure if it is a criminal act. It's one thing to do it for sheer reaction purposes, but it's another if the dude is copping a feel out of it. If that's the case, then maybe he needs to change his name to David Cop-a-feel instead.
'When does hugging to far?'. Uh, first of all, it seems like half of Americans now don't know that 'too' even exists, and secondly, you forgot to include 'go' in the sentence too. We're fast approaching grunting and hand gestures…
Only thing that would push for a charge would be if he was constantly harassing more of the girls more then once, or trying to cop a feel, whether it be their breasts, their hairy garden, or their butt. Or if it turned out he was in love with 36 girls and was stalking everyone of them
This sounds like someone dared him to hug a certain number of women and he found a way to win the dare. Probably one of his guy friends. He's not harming anyone…
THE HORROR!
Uh, first of all, way to turn it into an anti-American thing. If you have a problem with their grammar criticize them; they're just one person, they don't represent an entire country. If we all did that I'd think you come from a land where they raise everyone to be an inconsiderate jerk. I agree that they didn't do a very good job checking for errors, but you had to take it a step further in criticizing it.