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| When speaking in gibberish and supporting meaningless, ridiculous folly--Austin Powers (here above in disguise with better teeth) likes to say "Groovy Baby!!" But I doubt even Austin Powers would push this ACLU resolution... |
Sometimes politics is absurd. Take, for example, the "direct file" resolution I voted against but that the Board just voted to approve dealing with criminal justice reform for juveniles.
We have no business in this matter, we're attempting to operate outside of our arena, this is not an issue we have power to change, yet we were given a resolution to support that essentially pits us against the State Attorney; essentially, this resolution tells our legislators that they need to fix a non-existent issue and simultaneously tells our local State Attorney "you need more oversight, we don't trust you, we don't want you to have individual discretion in sending violent, abusive, and DANGEROUS 16 and 17 year old perpetrators to face justice in the adult system."
Why would we want to punch our own prosecutor in the face? It is reckless stupidity for no good reason, so far as I'm concerned. It is counterproductive. Let Judges do what they do, and let prosecutors do what they do, and stay out of their way.
Although approved on a 3-2 vote last night (despite my NO vote and significant disagreement), this resolution will go to Tallahassee.
And from there, if I had to make a good guess, it will go from our legislative delegations' desks, right into the trash heap or paper shredder; Do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars, right to the rubbish heap.
The legislature is NOT going to pass this ACLU supported Democrats sponsored SB 936. (It's not moving in committee, has been referred to rules, and does not even have a companion bill in the house so far as I can tell.) Does anyone believe Richard Corcoran would EVER allow this to go through the House??!!??
So we burn our political capital with our delegation by engaging in this feckless Kabuki theater, sending them this resolution purporting to be a "solution" not supported by judges, conservatives, or the State Attorneyto a problem that the legislature has already stated does no exist in their opinion.??
We ignore the reality of the records of the last 20 Direct Files in our county, so we can feel good, slap ourselves on the back, and curry favor with and pander to a group of folks on the extreme left of the political spectrum, although we live in a conservative county?
What an absurd, ridiculous thing to do. Borderline embarrassing.....I hope this is/was a one-off.
4 comments:
watched the video. I think you are correct. Have never heard someone talk so much and say nothing. Playing to the crowd and someone else must be trying to keep their voting block intact also, or living in a bubble. I could see your frustration, it makes no sense to undermine or erode our justice system further. There is a severe problem in Escambia County with crime and juvenile crime. Hopefully this letter of support has no effect on the legislature. Talk about baffling with BS...
When emotions are mixed with ideological "firm-fixed" opinions and positions and then a political objective is added to the mix, you end up seeing an outcome not unlike what we witnessed with this meeting. Bottom Line: The current system works, it is not broken, yet we are attempting to insert ourselves into this arena via this resolution that is meaningless and will not be helpful nor will it even be effective. SB 936 is dead, going nowhere...This is tantamount to Wichita State scoring a Field Goal in the final seconds of the fourth quarter when the Alabama Crimson tide is already ahead 56-0. Imagine that, you kick a field goal and score 3 points for a lost cause and then, like a foolish moron, you celebrate and do flying chest-bumps like Milli Vanilli in the middle of the field as if you have actually accomplished something. Ridiculous, absurd and naive and counterproductive to boot. That's all this was.
Brilliant, had to laugh. At least you know you can still write your own letter also. Thanks for the data, links and sense of humor yet stubborn stance. I'm a fan!
Keep em coming!
I believe this may be one of those circumstances where the minority vote of the Board might have represented the majority of Escambia County citizens? While generalizations are usually counterproductive, I believe it is safe to assert that most of the direct filed juvenile offenders housed in adult jails are hardened criminals who have had multiple second chances and are already adept, and at a rather "synthetic" level of knowledge, at manipulating the system. They might be "lost causes", but to say the system works is somewhat of a misnomer.
Okay, the system functions as it is, and perhaps that so called "PC majority" can cherry pick a few cases where the direct filed offender might have been robbed of a rehabilitation chance after his or her 5th or 6th second chance. Fact/opinion is that most of them who have reached this point were already lost in the juvenile system, which is attempting at acting as a substitute for good parenting. Yes, the long lost role of parenting. I can say all stakeholders involved here would agree the foundation of this problem originates with a lack of "parenting." Well, theres the problem; how do we fix it?
Fact is nothing here is really working as it should. If one thinks that sending all these "direct files" into an adult world of state prison sentences and a future life as a "full fledged convict" will assure us that we, as a local society, will no longer have to deal with their actions, then I can easily assert to them that the belief is sadly naïve; plus every stake holder here is trying to move (dump) the expenses of housing/responsibility of the offenders...... somewhere else.
A few years ago there was a move in this State to absorb the responsibilities of housing juvenile offenders away from DJJ to the Sheriffs. Our Sheriff looked at the prospect too, but the idea didn't progress beyond a few meetings. I know Polk and Marion County did this. Examination of their operations ( as pioneers in this) revealed several programs that seemed to have good results in diversion; in other words turning the would be juvenile offender around before he or she gets trapped in the "system". Again a substitute for bad parenting, but so far, fixing bad parenting issues seems to fall on the rest us in society anyway. One of those programs is Marion County's W.I.L.A program. I wont describe it here (lengthy), but details are easily searchable.
One might notice, when researching this topic, that there seems to be an atmosphere of collaboration in dealing with this issue between the stakeholders in that venue. The BOCC. Sheriff, and School Board seem to be all on the same team. Combating complex social problems, such as juvenile crime would seem to demand that type of cooperation, mutual respect and pooling of resources to really succeed and deliver for the citizens, and not just to continue functioning in a seemingly downward entropic spiral of "functional inadequacies" regarding the issues of juvenile offenders.
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