Monday, August 24, 2015
A college student, a soldier and an airman get on a train...
Sounds like the set up for a joke. Except it's not. Three brave Americans, two of them servicemen got on a train. Hearing gunfire, they ran to the sound of guns and stopped a terrorist. The French have given them their highest honor. See the story here. But, to quote Abraham Lincoln, "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say" about these brave young Americans, "but, it can never forget what they did...." Spencer Stone, 23, Alek Skarlatos, 22, Anthony Sadler, 23 are brave and deserve to be long remembered for what they did.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Subway Jared and justice?
Today, reading my facebook page, I came across one of my AFAM friends who was complaining that Jared, of Subway infamy, would serve no more than 12 years for his crimes as opposed to a black youth who was sentenced to 23 years for shooting a police dog. My AFAM friend was vexed at this and of course was raising a ruckus about the injustice of the apparent sentencing disparity. Of course, he blamed the whole thing on white privilege and a thoroughly fouled up justice system.
Some facts are in order. The black youth referenced is Ivins Rosier who was sixteen when he committed a burglary and killed the dog. The dog, was a retired police dog owned by a Florida State Highway Patrolman. Young Mr. Rosier is not a candidate for criminal mastermind. He was on juvenile probation for a previous burglary. As a part of his probation, he was required to wear an ankle monitor and he was on home arrest. He violated his home arrest by leaving to go burglarize the home of Robert Boody, the afore mentioned highway patrolman. Rosier joined up with some friends to do this burglary. When they got to Boody's home, they encountered a cantankerous German Shepard named Drake.
One of Rosier's cohort's shot Drake through a window. That allowed Rosier and his friends to enter the Boody home. Rosier went to the bedroom to look for loot. He didn't find much, but he did find the wounded Drake in the bathroom. Rosier admitted to shooting Drake another time, or two. Local police didn't have much difficulty linking Rosier to the burglary as his GPS equipped ankle monitor put him in the Boody home at the time of the burglary. For full details see this article.
Police obtained a warrant to arrest Rosier on the basis of the ankle monitor report and the burglary report. They arrested Rosier and took him into custody. In the police car, a Palm Beach County Detective engaged in some highly suggestive interrogation that convinced young Rosier that he was facing a long sentence for murder (untrue, Drake a dog doesn't come under the Florida Murder Statute) and that if he just confessed he could continue his high school studies and even go to college. (True only in the sense that Florida does offer education to convicts serving active sentences.) Despite the transparent untruths of what the detective was telling him, Rosier confessed and named his cohorts.
Subsequently, Rosier was waived into adult court. Why? Because he had exhausted juvenile court rehabilitation efforts. Rosier had a long juvenile record and had not been successfully rehabilitated. Thus, he left the juvenile court with no alternative but to waive him into adult court. There, he was convicted and sentenced to 23 years for armed burglary and animal cruelty. Sounds about right to me. Use a gun in the commission of a crime, kill a dog and burglarize a house - you need a long sentence to figure out what is wrong with your life.
Now to Jared Fogle, a creep indeed. Fogle is alleged to have traveled to New York to frequent young prostitutes, Some as young as Sixteen. For more sordid details, see the Indy Star. He allegedly asked one 17 year old prostitute to find him even younger prostitutes. Gross, and disgusting, no doubt. However, New York defines adults as being 16 and older. So, New York's statutory rape law does not apply to the crimes we know about. The worst that can be said of him is he frequented a prostitute. He also, going back to at least 2007 accessed kiddie porn on the internet. Another disgusting crime. Though not one of direct violence like Rosier's. Law enforcement was in something of a bind on Fogle's case. New York didn't have a felony to prosecute him with and lots of New Yorkers frequent prostitutes every day without being arrested. The kiddie porn is clearly a violation of federal and state law in Indiana. So, that's what they are hitting him with and throwing in the interstate travel to frequent a prostitute just to bump up the news factor of the case.
Does Fogle's, admittedly disgusting, crime spree compare with Rosier's? Not really. I think Rosier got a reasonable sentence for using a fire arm in the conduct of a felony. A very bad felony. And, frankly being about as dumb as a criminal can be. Fogle deserves serious prison time too, and he'll get it. Though not as much as Rosier and I can live with that too.
Walt-in-Durham
Some facts are in order. The black youth referenced is Ivins Rosier who was sixteen when he committed a burglary and killed the dog. The dog, was a retired police dog owned by a Florida State Highway Patrolman. Young Mr. Rosier is not a candidate for criminal mastermind. He was on juvenile probation for a previous burglary. As a part of his probation, he was required to wear an ankle monitor and he was on home arrest. He violated his home arrest by leaving to go burglarize the home of Robert Boody, the afore mentioned highway patrolman. Rosier joined up with some friends to do this burglary. When they got to Boody's home, they encountered a cantankerous German Shepard named Drake.
One of Rosier's cohort's shot Drake through a window. That allowed Rosier and his friends to enter the Boody home. Rosier went to the bedroom to look for loot. He didn't find much, but he did find the wounded Drake in the bathroom. Rosier admitted to shooting Drake another time, or two. Local police didn't have much difficulty linking Rosier to the burglary as his GPS equipped ankle monitor put him in the Boody home at the time of the burglary. For full details see this article.
Police obtained a warrant to arrest Rosier on the basis of the ankle monitor report and the burglary report. They arrested Rosier and took him into custody. In the police car, a Palm Beach County Detective engaged in some highly suggestive interrogation that convinced young Rosier that he was facing a long sentence for murder (untrue, Drake a dog doesn't come under the Florida Murder Statute) and that if he just confessed he could continue his high school studies and even go to college. (True only in the sense that Florida does offer education to convicts serving active sentences.) Despite the transparent untruths of what the detective was telling him, Rosier confessed and named his cohorts.
Subsequently, Rosier was waived into adult court. Why? Because he had exhausted juvenile court rehabilitation efforts. Rosier had a long juvenile record and had not been successfully rehabilitated. Thus, he left the juvenile court with no alternative but to waive him into adult court. There, he was convicted and sentenced to 23 years for armed burglary and animal cruelty. Sounds about right to me. Use a gun in the commission of a crime, kill a dog and burglarize a house - you need a long sentence to figure out what is wrong with your life.
Now to Jared Fogle, a creep indeed. Fogle is alleged to have traveled to New York to frequent young prostitutes, Some as young as Sixteen. For more sordid details, see the Indy Star. He allegedly asked one 17 year old prostitute to find him even younger prostitutes. Gross, and disgusting, no doubt. However, New York defines adults as being 16 and older. So, New York's statutory rape law does not apply to the crimes we know about. The worst that can be said of him is he frequented a prostitute. He also, going back to at least 2007 accessed kiddie porn on the internet. Another disgusting crime. Though not one of direct violence like Rosier's. Law enforcement was in something of a bind on Fogle's case. New York didn't have a felony to prosecute him with and lots of New Yorkers frequent prostitutes every day without being arrested. The kiddie porn is clearly a violation of federal and state law in Indiana. So, that's what they are hitting him with and throwing in the interstate travel to frequent a prostitute just to bump up the news factor of the case.
Does Fogle's, admittedly disgusting, crime spree compare with Rosier's? Not really. I think Rosier got a reasonable sentence for using a fire arm in the conduct of a felony. A very bad felony. And, frankly being about as dumb as a criminal can be. Fogle deserves serious prison time too, and he'll get it. Though not as much as Rosier and I can live with that too.
Walt-in-Durham
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