A few years back I was charged with felony assault and a few other charges, but thankfully had a decent lawyer. I came out of a bar and a guy was beating the living hell out of his girlfriend(later discovered wife), split lip, bloody nose and still swinging on her. Like a valiant, and stupid, knight I pushed him mid swing as he was about to give her a NASTY right hook. I told him to knock it off but instead he started swinging at me, bad move for both of us. .......
I had almost the same thing happen to me except there were 2 guys beating on a girl I knew and the cops sat less than 100 feet away and ignored the whole thing while they kicked the crap out of me. I still have a crooked nose because of it. The worst part was, the girl who's .... I had just saved from god knows what just walked away without so much as a thanks.
.....Anyhow, the lawyer my dad hired got it down to simple battery although of course the wife beater was never charged with a single thing. I got time served and 6 months probation. Of course I got to deal with the Navy after that and at Captain's Mast I got 1 week restriction and 1/2 pay for 1 month.
And what would have happened if you were in your beloved Asia, and/or you had to rely on an overworked and underpaid public defender like millions of other defendants? I guess that instant and severe justice you advocate for others would not be such a great idea when you are the one on the dock.
I guess I'm a violent person then. I boxed, wrestled, and played some pigskin in high school and boxed and wrestled in college. I had one fight in high school and one real fight as an adult, not counting my valiant knight disaster.
I'm not. I never had a fight since elementary school before that parking lot incident that broke my nose. Yet, I'm the ex-felon whose life has been severely handicapped by the system for the last 25 years. Go figure.
You can never judge a book by a cover, or the charges on the paper. Every circumstance is unique.
That sounds rather contradictory coming from someone who advocates shooting traffickers "on sight".
I beg to differ about death penalty deterring crime though. Our million miles of red tape and more than likely not getting death unless you are a serial killer deters nothing. The thought of holding up a liquor store with a gun being punishable by death, and a swift death at that, would surely be a serious deterrence. Being guaranteed that you will be dead by sunrise if there is HARD evidence that you shot someone would make some people take a second thought.
Swift death penalty would be a good idea as soon as we have a perfect criminal justice and court system. As soon as all cops and witnesses are honest, prosecutors don't have higher political ambitions, and all evidence is as it first appears. There are plenty of people who were convicted on "hard" evidence and later exonerated, sometimes years or decades later. Would you consider eyewitness evidence "hard"? Most people do, yet it's the most unreliable evidence possible. I would think that what happened to you would have taught you better. What if that guy had died? Do you think his wife would have testified on your behalf? How many years later would she have had a change of heart and told the truth? Would you have been dead by then? After all, the evidence was pretty "hard".
The fact is that most murders are done without pre-meditation. Serial killers are relatively rare psychos and don't give a flip about penalties. Contract killers rarely get caught. Most run-of-the-mill murders are committed in the heat of the moment or in conjunction with another crime. There is no thought about potential penalties. There are exceptions of course, but that is the general rule and you can't fashion law based on the exceptions and expect a successful outcome. The lack of murders in your beloved Asian systems has more to do with firearm prohibitions than swift justice.
As far as petty crimes, I hate how we treat users as criminals. I believe that traffickers should be shot on sight, but users should be treated for the illness instead of blaming them for the outcome. Nedarlands has a great example of treating users. This only pertains to the heavy stuff though because I consider pot solely illegal because the government hasn't quite figured out how to properly get it's fingers in the mix even though it used to issue it.
We could mostly agree here, though shooting traffickers "on sight" is pretty ridiculous. What is trafficking and how is it different than dealing to support your habit? Most importantly, how would you tell the difference "on sight".
You'd be surprised how little of a drug is needed to be charged with trafficking, especially the harder drugs that people are most likely to sell as part of a "group buy" or to support a habit. One prescription bottle of certain pills would get you a trafficking charge, as would one ounce of croakane.
So, If someone arranges a group buy of an ounce of croakane with 4 or 5 or 8 of his friends so he can get a good price and feed his habit without robbing you, is he trafficking? The law would say so. Should he be "shot on sight"? Not all people who fit the legal definition of trafficking fit the stereotypes the media promotes. I'd trust a trafficker over an alcoholic child beater, mugger or crackhead any day.
BTW, when I was locked up and especially in the Salvation Army work release program, the staff loved the traffickers. These guys, caught with an ounce or two in their possession were the smartest, least violent, most stable and responsible inmates they had to deal with. They dominated the "honor wings" of the living facilities and worked the most responsible jobs. I worked with some of them. Only a miniscule minority of people convicted of trafficking fit the Scarface stereotype. In the U.S., kingpins get buried deep under the foundations of the Federal maximum security prisons with 100-200 year mandatory sentences.
You know who the worst criminals are in terms of recidivism and generally anti-social behavior? Burglars!! That's right. If you were to set sentences solely based on recidivism rates, burglars would get life and murderers would get 10 years.
