Michael P. Fay
Born	May 30, 1975 (1975-05-30) (age 33) St. Louis, Missouri
Penalty	four months in jail S$3,500 four lashes of the cane
Parents	George and Randy Fay

Michael Peter Fay (born May 30, 1975) is an American who was caned in Singapore as a 19-year-old (25 days before turning 20) on May 5, 1994, for theft and vandalism. Events 1416 - The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund a supporter of Antipope John XXIII burns Jerome of Prague following Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The dollar ( sign: $; code: SGD) is the Currency of Singapore. Caning is used as a form of judicial or private Corporal punishment of males in Singapore. Events 1416 - The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund a supporter of Antipope John XXIII burns Jerome of Prague following Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Caning is used as a form of judicial or private Corporal punishment of males in Singapore. Singapore Events 553 - The Second Council of Constantinople begins 1215 - Rebel Barons renounce their allegiance to King John Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) In Criminal law, theft (also known as stealing or filching) is the illegal taking of another person's Property without that person's freely-given Vandalism is the behaviour attributed to the Vandals in respect of Culture: ruthless Destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or Venerable The number of cane strokes in his sentence was reduced from six to four after US officials requested leniency.

Contents 1 Life prior to vandalism 2 Theft and vandalism 3 Response from the United States 4 Aftermath 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

Life prior to vandalism

Michael Fay was born on May 30, 1975, in St. Louis, Missouri. Events 1416 - The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund a supporter of Antipope John XXIII burns Jerome of Prague following Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. His mother Randy divorced his father George when he was eight. In his childhood, Michael was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, a fact that his lawyer would later claim made Fay not responsible for his actions. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD is a neurobehavioral developmental disorder affecting about 3-5% of the world's population

Although Fay mostly lived with his father after the divorce, he later moved to Singapore, where his mother and stepfather Marco Chan lived. Singapore Michael was enrolled in the Singapore American School.

Theft and vandalism

Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper in 1993 was full of stories about car vandalism in Singapore. The Straits Times ( Chinese: 海峡时报 is an English language Broadsheet Newspaper based in Singapore, currently Unknown individuals, although they were thought to be residents of the HDB flats in which 85% of the local population had been living, went after their neighbours' cars with hot tar, paint remover, and hatchets. The Housing and Development Board ( Abbreviation: HDB; Simplified Chinese: 建屋发展局 Malay: Lembaga Pembangunan dan Perumahan Taxi drivers complained that their tires were slashed when they let people off. In the city center and the condos, where the better-off 15% of the local population and foreigners live, people keyed cars, making deep scratches, and threw car doors open denting the cars next to them. One man interviewed by the Times complained that he had had to refinish his car six times in six months. In the fall of 1993 a vandal took red spray paint to six cars in a garage off Orchard Lane, making the vandalism highly visible. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) The next night someone sprayed a line of red paint right through the official seal of a judge's car, left out on the street by his son who had forgotten his key.

The police eventually arrested a 16-year-old suspect, Shiu Chi Ho (also known as "Andy Shiu"), from Hong Kong. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders He was not caught vandalizing cars, but was charged with driving his father's car without a license. After questioning Shiu, the police had several expatriate students from the Singapore American School, including Michael Fay, questioned and later charged with more than fifty counts of vandalism. Advised that this course of action would preclude caning, Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing the cars in addition to stealing road signs. Fay later maintained that his confession was false; that he never vandalized any cars and that the only crime he committed was stealing a couple of street signs. Under what some might regard as the misapplication of the 1966 Singapore Vandalism Act, which was originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore and which specifically covered vandalism of government buildings, he was sentenced on March 3, 1994 to four months in jail, a fine of 3,500 Singapore dollars (US$2,214 or £1,514 at the time), and six strokes of the cane. The Vandalism Act 1966 was originally passed to curb the spread of communist Graffiti in Singapore during the period following Singaporean Graffiti (singular graffito; the plural is used as a Mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched scrawled painted or marked in any manner on property Events 1284 - Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into England 1575 - Indian Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) The dollar ( sign: $; code: SGD) is the Currency of Singapore. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been The Pound Sterling ( symbol £; ISO code: GBP) subdivided into 100 pence (singular penny) is the Currency Caning is used as a form of judicial or private Corporal punishment of males in Singapore. Shiu, who pleaded "not guilty", was eventually sentenced to eight months in prison and twelve strokes of the cane.

Fay's lawyers appealed, arguing that the Vandalism Act provides caning only for indelible forms of graffiti vandalism and that the spray-painted cars were cheaply restored to their original condition. Although the appeal failed, then Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong commuted Fay's caning from six to four strokes as a gesture of respect toward then U. The President of the Republic of Singapore is Singapore 's Head of state. Ong Teng Cheong, GCMG ( January 22, 1936 - February 8, 2002) was the first directly elected President of Republic S President Bill Clinton, who had made a request for clemency on Fay's behalf. William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States (Shiu's sentence was also reduced from twelve strokes to six after a clemency appeal to the Singapore President. )

Fay was caned on May 5, 1994. Events 553 - The Second Council of Constantinople begins 1215 - Rebel Barons renounce their allegiance to King John Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar)

Response from the United States

The official position of the United States government was that while it recognized Singapore's right to try and punish Fay with due process of law, it deemed the punishment of caning to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime. Due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that a person has a right to receive notice and be heard in an orderly proceeding in order to protect his or her The United States embassy in Singapore pointed out that the graffiti damage that Fay made on the cars was not permanent, but caning would leave Fay with physical as well as long-term emotional scars.

U. S. President Bill Clinton called the punishment prescribed by Singapore as extreme and mistaken, continuing to pressure the Singaporean government to grant Fay clemency from caning. William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States Two dozen U. S. senators signed a letter to the Singaporean government also appealing for clemency. After Fay's punishment was carried out, the United States Trade Representative said that he would try to prevent the World Trade Organization's first ministerial meeting from taking place in Singapore. The Office of the United States Trade Representative, or USTR, is the United States government agency responsible for developing and recommending United States

Following Fay's sentence, the case received wide coverage by the U. S. media and dozens of reporters were sent to Singapore to cover the case. ^[1] The New York Times had several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy in the United States with protests. Newsday wrote about a person who claimed to have witnessed a graphic public caning event in Singapore, despite the fact that Singapore does not practice public canings. Newsday is a daily Tabloid -size Pulitzer Prize winning Newspaper that primarily serves Long Island and the New York City Some commentaries treated the Michael Fay affair as a clash of civilizations between Asian values and the differing view of human rights common in liberal western cultures. The Clash of Civilizations is a Theory, proposed by Political scientist Samuel P Asian values was a concept that came into vogue briefly in the 1990s to justify authoritarian regimes in Asia predicated on the belief in the existence in Asian countries

Public opposition of the caning within the United States was uncertain as opinion polls produced by different news organizations contradicted each other. Nevertheless, a significant number of vocal Americans were in favor of the caning, reasoning that Singapore had a right to use corporal punishment if it chooses, or that their own country did not mete out severe enough punishment to criminals. The Embassy of Singapore received numerous calls strongly supporting Fay's punishment, often from individuals who felt that Singaporean style caning was little more than a "good spanking" when in fact it has been described as "torture" by human rights organizations and those who have received it and often results in bloody wounds, torn flesh, permanent scars and post traumatic stress disorder.

The media coverage of the case continued for several years. ^[2][3][4]

Aftermath

Fay returned to the United States to live with his father. He did several television interviews and while there was talk of a book or movie deal, Fay maintained that he would never sell his story for profit. In 1994, Fay suffered burns to his hands and face after a butane incident. Butane, also called n -butane, is the unbranched Alkane with four Carbon Atoms CH3CH2CH2CH3 ^[5][6][7] He was subsequently admitted to the Hazelden rehabilitation program for butane abuse. ^[5] He claimed that sniffing butane "made him forget what happened in Singapore. "^[8] In 1996, he was cited in Florida for a number of violations, including careless driving, reckless driving, not reporting a crash and having an open bottle of alcohol in a car. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) ^[9] Later, in 1998, still in Florida, Fay was arrested for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, charges to which he confessed but was not found guilty^[10] because of technical errors in his arrest. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Cannabis, also known as marijuana or marihuana, or ganja (from Hindi / Sanskrit: गांजा gānjā hemp) is a Drug paraphernalia is defined by the American Federal Drug Enforcement Administration as any equipment product or material that is modified for making using or concealing ^[11]

"Weird Al" Yankovic described Fay's caning in the lyrics of Headline News, a 1994 song parodying Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by the Crash Test Dummies. Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (ˈjæŋkəvɪk born October 23 1959 is a Grammy Award winning American singer Musician, actor satirist " Headline News " is a parody song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. " Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm " is a single by the Canadian Folk-rock group Crash Test Dummies, featured on their 1993 album God Shuffled His Crash Test Dummies is a Canadian Folk-rock group from Winnipeg Manitoba, popular in the early 1990s Bob Rivers did a satirical take of it in Cane 'Em Good, another 1994 song parodying Devo's Whip It. Bob Rivers is a well known American Rock and roll Radio on air personality in the Pacific Northwest as well as a prolific producer Devo (pronounced DEE-vo (IPA /'diːvoʊ/) or dee-VO (IPA /diː'voʊ/) often spelled "DEVO" or "DEV-O" is an American

Saturday Night Live did a sketch parodying Fay's caning, with Emilio Estevez guest-starring as Fay. Saturday Night Live ( SNL) is a weekly late-night 90-minute American Sketch comedy / Variety show based in New York City Emilio Estévez (born May 12, 1962) is a Golden Globe - and Screen Actors Guild (SAG Award -nominated American Actor The humorous premise of the sketch is that Fay's caner is an affable American, who explains that "professional caners" aren't able to find work except in countries like Singapore. He carries on one end of a pleasant conversation with Fay while delivering the strokes.

Obliquely parodied in a 1995 The Simpsons episode Bart vs. Australia in which Bart is sentenced to a "booting". " Bart vs Australia " is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons ' sixth season, which originally aired on the Fox network

Fay's caning was also mentioned in the Notorious MSG song "No Good Muthabitch" in 2007. Notorious MSG is a performing trio of Chinese Gangsta rappers founded in Chinatown, New York City who sing about their rise to fame and

After Michael Fay was arrested in Singapore and sentenced to a caning, ECW head booker Paul Heyman decided to capitalize on the publicity by holding a Singapore Cane match between Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman — with the loser having to take 10 lashes. Singapore Paul Heyman (born September 11, 1965) is an American entertainment producer most well-known for his former roles in Professional wrestling Thomas Laughlin In addition to his current role Dreamer is best known for the time he spent in the Philadelphia based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW

See also

• Caning
• Caning in Singapore
• Flor Contemplación

References

Further reading

• Latif, Asad (1994). The Flogging of Singapore: The Michael Fay Affair. Singapore: Times Books International. ISBN 981-204-530-9.
• Baratham, Gopal (1994). Gopal Baratham was a Singaporean Author and Neurosurgeon. He was known for his frank style and his ability to write about topics that were often considered The Caning of Michael Fay. Singapore: KRP Publication. ISBN 981-00-5747-4.
• Reyes, Alejandro (May 25, 1994). Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Rough Justice: A Caning in Singapore Stirs Up a Fierce Debate About Crime And Punishment. Asiaweek, p. Asiaweek, the English edition was a News magazine focusing on Asia, published weekly by Asiaweek Limited a subsidiary of Time Inc 34.
• The Asiaweek Newsmap (April 27, 1994). Events 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland. 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Asiaweek.
• Singapore's Most Famous Convicts, from Think Singapore

External links

• The Singapore Government's response to the American Embassy's statement, 1 April 1994

Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic