Knockout finally charged

[BoomBoxing]

Originally Posted by mike0421

This is a major prickly pear for me. I guess I am a traditionalist, purist, what have you, but to me, once you serve notice on society that you are no longer fit to interact peaceably, then you lose your freedom. There's a reason the lions and tigers in the zoo are caged and fenced off from the other animals. If you are Jennifer Joyce in the circuit attorney's office, you throw everything you have against this scumbag, and ensure a maximum possible sentence. Put some real teeth into legislation, and make a first time offense such as this a mandatory 5 year sentence, no parole. Second time, life imprisonment. Too much time and energy is put into prosecuting drug offenses, for instance, and I believe it's at the expense of real hard crime, such as this crap. I'm with MUTGR on this one: if the city displays itself weak on apprehension and detention, there is no real deterrent shown, and these crimes will go on unabated. This will come at the expense of businesses possibly losing revenue. The Central West End is a wonderful place to enjoy a night of recreation, and the last thing one needs is the fear of looking over their shoulder.

There are major problems in city government. Jennifer Joyce isn't one of them. She and her staff do great work and should be commended for some significant convinctions, particularly for repeat offenders. The system is what's broken. The Post ran a great story on one of the knockout victims last year, the one beat up near the library on Grand that that the mayor was nearly witness to. The DA had the case seemingly locked down and was going to go at the accused (a minor) with all it had. But the case fell apart because - you guessed it - the primary witness was (likely) coerced into not cooperating and you cannot convict a criminal without evidence.

I agree with your point about wasted effort going after petty drug users.

[scocar]

Couldn't agree more. It's funny how so often liberals are labeled weak on crime when a lot of that has to do with the fact that they want lesser sentences for crimes that are not against other people. The job of our government is to protect us. Allowing violent criminals out on the street is not protecting us.