The most interesting part of Monday’s Word on the Street column was Police Chief Settingsgaard’s e-mail to Molly Parker (no offense to J.D.). It’s the second half of the column and it lays out the Chief’s feelings about why it’s so hard to keep crime under control. It’s pretty clear that the police feel like their work is being undermined by a justice system that is just trying to keep up appearances to the public:
Prisons are overcrowded. We have to let criminals out and reduce the number coming in. Let’s not build more prisons, that would be expensive. Let’s not give shorter sentences to criminals, that could anger the public. Let’s give them sentences that are just as long but we will let them out sooner. Maybe the public will never get wise to this.
…We puzzle over why we seem to be arresting so many violent suspects yet violent crime keeps occurring.
That was never more soberly brought home than when Councilman Bob Manning was attacked by Michael Little. The situation is a little different than what the Chief was describing, but it’s the same principle. According to today’s paper, “Little has another felony case pending, an aggravated unlawful use of weapons charge stemming from a May 2006 incident at Fantasyland.” Little had shot off a firearm in the parking lot and was arrested, but of course, posted bail and has been living free for about a year now waiting for his trial.
Thanks to a court system that lets justice roll like molasses, Little was free to commit another violent crime before he was even tried for the first felony. He punched Bob Manning in the face — the thanks Manning got for stopping to help a little girl who ran into his car on her bike — then fled the scene. You would think that with now two felony indictments that Little would be behind bars, but rumor has it he posted $200 bail and is out on the streets yet again.
I’m sure Peoria police officers just love re-arresting the same criminals again and again. There is a problem with our criminal justice system. But the question is, what do we do about it?
What can we do about our broken criminal “justice” system?
A lot, if we have the guts to do it:
1. Welfare should be abolished. Job training or WPA work should be required of any public assistance beyond unemployment compensation. People who have to go to work or school have a lot less time to commit crimes.
2. Most police should get out of their cars and go back to “walking a beat”. In some places, mounted police are appropriate (Chicago has them).
3. More community involvement by the Police in general. For the average citizen, their involvement with the police is pretty much limited to when a cop is writing them a ticket.
4. Repeat murderers should be executed, promptly. If they have to experience a little pain in the process, too bad.
5. Violent criminals should be sentenced to prison, not academies of crime, for generally shorter periods of time than now advertised (but rarely, of course, carried out). There should be mandatory job training and work (yes, work, not sports leagues). At the end of their stated sentence a parole board should decide rather they are ready for release, should have their sentence extended, or something in between.
6. Non-violent criminals should not be sentenced to prison. They should get some kind of public service, or in-residence job training.
7. Drug offenders should be given mandatory treatment in a special confinement facility, and mandatory testing after release. Fail and go back to confinement.
8. The public should demand that the border be closed, by whatever means necessary, to drug smuggling, which currently goes on with the tacit approval of the federal government, and is a huge catalyst for crime, everywhere, including little ol’ Peoria.
All of this will not eliminate crime, but each of them will reduce it. There are other things we can and should do, but just passing more laws and spending more money will not do the job.
Decriminalize drugs.
You can’t treat them all the same. Legalize marijuana but treat it more like alcohol not cigarrettes (no puff n drive, no puff n work, no… you get the idea). Tax the stuff hard, put the money into treatment programs. Legalize and regulate powder cocaine. To go back to my college days, to an Administration of Justice class (a class that aspiring law enforcement students took), powder cocaine as it was distributed back then had an addictive quality that was far less than nicotine. Nicotine was on par with Heroin (which should give people pause). Heroin for all of its vileness, should be decriminalized, regulated, and treated as the serious health problem that it is. Same with crack and meth.
You really have to wonder why drugs persist the way they do. Yes they are bad stuff but a lot of people do use them with no serious problems. That is the little devil in the whole problem. Like alcohol, many of us can drink until the bottles are all gone but a few of us develop lifelong problems. There is plenty of research that shows that people can live normal lives and ‘control’ their addictions but it takes a supportive environment.
The problem is the very criminalization of the stuff. You force people to sneak, take chances, live dangerously. Throw in the potential for huge profits and you have something explosive. Did we not learn anything from Prohibition?
Cj,
he was released on bond because state law allows it. Refer to the list of ideas submitted to state legislators from the Neighborhood Alliance. This is specifically addressed in the legislation section. If you don’t have it I can email it to you. Secondly, he was originally charged with a misdemeanor (battery) then later charged with the felony (agg. battery) He bonded out on the misdeanor as allowed by state law. The court had nothing to do with his release. It is important to understand how the system works in order to best look at each part and then make suggestions for improvement. Folks keep making statements which make people angry, but at the wrong issue. By continually applying divisive pressure to the criminal justice system and finger pointing creates defensiveness on each part of it when it needs to work cohesively together to be effective. I am not defending or advocating any one part against the other but suggesting that people learn how it works and then begin addressing problems. We have met with each faction and have developed an understanding and have made suggestions for changes at levels where change needs to occur. Much involves developing more resources, some involves advocating for changes in laws or ordinances.
That’s what I’m looking for, Paul. See my last question: “what do we do about it?” If you have suggestions, then please publicize them. Are they on a website to which I can link?
Mouse did a lot of my talking for me, so I’ll just address the areas where I disagree, numbered as he had them.
4. No man has a right to kill another man, except in self defense. Therefore, the gov’t should only execute a person in a situation where that is the only way to keep them from killing again (e.g. if the person was likely to be able to orchestrate murders from inside prison).
8. I don’t think anybody understands our underground economy enough to know the implications of closing our border. Plus there’s the whole “give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses learning to breathe free…” bit. Is that to be thrown away, as the Feds have already done with our Constitution?
Ben, I had to memorize the bit you quoted years ago, and I think it goes like this, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Sorry – that is one of the few things we memorized in school that I can still remember!
Peoria’s survey ranking falls – Peoria Journal Star Article.
What!?!?!?!? No way! I guess “clean and unremarkable” sums it up pretty well.