What angers us most about Sean Taylors death

[sandtrapjack]

Originally Posted by Lady Brave

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.

Then I shall partially yield to your experience. I knew all that you stated already, but it does not mean it is right, or just.

You say it is not an excuse it is a reality. You are absolutlely, 100%, no arguement from me CORRECT. But does that mean we have to accept it? Does it mean we say "there's nothing we can do, so accept it."?

Yes judges have guidelines, and yes those guidelines are established by poiliticians. Politicians that are elected to office. So I guess that means it is our fault. We have taken it from the home, taken it from the justice system and come full circle right back into the publics lap. Since we elected the officials who are making these guidelines, right?

Which is my answer to your statement about suggestions. My answer is I am doing all that I can and it starts in my home. I teach my children the difference between right and wrong. When they were young my wife and I made a point that when they walked through the door from school, a friends house, or anywhere, one of us was always home. My wife put her career on hold for 16 years so we could do just that. It was important to us, and them. The other thing that I do....vote. I vote for those officials who are tough on crime. I vote for those officials whose platform is crime reduction.

But you have justified my first post in this thread. You said that Rivera had a previous gun charge? Well it is being reported by CNN that Rivera is the alledged shooter. So we have a man with a previous weapons charge, back on the street and the first thing he did was get a gun and go shoot someone. I don't care if people think it was intentional or not. If he did not intend to use a gun then why did he put bullets in it? Or even take it along? Answer is he had it just in case he DID need to shoot someone. He had made up his mind that if he felt he needed to he was going to shoot someone.