|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Glee of Vengeance and Career Advancement |
|---|
| The goals of the justice system have shifted.... |
|
This is Dark Cloud on Wednesday, July 28, 1999. California police have arrested a motel maintenance worker in conjunction with the murders of several women in Yosemite Park in recent years. This is good news, of course, and apparently the man has confessed to the incidents in question, which involved decapitation and the burning of bodies. What is definitely bad news is the easy confidence with which the police have informed the public of the truth and veracity of their past theories on this case, and - given the number of uncontested times that we have executed people for murder of late - perhaps we should review here. After a woman and two young girls were murdered a year or so ago, police questioned and released the man they now contend is guilty. They sputtered around with a genuinely concerned public paying close attention, for who wants a serial killer at work in a national park hosting four million people a year? Then they said the killer, perhaps killers, were already in custody for other crimes, they were working on putting the case to bed, and a sense of calm returned. Then, last month, a woman was killed and decapitated close to her home. This led to the maintainance worker, who then supposedly announced his guilt for the other crimes. The question is what the hell were the police talking about previous to the recent murder? Who were they trying, it now seems obvious, to frame for these murders? And if the actual culprit had not been caught and confessed, would some second-story man face the gas chamber for murders he could not have committed? It’s a concern. For example, the State of Virginia has only executed two men since Gary Gilmore brought back the death penalty in 1977. Both were later shown, by DNA evidence, to have been innocent of the crimes for which they died which means Virginia has a 100% record of executing innocent men. Virginia is not as bloodthirsty as Texas or Florida, where they nuke you for everything, so it makes you wonder. A lot. I think the death penalty is absolutely okay for a short list of crimes. Charles Manson, still alive, ought to have cooked. Any proven serial killer. Any proven predator of children under the age of twelve and perhaps older. The reason I say this with confidence is because these are crimes for which there is no hope of sufficient punishment or cure. They can never be released. Their death will not deter any others of their ilk, which I contend is irrelevant. They were not guilty of single crimes of passion but of premeditated murder. No tears for them. They are different in kind from punks who spray a 7-11 will shotgun or machine gun. Yes, they murdered cold-bloodedly but they may have been clueless. They are savable. But somehow the prevention of future crime is no longer the goal of criminal justice in this country; now, it is just the image of punishment for the glee of victims, alleged and otherwise, and the career advancement of law officers. Police and prosecution in this country have deteriorated to simply the prosecution for which they need a culprit and a conviction for career advancement. In theory, the police want justice and the guilty party, but because of the media and the increasingly short attention spans of all, they are often quite willing to take what is available. We have a woman running for District Attorney in Boulder who touts her won-lost record. It is nowhere mentioned that her cases have been primarily against Public Defenders in unpopular causes, underfinanced, undermotivated, overwhelmed with work. The woman’s success against defense attorneys with winning records is, essentially, nil. But look what is presented to the public as proof of competence and expertise in full confidence that her actual abilities will never be examined? If this is true in Boulder, it may explain much about the Ramsey case, the Chase case, and may shed light on what is wrong with established paths of career advancement in the profession in general. If such attitudes are extant in police offices in the Yosemite area, a murderer may have just, ironically, have saved the live of an innocent in jail for robbery. This was not due to DNA or super sleuthing, but to the confession, as is so often the case. Great police tend to be at the right place at the right time rather than great or even adequate detectives. The enormous number of congratulatory television police shows, and crime shows, all pseudo documentary, are testament to a concerted effort from somewhere to convince a normally skeptical public or the efficacy of our law enforcement. Given that significant numbers of our death row inhabitants have recently been proven innocent – sometimes too late – and, given that Boston, New York, Philadelphia police have been shown to be corrupt, violent, and capable of framing people for greater crimes than they had hitherto not shown any sign of committing, given that an unseemly number of executions are clearly excuses for governors and other figures to demonstrate an otherwise questionable virility but dedication to racist principles, there is probably a need to reexamine our system from top to bottom. Here is a simple question to start the debate. If we send someone to incarceration for an eventual release, should not the effort of the state be to insure that this individual returns to society less likely to be violent, more attuned to good deeds, than he went in? Or should we allow him to associate with greater criminals, give him free time to develop those skills along with weight room hours, and essentially guarantee his eventual return either by his own works or those of police needing a future scapegoat for a capital crime? What your tax dollars are paying for now is not what you think it is. And it’s pretty scary that a punk thief in some California jail just escaped state death for the co-incidental confession of a murderer – provided it was a confession. Provided it wasn’t beaten out of him. Provided we have the truth. |
| Post your views and reviews on The Boulder Lout Forum. |