TIME TO PUT THE HAMMER DOWN

I have a confession to make. I watch a lot of reality cop shows on TV. My wife says I have too much time on my hands, but I tell her it is all for research. I don’t think I convinced her but I have learned some very interesting things which I would like to share with you.

Most of the individuals that police encounter seem to be regulars. In other words, most seem to have long records of arrest and conviction. I saw one case recently where the bad guy had a record of eighteen arrests with seven convictions for crimes such as drug usage, drug selling, armed robbery, armed felonious assault, felon in possession of a gun, and felonious flight to avoid prosecution. The big surprise was that he was only twenty years old. This arrest was for murder.

I have a simple question. Why wasn’t this clown in prison? What does one have to do to be put away for a long time? Had this particular thug been put in prison for twenty or thirty years as he should have been, perhaps his victim might still be alive. This was not an isolated situation. It happens time and again.

I am also amazed by the number of people pulled over by police who do not have valid driver’s licenses or auto insurance. Almost invariably the odor of marijuana comes from their car. When searched, more drugs are usually found and one hears the same response. They’re not my drugs, this isn’t my car, even though you found drugs in my pockets, these aren’t my clothes, etc. etc.

Another bit of information that catches my attention is the fact that many of the people stopped have warrants out for their arrests. Some have many, many warrants. Why is that? How is it possible that people wanted by the police are freely roaming the streets? Are the police so busy that they cannot go out and arrest those who have warrants?

The punk who was arrested for killing that beautiful young girl in Iowa was here illegally. There is no pretty way of stating this. If he wasn’t here, she may well still be alive. And he has been living here for several years. This was a preventable crime. No amount of liberal excuses and alibis can change that fact.

My final points I want to share have to do with the way some people react to police when they are stopped. I often see total disrespect both for the police officers and for the law. Individuals stopped for burned out tail lights, or headlights, no brake lights, speeders, reckless drivers, any of a number of possible crimes are often offended. So offended they sometimes refuse to comply. They argue, they fight, and sometimes they try to run. The police are not mind readers. They don’t know why offenders refuse to comply. Could they have just committed murder, robbery, whatever? What should they then do? If they use physical force the police themselves are often in trouble. Meanwhile the bad guys are laughing at the rest of us.

We are being told that prisons are overcrowded. Probably. We are offered any number of excuses why criminals are turned back out on the streets, but none of this nonsense makes any difference when they finally commit the ultimate act of violence.

As a free society based on law and order, we have an obligation to punish when laws are broken. If we don’t have enough prisons, we need to build more. We are not doing anybody a favor when youngsters, many of whom have little or no parental guidance, are arrested for crimes and the system refuses to punish them. They don’t get to learn a valuable lesson that if you do the crime, you do the time. It is past time to put the hammer down.

Ron Scarbro