We observe Veteran’s Day today November 12th.
To all those veterans, past and present, and those risking their lives today, thank you!
Revenge driving justice system
I would be the first one to say the justice system is imperfect. After all it is a human construction and I don’t know of any humans who are perfect.
The problems stem from the need to be compassionate about the people who are criminals, the victims, and the public’s need for a perfect utopia where you can walk around naked and leave your house and car unlocked.
There seems to be a perception that we coddle criminals, that they sit on their asses in jail and watch TV all the time, while the victims of crime have their life ruined by whatever degree of the crime that happened to them. People who have that perception are the one’s who want the utopia and want revenge on the criminal.
There is a disturbing trend to make people pay for their crimes for the rest of their lives even after serving a jail sentence.
You have the “3 strikes” rule (aka habitual offender laws) where a person who is convicted of a serious criminal offense 3 or more times get mandatory long term sentences which could include life without parole.
Then you have Megan Laws that require public notifications when a sex offender is released and ends up in someone’s neighborhood. There are also local laws that now prohibit sex offenders from living a certain distance from a school or other places where children are located, and some cities are starting to enact laws preventing sex offenders from even working near them.
You also have some laws that require mentally disabled criminals to be institutionalized after serving their sentences and in some states children as young as 14 can be sentenced to life in prison without parole for violent crimes.
A recent move in the Ohio state legislature would increase the time on parole after a sentence for a violent crime from 3 years to 5.
Senate Bill 228 was written because of people such as [Bruce] Lower, said Bret Vinocur, the president of findmissingkids.com. He worked with Sen. Steve Stivers, a Columbus Republican, to draft the legislation.
Vinocur testified this week before the Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee.
“I’ve had much-less-violent offenders stay on parole five years,” he said in an interview the day before his testimony. “There is no uniformity. … If this law was in effect, he would still be on parole.”
It’s easier to return people to prison on a parole violation than to convict them of a new crime because parole offenses can include acts that are otherwise legal, such as drinking alcohol.
Lower was accused of raping, sodomizing and killing the child in a Columbus court. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and served 16 years in prison. Although he was accused of two parole violations, drinking alcohol and possessing pornography, parole authorities released him from supervision in August 2005 after 2 1/2 years.
Vinocur said he has found five MySpace pages and a handful of dating Web sites bearing Lower’s photo and profile.
“Why is this man out?” he asked. “Why is he out on the Internet dating?”
The article says that since Lower was released from parole he has had 2 restraining orders placed on him from two different women. That is the only bad marks he has had since 2005.
What supporters of laws such as Senate Bill 228 fail to take into consideration is that the victims aren’t the only people who suffer from the crime. The criminal and their friends and family suffer as well.
This side effect is called “collateral consequences of criminal charges”. Not only does a convicted criminal serve a court imposed sentence but they can also lose their job, experience disenfranchisement, loss of federal loans for education (for drug charges) or eviction from public housing, not to mention the effects of the “3 Strikes” and Megan’s Law. The criminal’s family also experiences social and economic punishment.
When I was young, the brother of a friend of mine was accused of rape. Even before a trial, my friend’s mother was fired from the scout troop she supervised and many family friends shunned them.
Tougher sentences coupled with these collateral consequences of criminal charges have filled the prisons and ruined many lives and for what? Why not just get to the extreme some people want? Let’s just require automatic life sentences without parole for any violent criminals – even first time offenders. Or better yet let’s just execute them and save on the money and resources needed to warehouse them. Laws like Senate Bill 228 just setup felons to fail after their sentence and comes pretty close to violating the 8th amendment that prohibits cruel and unusual punishments.
Listening to the arguments of the supporters of revenge, one would think a pedophile was lurking behind every bush. But some statistics show that most child abuse happens in the home from parents:
In 2003, 83.9% of victims were abused by a parent. 40.8% of child victims were maltreated by their mothers acting alone and 18.8% by fathers acting alone.
Neglect made up 61% of abuse cases, physical abuse 19%, and sexual abuse 10%
People make mistakes. They should be held responsible for those mistakes, but how long should they be held responsible. It seems like many people like Ohio State Sen. Steve Stivers and Bret Vinocur want you to pay forever for your mistakes. Even though such laws won’t create the abuse free utopia they want.
Childhelp says:
Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to treat those who abuse children and their child victims. Treat the cause of the violence and just maybe the cycle of violence would be broken and the desire for collateral consequences of criminal charges would disappear.
Our legal system is suppose to be called a system of justice – not revenge. The Rack, public stockades, and public hangings have moved into the dustbin of history, why does it seem to me we are going back to those times. What’s next – the return of the scarlet letter?
It’s Xanadu
There was an AP story on the Internets Saturday that floored me.
NEW YORK – Brandon Purves is the kind of guy producers of “Xanadu” only dreamed about. He liked the Broadway musical so much the first time that he saw it again. And again. And again — for a mind-boggling 86 times and counting.
“It’s nice to have an hour and a half to just laugh and not worry about everything else that’s going on,” says Purves, who works in fundraising for the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Purves, 28, is one of a legion of die-hard “Xanadu” fans who have fueled both excitement and ticket sales for a musical few thought would be a hit.
Swept away by the show’s upbeat spirit, devotees will line up at the box office to get tickets for another viewing only moments after the curtain has come down. They’ll wait to chat with the performers, organize group evenings and swap photos and stories in a burgeoning online community.
Such a reaction wasn’t always expected when the show debuted this summer. Many feared it would be mocked like the film on which it was based — the 1980 roller-disco flick with Olivia Newton-John as an ancient Greek muse who lands in modern-day California and grooves to Electric Light Orchestra songs like “Magic” and “I’m Alive.”
But critics embraced the satirical script and stars Kerry Butler, Cheyenne Jackson, Tony Roberts, Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman. Even after roller-skating injuries took out key performers, the show kept packing ’em in.
Xanadu is one of my favorite movies from the 80’s. How can you not love Olivia Newton-John, music by ELO, and roller disco.
Newton-John played a muse named Kira who inspires an album cover artist named Sonny Malone, played by Michael Beck, when he falls in love with her. She encourages him to build a roller disco club. Along the way they meet up with a previous “client” of Kira’s – Danny McGuire, played by Gene Kelly – and there is a 40’s vs 80’s subplot.
One of the musical numbers featuring the subplot has a big band challenging a rock band. The rock band was played by The Tubes.
The reason I loved the movie was for the music. Most other people felt the same way. The movie flopped but the soundtrack was very successful. The song “Magic” went hit number 1 on the U.S. music chart.
When I read that it was a “satirical” adaptation I was a bit worried. I actually saw it in the theater in 1980 and didn’t think it was a bad movie. I have it on VHS and I’ve watched it more than a few dozen times.
Check out the cast of the show singing one of the songs on a talk show back in September:
More info:
Some Ohio college students want to carry guns on campus
The Columbus Dispatch had a story on Tuesday 10/23 about a protest from some students who want to be able to have concealed weapons on campus. When Ohio adopted a concealed carry law they exempted university and college campuses. Students who feel such a prohibition is wrong, protested by wearing empty gun holster around campus.
“You can carry (a gun) in several places, but Ohio prohibits you from carrying at a university or college,” said [Evan] Peck, a senior majoring in math and sociology.
“But this campus is the one place where I spend the most of my time, and I should be able to protect myself.”
Mark Noble, a National Rifle Association instructor, said he hated leaving his gun in his car when he took classes at Ohio State.
“Thieves know that if you are a student, then you are not allowed to carry a weapon and so they’ll target you,” said Noble, 31, who graduated in June and is the chairman of the Franklin County Libertarian Party.
“But if they changed the law, then thieves wouldn’t know who is armed and they would move on to other targets.”
I don’t see the point to it.
It seems they believe that we are still in the Wild West. I lived in the campus area for about 6 years and never once felt a need to have a gun or carry a gun. I was never bothered or attacked. There aren’t bad guys waiting behind every bush.
It just seems a bit childish as if carrying a gun is like some kind of gage of manliness or something. It would be better to just get a tattoo. Besides unless the person is ex-military or a frequent hunter I doubt people carrying their guns would even be the deterrent they think they would be.
Ellen DeGeneres is in a dog fight
Sometimes one has to take a break and look at something that looks sad and funny at the same time.
Recently talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and her partner Portia de Rossi adopted a small dog from the animal rescue organization “Mutts and Moms”.
It seems that the dog didn’t get along with Ellen and Portia’s cats so Ellen gave the dog to her hairstylist. When “Mutts and Moms” stopped by to check on the dog and found out that DeGeneres gave the dog away, they went to the hairstylist and took the dog back. They claim that DeGeneres violated the terms of the adoption when she didn’t tell them she had given the dog away.
Yes, an animal rescue group took back an adopted dog because they weren’t consulted when it was given to another family.
Ellen used her show to talk about the issue and ask that the dog be given back to the family.
As if in a political fight “Mutts and Moms” fired back:
Mutts and Moms owners Marina Batkis and Vanessa Chekroun were in possession of the dog and will not be giving it back, attorney Keith A. Fink told The Associated Press.
“She (Marina) is not going to give them the dog,” said Fink, who is not legally representing the owners but is authorized to speak on their behalf.
“She doesn’t think this is the type of family that should have the dog. She is adamant that she is not going to be bullied around by the Ellen DeGenereses of the world … They are using their power, position and wealth to try to get what it is they want.”
“If you adopt a dog and you no longer want the dog, you can’t unilaterally decide who you want to give the dog to,” he said. “She’s trying to tell a story to make herself look good.”
Wow!
I hadn’t realized that adopting out animals had become as complicated as adopting children. I commend “Mutts and Moms” for wanting quality homes for the animals they place but they seemed to go over the line by taking back the dog then throwing a fit about it.
It isn’t like Ellen put the dog in a bag and dumped it along a road some where.
I think “Mutts and Moms” need a little perspective.