“Woman sentenced to hold sign: ‘I battered a police officer'”

The title of this post is the headline of this article from the Orlando Sentinel, which was sent to me by a helpful reader.  My first instinct is to always prefer these sorts of shaming sentences over terms of incarceration, but I know some others have real problems with this kind of creative sentencing approach:

Alexandra Espinosa-Amaya isn’t happy about her sentence. For four hours, the 24-year-old stood outside the Orlando Police Department Tuesday with a homemade sign, apologizing for hitting an officer.  “I battered a police officer. I was wrong. I apologize,” she drew on a blue poster board decorated with flowers.

This is her punishment for pushing Sgt. Andrew Brennan on Nov. 29, 2008, while he worked off-duty near the Dragon Room on West Church Street.  “It’s humiliating and it doesn’t teach my anything,” Espinosa-Amaya said outside the courtroom and before she headed to the police station. “But if Officer Brennan is happy and feels a little better, I’ll do it.”

She agreed to the sign as part of her no contest plea to two misdemeanor charges — simple battery and resisting an officer without violence. Espinosa-Amaya, who is a student at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, also must complete two years’ probation, write an apology letter, perform 50 hours of community service and attend an anger-management class.

The sign is an unusual step but the officer wanted some type of unique punishment, said Espinosa-Amaya’s attorney, Andrew Chmelir.  And the agreement let her plea to misdemeanors instead of her initial felony charge of battery on a law-enforcement officer, he said.  She is here on a student visa, but today’s sentence will not affect her immigration status.