<p>I am amused that edvest ignored my post, probably deciding that in retrospect it would be a losing battle to fight… I never thought I’d see the day where someone said Europe was less liberal than America.</p>
<p>OK so it appears that there have been some equalities in Jena. But as usual, people on this forum who live in comfy places with comfy incomes are ignoring that there are far bigger problems with crime that also include not punishing people who commit felonies. Where is the outrage for the inequality for innocent people who live in dangerous areas and are subject to crime that never gets punished?</p>
<p>This case is a nice safe little harbor for armchair citizens who I think probably don’t venture from picturesque town and suburbs and see what the larger problems are with crime in this country. Move on! This case is getting attention. Now go into the cities and help residents who live in fear of criminals! That is the inequity!</p>
<p>Collegialmom, as I said in an earlier post my husband is a criminal defense attorney and has been for thirty years including all of the 25 years I have know him. He does it because he is committed to the judicial process established by the country’s founding fathers. He is appointed and paid by the state and in our state’s case the legislature went on summer break failing to authorize payment to the attorneys who do this work. I have been on the receiving end of threatening letters from the mortgage company and the utilities because we have been unable to pay our bills because the state has not paid my husband. We have to have our phone unlisted out of fear that one of my husband’s more violent clients might be unhappy with his “representation”. So I don’t think you can accuse me of having an armchair perspective on the issue of the criminal justice system in America. I have, also, seen how my husband’s zealous advocacy for clients has helped them turn their lives around and become productive members of our society. I am not saying that we should open the doors of the prisons and let everybody back out on the streets. I am suggesting that imprisonment is a back-end solution and that we as a society would be better served if we put greater emphasis on the front end.</p>
<p>Hey…I live in Houston for pete’s sake. 
</p>
<p>But more importantly, even if I have never been the victim of crime (I have…attempted sexual assault by a stranger at age 20 and victim of a ‘kick burglerer’ during broad daylight at age 29) and even if I haven’t lived in crime-ridden areas (Valley born and raised, people), I would still think I have the right to an opinion and that perhaps that opinion might be of value.</p>
<h2>And while on the topic of judicial inequity…go figure this one out…</h2>
<p>Sept. 27, 2007, 7:08AM
Pasadena officer guilty in road rage incident
By ROBERT CROWE from the Houston Chronicle </p>
<p>A jury found Pasadena Police Officer Marcus Justin Kacz guilty of deadly conduct when he shot his gun at a man in a road rage incident while off duty in March.</p>
<p>Harris County Court at Law No. 1 visiting Judge Jim Larkin on Wednesday sentenced Kacz to 18 months probation for the Class A misdemeanor. He will have to pay a $400 fine, attend anger management classes, do community service and undergo random urine tests.</p>
<p>“I think you made a big mistake and showed bad judgment,” Larkin said.</p>
<p>Kacz, 26, was in civilian clothes when he chased a driver who cut him off about 2 a.m. on Beltway 8 at Spencer, said prosecutor Joe Owmby.</p>
<p>When the driver stopped at a light, Kacz got out of his Nissan pickup and tapped his gun on the sideview mirror, then chased the sport utility vehicle to an apartment complex, where he fired the gun at least three times at a passenger.</p>
<p>Defense attorney Greg Cagle argued that Kacz followed the SUV because the driver was running red lights and driving dangerously.</p>
<p>“I’m disappointed with the verdict,” Cagle said, “but he’s a young, smart guy and we’ll appeal it.”</p>
<p>Pasadena Sgt. W. J. Fojt testified that it is against Pasadena Police Department policy for off-duty officers to pursue suspects. Fojt said investigators never asked Kacz to do a field sobriety test although he smelled of alcohol.</p>
<p>“The evidence was against him,” said Michael Dannenbaum, jury foreman. “He did not discharge the firearm to protect himself, and Pasadena’s policy prohibits off-duty officers from pursuing chases.”</p>
<p>Kacz is at least the fourth Pasadena officer prosecuted criminally since last year. His conviction comes at a time when Pasadena officers Jason W. Buckaloo and Christopher S. Jones are under investigation for their role in the July 21 homicide of Pedro Gonzales Jr.</p>
<p>From a recently US Census report:</p>
<p>WASHINGTON --More than three times as many black people live in prison cells as in college dorms, the government said in a report to be released Thursday.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/09/27/census_study_eyes_blacks_in_prison/[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/09/27/census_study_eyes_blacks_in_prison/</a></p>
<p>Unsoccermom, so what? One might argue that a certain minority group has proclivity toward a life of crime, or that it doesn’t like to go to college?</p>
<p>Also this from Collegialmom,</p>
<p>“How about factoring in the incredible number of guilty people walking around free…”. That’s why I personally think a liberal mind is a warp mind. Typically, they point to some bizzare,out of the way exception then say the rule of law or common sense doesn’t apply. </p>
<p>We have criminals walking free because we couldn’t catch them all.
What’s your point Collegialmom, since we have walking guilty men, then we should just stop catching criminals, or release everyone from prison?</p>
<p>apology to Collegialmom,</p>
<p>you had substance to say, it was just you started your paragraph in typical liberal counter argument fashion and I jumped.</p>
<p>again…edvest. This isn’t about politics…liberal or conservative. I’m from a family full of Republicans and have voted for Republican candidates my whole life. </p>
<p>But something is wrong with the judicial picture in this country when an off-duty cop can chase another driver down a highway for merely cutting him off and shoot AT them three times…and that cop is charged with a misdeanor and gets 18 months probation…while one state over, a black minor assaults a white minor after months of provocation that IS a mitigating circumstance and that minor is charged as an adult with felony attempted murder. As the kids say…this is just ‘messed up’.</p>
<p>Edvest1 says: “Unsoccermom, so what? One might argue that a certain minority group has proclivity toward a life of crime, or that it doesn’t like to go to college?”</p>
<p>Sorry, Edvest1. I guess I missed the the genetics class where they taught that certain ethnic types are superior and certain others are inferior. I am beginning to think I’ve been ■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>Well, the 6 were just released. Now we get to listen to Rev. Al Sharpton. Is that our punishment? ;)</p>
<p>The authorities caved in to pressure :-(</p>
<p>unsoccermom, I posted that as a question, not a statement. I take my hats off to any minority who worked hard and realized the American dream. I am against people of any ethnicity who don’t help themselves.</p>
<p>jym…I think if we lock Al in a room with the Jena DA for a few days, they’ll both be adequately and appropriately punished…lol!! After all, let the punishment fit the crime… ;)</p>
<p>edvest: Yes, maybe black people have a proclivity for violence; I’m not going to argue about that, because I think it’s a debate that can never be civil or lead to useful conclusions.</p>
<p>However, it’s clear that blacks have worse outcomes in the justice system. For example, the average black person who is convicted of aggravated assault spends one third more time in jail than a white person convicted of the same crime, and a black person who is arrested is 3 times as likely to go to jail as a white person convicted of the same crime. How do you write those off to proclivity for committing crime?</p>
<p>
There are some extraneous factors that might come into play in this statistic - is the stat derived in the same geographical location (i.e. comparing the races only within the same Southern state, etc.) and does it normalize for previous convictions on the part of the defendant? Given that, there’s little doubt among most that a jury’s biases come into play in the verdict and if the jury happens to biased against a race, one’s race will affect a verdict (depending on each individual on the jury). </p>
<p>
I don’t think the color of one’s skin gives them a proclivity for violence but I do think that the general economic group a person is in has an influence. If there’s a greater number of a particular race in the bottom economic group I’d expect a roughly corresponding infraction rate - especially when it’s multi-generational.</p>
<p>
I agree. Any fellow conservative worth their salt is staunchly against racism of any kind.</p>
<p>“I don’t think the color of one’s skin gives them a proclivity for violence but I do think that the general economic group a person is in has an influence.”</p>
<hr>
<p>Absolutely. Take ANY person, strip them of opportunity and hope to the point of desperation, and you will get the same thing. Skin color or ethnicity means nothing. </p>
<p>And btw…edvest…the whole idea of poor minorities ‘trying a little harder’ being the solution to their problems is a bit disingenuous. Some of the poorest, most disadvantaged folks I know just kill themselves ‘trying’ to better their lives. Face it, our society doesn’t reward effort equally any more than it doles out punishment equally.</p>
<p>Idmom06, you made it sounds like there’s a concerted effort to “strip them of opportunity”. Quite the contrary is true. I have seen in the words of your chief debater that “general society welcome minorities with open arms when they show some strive to move ahead”, something to that effect. Lately, I have seen so many success stories from Southeast Asian refugees who came here with nothing and not speaking English. And this success stories is repeated with many other immigrant groups. Nothing disingenuous about that.</p>
<p>“…so what? One might argue that a certain minority group has proclivity toward a life of crime, or that it doesn’t like to go to college?”</p>
<p>Now why am I not surprised that it was Evest who made that statement:rolleyes:</p>
<p>“Lately, I have seen so many success stories from Southeast Asian refugees who came here with nothing and not speaking English. And this success stories is repeated with many other immigrant groups. Nothing disingenuous about that.”</p>
<p>That’s right. And as a group, some of the most successful immigrants in the country are the ones from Africa. Go firgure…</p>
<p>the sherriff said we should be thankful to god that the protests in Jena were peaceful</p>
<p>gee, not thank the people protesting for being peaceful, as if they had no part in being sure it was calm</p>
<p>what a jerk</p>