The American novelist Tom Clancy once remarked that the only difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense. The older I get, the more convinced I become that he was correct. The incident involving Cowburn illustrates his point well.
A Singapore-style judicial caning is an extremely harsh punishment for pinching a woman’s bottom. It is also a tremendously unfair punishment to inflict on Cowburn for the following reason. Women cannot legally receive a judicial caning in Singapore, even if they commit the same crime that would result in a caning if a man committed it. If the woman had pinched Cowburn’s bottom, she could not and would not be caned for doing so.
The Cowburn incident is indeed bizarre, but I am aware of another bottom-pinching incident from the United States that is far stranger. This event occurred in the state of Wisconsin. An off-duty police officer named Jennifer Luick went to a bar one night with her boyfriend, Gregg Peters, and some of her female friends. Luick and her friends amused themselves that night by pinching the bottoms of the men in the bar. They did not know the men. Luick thought that this activity was fun and enjoyed doing it.
One of the men Luick pinched was Andrew Wirth. Wirth did not appreciate having his bottom pinched at all! He glared at her and demanded that she stop touching him. Luick told him to relax and said that pinching his behind was meant as a joke. Wirth did not think that having his posterior pinched by a woman he never met before was funny. He continued to glare at her and express his disapproval of the pinch.
Wirth’s refusal to interpret the pinch as a good-natured joke irritated Luick immensely. She complained to Peters and her friends about him. One of her friends later remarked, “She was upset that he was upset.” Peters approached Wirth and demanded that he apologize to Luick for upsetting her. Wirth refused, and thought that she should apologize to him instead. The confrontation between Wirth and Peters escalated to the point where Peters asked Wirth to step out into the parking lot with him. Wirth did so, and Luick followed them outside.
In the parking lot, Peters moved his arm in a way that made Wirth believe that he was reaching for a knife or some other weapon in his pocket. Wirth pulled out the handgun he had with him and fired it three times, killing both Luick and Peters. Wirth was arrested soon afterward and then was later found guilty of two counts of homicide by negligent handling of a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. During his time in prison, he started writing erotic novels. You can learn more about him and his novels at his website: [url=https://andrewwirthbooks.com/about/]
If you are inclined to do so, you can read the official court document regarding this case here:
[url=https://law.justia.com/cases/wisconsin/court-of-appeals/2013/2012ap000208-cr.htm l][/url]
This incident generated considerable publicity when it occurred. The coverage of the event was very often highly critical of Wirth, for obvious reasons. I agree with all the commentators on this event who argued that the shooting of Luick and Wirth was completely unjustified and that they did not deserve to lose their lives over a pinch. I also agree, however, with all the commentators who pointed out that Luick had no business pinching men’s bottoms in the first place. In my opinion, Luick’s anger over Wirth’s reaction to the pinch reeks of entitlement. She seemed to think that she was entitled to pinch the bottoms of men she does not know for her own amusement. I wonder how she would have felt if the roles had been reversed and Wirth had treated her the same way she treated him. I highly doubt that she would have considered his actions to be funny or amusing! | 
