With Crime Down, the Nation Moves to Ease Get-Tough Policies

[Geee]

Town Hall:

Americans change their minds on some issues. One of them is crime and punishment.

 

It's an interesting issue because, while it's sometimes a subject of discussion in national politics, state legislatures and governors, county prosecutors (usually elected and often prominent figures in their communities), and local government law enforcement handle it in a largely decentralized way.

 

Nonetheless, there are national trends. In the middle 1960s, as the civil rights movement made most Americans uncomfortably aware that they had been mistreating their black fellow citizens, or had been averting their gaze from that mistreatment, they also started to get softer on crime.

[SrWoodchuck]

@Geee!

 

News gives no clue to identity [racial] of the thugs who committed this crime, although the police "know" who they are.........is that soft enough on crime for ya?

 

 

Elderly Buddhist Monk Pulled Out Of His Home, Beaten Senseless With Pipe By Two Teens Who Could Be Obama’s Sons http://weaselzippers.us/2013/09/02/elderly-buddhist-monk-pulled-out-of-his-home-beaten-senseless-with-pipe-by-two-teens-who-could-be-obamas-sons/

 

 

 

SPENCER, Okla. – A secluded farm in Spencer seems like a quiet place to raise animals but Friday afternoon, that peace and quiet was shattered.

 

Police said just after noon Friday, two suspects robbed an elderly man after pulling him outside his home and beating him senseless with a pipe.

 

The homeowner was unconscious on his porch for almost 24 hours.

 

Officers said he finally woke up around 2:30 p.m. Saturday and dragged himself inside to call 911.

 

“He really doesn`t even have anything to steal. I`m just in shock that this happened,” neighbor Joel Ortiz said.

 

Joel Ortiz said he knows his neighbor as “Tony,” saying he is a devout Buddhist monk and a good friend.

 

He was horrified when he found out what happened.

 

“I did peek in the ambulance as they were fixing to leave,” he said. “I didn’t know it was even going on until I saw the ambulance and stuff here. Black eyes, all his teeth knocked out, beaten badly.”

 

Neighbors describe Tony as someone who uses the little he has to take care of his rescue animals.

 

 

From WeaselZippers

[Geee]

Sigh!!!

[SrWoodchuck]

I'll make a non-PC comment at this point. I didn't grow up with black people. I've worked & had great friendship's with a few. One of whom was killed by gangs & tossed into an industrial district. I was less prejudiced as a younger man, and certainly much less prejudiced before Obama was elected in 2008. [ it has to do with his politics, not his color....and something no one remembers...he's half-white & was raised in privilege ] I try to be a good Christian person in my life & certainly in my ministries.That's my preface.

 

We are at a point where it seems that there is a manner of thinking by some black people that they are "owed" a restitution for real or perceived grievances. This is exhibited in taking anything they can from others, up to & including the lives of their victims. By any standard or study, there is a propensity for "black on white" / "black on other" crimes. It is purposely hidden by the media.

 

Where the rubber hits the road.....the government wants to disarm the population & seemingly allow the increase of black violence.

 

At some point.....the pendulum of racial redress through death & villainy will begin it's arc back to law & order for all.

 

In the meantime, violent black "redistributionist's" may just begin to meet with some unexpected 230 grain JHP justice.

[Geee]

@SrWoodchuck - I fear you are right in so much of what you say. Through their college years, most of my kids roommates were black as they played college baseball. All wonderful kids and still friends with many of them today and most have great jobs. They all had two loving parents. I think there is the difference.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

 

The decentralized criminal-justice system responded with mandatory minimum sentences for violent and drug crimes and prison populations expanded exponentially.

To listen to what certain people (Libertarians) are saying you would think our prisons are full of young men who were arrested and convicted of having a small amount of grass. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of these men (and it is mostly males) are caught with Large amounts of drugs, and the drug charge is normally just one of the charges..ie Murder/Conspiracy to commit Murder/Extortion/RICO...etc. They are not 22 yer old college students caught with a bag of weed.

 

 

Americans still favor capital punishment, but several states have abolished it recently and executions in most states are rare.

Why should it take 10 years (?) between the conviction/sentencing and carrying out the sentence? Now I do understand that we run the risk of killing an innocent person, but, it seems to me that in order for the death penalty to be an effective deterrent to murder (if it is) it needs to be swiftly carried out. I'm thinking a year or two.

[SrWoodchuck]

@Geee

 

 

The decentralized criminal-justice system responded with mandatory minimum sentences for violent and drug crimes and prison populations expanded exponentially.

To listen to what certain people (Libertarians) are saying you would think our prisons are full of young men who were arrested and convicted of having a small amount of grass. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of these men (and it is mostly males) are caught with Large amounts of drugs, and the drug charge is normally just one of the charges..ie Murder/Conspiracy to commit Murder/Extortion/RICO...etc. They are not 22 yer old college students caught with a bag of weed.

 

 

Americans still favor capital punishment, but several states have abolished it recently and executions in most states are rare.

Why should it take 10 years (?) between the conviction/sentencing and carrying out the sentence? Now I do understand that we run the risk of killing an innocent person, but, it seems to me that in order for the death penalty to be an effective deterrent to murder (if it is) it needs to be swiftly carried out. I'm thinking a year or two.

 

 

@Valin

 

I agree with you on your points....especially the 2nd one. Crime is committed.....a perpetrator is arrested.....and at the moment the 'perp' enters the justice system....the system is skewed to protect the criminals rights. Victims, including survivors, have very little say in actual justice dispensed.

 

I know this from experience. My son was shot in the face by his friend, when they were both "high" and sitting in the friends house. The parents of his friend allowed them to consume alcohol & smoke pot...."as long as they did it in their house" [?!?!?!] and failed to notice the smell of cordite & spent .22 caliber shells littering their son's bedroom.....from shooting the pistol [at the concrete basement walls] their son had stolen from their neighbors [along with 4 other guns + jewelry +cash + CD's.]

 

When I was asked to make a "victims impact statement" at the shooters sentencing [the only input allowed to my wife & me] I was berated by the judge....in a 5 minute diatribe. I had asked for jail time, since my son had taken months to recover.....and I made note of the fact that the shooter still had not returned the other stolen firearms....and that he had reached out to my son [along with some of his friends] to warn my son about "snitchin."

 

You see, the "fix" was in. There was already a "negotiated settlement" & plea bargain that involved probation & counseling. They didn't want to hear embarrassing facts.

 

The judges name was DeVita....the same judge that had a chance to jail the Columbine shooters, for an incident with bombs & firearms......before they killed......but they received probation, too.

 

The shooter did not complete his probation successfully....and in the end.....served 2 weeks out of a 3 month sentence.

 

We could have sued his parents, but our lawyer said we'd be lucky to get enough to pay medical costs....and it would have to go to our son....whose head was not firmly screwed on his shoulder yet. The parents of the shooter sold their home & moved out of the neighborhood. [possibly to avoid a lawsuit]

 

*********************************************************************************************************************************************

I know our system needs to be directed to avoid punishing an innocent person. China's model of trial, followed by immediate execution & billing the family of the executed for the bullet.....is not correct.......but we need to have societal rights to swift justice....just as the accused has a right to a speedy trial. [/rant]

[Draggingtree]

Criminal Justice Reform Steps Out of the Shadows

By JONATHAN COPPAGE • October 5, 2015, 12:05 AM

Rolling back the reach of America’s “tough on crime” laws was, for many years, a subject that most politicians could at best discuss at a whisper, off the record, in a dark and obscure corner. The crime waves that peaked in the 1990s made the careers of many politicians (especially on the right) who swept into Washington on promises of more jails and longer sentences, and they scarred the remaining Democrats too deeply for them to easily open a potential “soft on crime” flank again. Even as crime collapsed and the mounting toll of mass incarceration came into view in the 20 years that followed, Americans’ continued to believe in an increasingly mythical rise in crime, and political campaigns saw little reason to disabuse them of that notion.

 

Yet on Thursday, a significant bill reducing mandatory minimum sentences along with other substantial reforms was announced in the Senate. The bill’s press conference was attended by members of the Democratic leadership, Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, the Republican leadership, John Cornyn, the conservative insurgency, Mike Lee and Tim Scott, and the next generation of Senate liberals, Cory Booker and Sheldon Whitehouse. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/coppage/criminal-justice-reform-steps-out-of-the-shadows/