What angers us most about Sean Taylors death

[Lady Brave]

Originally Posted by sandtrapjack

Not expecting the courts to raise children. However I do expect and must insist that they hold people accountable for thier actions.

Thier job is to protect the public, plain and simple. Something went awry in this instance and Taylor paid the ultimate price.

Where did you hear that the defendants have not showm a history of assault? I have not heard that. That not withstanding, burgalry, theft and gun charges...hmmmm I can put 2 and 2 together and tell you that these are people who pose a clear and present danger to the public's safety. Hence get them off the street before they kill someone.

Too late.

So what do they tell Taylors family and little girl....

"OOPS" is about all they could muster.

How many times in our society have we witnessed this same string of circumstances? Person convicted of gun charges in January, is arrested for murder with a firearm in June. How many? Check CNN.COM and yo uwill see a story like this almost every day.

A registered sex offender/rapist is arrested and charged with kidnapping a little girl, raping and killing her.

It just happens too often in our society. And I am not talking about isolated instances/offenses. Hundreds of MULTIPLE OFFENDERS are let go with probation, or, poor management in the system.

And that is the reason I read that some of the posters here keep a gun in thier night stand. And why Taylor kept a weapon in his bedroom. Because there are a**hole predators out there put back in society by our courts, when thier criminal heistory clearly dictates that they be incarcerated.

I cannot accept "jail/prison over crowding" as an excuse, or, going to war is taking away funds to build new prisons. Capital offenses are at the state level and part of the state judicial systems and not the federal gov't. I cannot accept these excuses becasue this problem has been going on for generations and nothing has been done about it. They just say "overcrowding" and take that as an acceptable excuse. It's not.

China maybe an oppresive gov't, but when it comes to crime, especially violent crime, they are quick and decisive. Commit a violent crime in China, you are part of the weekly executions. Two bullets in the back of the head. And the expense of the bullets is charges to the condemned's family. Harsh and cold....yes. But that country has the largest population in the world, but has the LOWEST crime rate.

You know jack, I had a really long response to this, but just couldn't bring myself to post it. Unless you've worked in criminal justice, you will never understand it.

I will address a couple of points you raised though. (bolded)

Rivera is the only juvenile and the only one who had a prior weapons possession charge. All the other defendant's had prior theft and drug related charges. None of them have been charged with assault as far as I know. I supposed I could run their NCIC backgrounds while I'm sitting here, but I don't think the FBI would appreciate that very much right now.

As far the courts releasing defendants who you feel should be locked away, you do realized that judges are bound by sentencing guidelines right? Who makes up those guidelines? Politicians. It's not the judges sitting on the bench. Politcians like to stay in office, so that means they don't like raising taxes, which means they don't want to ask for money to build all the prisons it would take for us to put away all the people you feel should be locked up. Hence, that's why sentencing guidelines are becoming more and more relaxed. It's all about "rehab" and "alternatives to incarceration" now. They cost less to operate and that makes the public happy.

As to your assertions on prison overcrowding. I'm sitting here in an overcrowded detention facility right now. It's not an excuse. It's a reality. We have a rated capacity of 671 inmates and we're currently housing over 900. We need a jail desperately, but the public doesn't want to pay for it. If you have any suggestions on how to eleviate our overcrowding problem and make society as a whole understand the importance of funding our inmate population, then I'm all ears.