You can tell when you read the comments section of articles about local crime that even people in the bluest area of a dark blue state are getting sick and tired of being preyed upon by thugs and gang bangers that are coddled by a justice system that has been destroyed by the likes of Kamala Harris (San Francisco's alleged district attorney). Granted, this didn't occur in SF (although this and this did) but let's face it, most of the DA's in the Bay Area have the same beliefs about crime and punishment...which is to say they don't really believe in much punishment (see this old case about the Bologna family tragedy - by the way the family is now suing the city and I hope they win).

I'm a bit out of practice with writing about these sorts of things so you'll have to pardon my dust if this doesn't come out quite as eloquently and well-organized as I'd like.

First, I am really glad that the DA in this case has decided to charge the suspect as an adult. As you can probably tell, I've grown pretty cynical of the "justice" system here in the Bay Area so I wouldn't have been that surprised had they decided to charge him as a juvenile. My guess is that this case has received such an outpouring of interest and anger due to the extremely sympathetic victim (immigrant widow working hard to raise her three children on her own) that the DA simply could not do anything but charge as an adult or face certain public wrath.

But I've seen stranger things happen here in the Bay Area, so kudos to the DA for at least getting this right.

I thought it was totally bizarre that some of the commenters (a very very small percentage) seemed to suggest that this kid might somehow be rehabilitated. As though, robbing and shooting the ice cream truck lady could be just a childhood indiscretion, a "mistake" that anyone might make during the adolescence.

Um, I don't know what kind of adolescence those people had but mine certainly didn't include shooting innocent hard working people while committing armed robbery. By fifteen if you don't know this is wrong, I think it's pretty safe to say that you will never know it's wrong.

Going off on a tangent for a moment, I've always wondered why it is that the penalty for attempted murder tends to be lighter than the penalty for murder. To me, if the intent was the same why shouldn't you be penalized just as harshly? You would have killed someone, you just failed at it. Why should you be rewarded for failing? It makes no sense...Like this guy? He should be eligible for the death penalty imho.

Anyway, one of the comments in particular that annoyed me was one where the commenter made some snide remark about wondering where the pro-lifers were to defend this scumbag. Because yes, innocent babies and murderous scumbags, totally the same thing. Why is it that when people argue against the death penalty, liberals never come out and wonder why these same people don't protest abortion? Oh that's right...because to them it's more important to protect thugs who shoot innocent women for a couple bucks than it is to protect innocent babies from being drowned in saline or ripped limb from limb out of the womb. Personally I believe in the death penalty and I dislike the idea of abortion. I think we as a society need to err on the side of protecting innocent life, but I could give a damn about scumbag murderers who don't even deserve to be called human anymore based on their own choices and actions.

I'm praying for Mrs. Kaur to have a speedy and full recovery, and that somehow God will heal the emotional scars that something like this must come with...both for her and her children.

EDITED TO ADD: Unfortunately this article just proves my point about the California no-justice system.

Labels: Criminals, News