The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Crime Is a People Problem

Posted on | December 22, 2013 | 19 Comments

How many times have I said this? A lot: The key to crime prevention is to identify, apprehend and imprison criminals. People who commit serious crimes also usually commit petty crimes, and by the time you actually catch a criminal and convict him on a serious charge, he’s probably already gotten away with numerous minor crimes.

It’s the Al Capone Principle: The infamous mobster was responsible for a vast criminal enterprise, but all they could convict him for was federal tax evasion. OK, fine, lock him up on this relatively minor crime but please, for the love of God, lock him up!

This came to mind as I read the news from New Jersey:

Nearly a week after 30-year-old Hoboken lawyer Dustin Friedland was gunned down in a deadly carjacking while returning to his vehicle in an upper level parking deck of the Mall at Short Hills, police this morning arrested four men on charges of murder.
The four, were identified as Karif Ford, 31, Basim Henry, 32, Kevin Roberts, 35, all of Newark, and Hanif Thompson, 29, of Irvington. All were being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility on $2 million bail each.

 New Jersey resident Mandy Nagy writes:

The four have been charged with murder, felony murder, carjacking, conspiracy, possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, according to FOX News.
Friedland and his wife, Jamie, had returned to their parked 2012 silver Range Rover after an evening of holiday shopping on December 15th.  Friedland had opened the car door for his wife and was said to have been walking behind the vehicle to the other side when he was confronted by several of the alleged carjackers.  After reportedly getting into a scuffle with one of them, Friedland was shot once in the head and later died in a Morristown, NJ hospital.

(The reported “scuffle” — Bruce Friedland resisting the robbers — may well have saved his wife’s life.)

The stolen Range Rover was found the following morning in Newark, NJ. Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said in a press conference today that the crime is believed to have been motivated by the vehicle, according to the Star Ledger.
The state of NJ has been battling carjacking crimes in Essex County. Earlier this summer, a joint NJ state and federal task force launched an anti-carjacking public awareness campaign, aimed in part at warning would-be carjackers of serious consequences for related offenses.

From the Task Force announcement:

Since 2009, more than 200 carjackings have taken place in Essex County, and each year that number continues to climb. . . .
In the 1990s, Essex County led the nation in car theft. With advances in technology, vehicles are better equipped with sophisticated anti-theft devices, making it almost impossible for an amateur to steal an unattended car. As a result, carjackings have been on the rise.
In recent years, there have been more than 400 carjackings in the county. These crimes occur in the early morning hours and late at night.

Again proving my point that crime is a people problem: People who want to steal cars cannot ultimately be deterred by “anti-theft devices,” but will resort to whatever means are necessary to their felonious intentions because they are criminals.

It’s who they are, it’s what they do, and they’re going to keep committing crimes at every opportunity, until you lock them up:

The four thugs accused of savagely killing a young Hoboken lawyer in a New Jersey mall’s parking garage have extensive criminal histories — and one had been released from jail just four days before the slaying. . . .
All four — who face possible life sentences — have rap sheets stretching back years that include multiple burglary and drug counts.
Thompson, who has done more than a dozen stints in the Essex County Jail, was released on Dec. 11 after serving time on a burglary charge.
Roberts has been arrested 13 times on narcotics and weapons offenses.
Both Ford and Henry were sent to prison in 2003 — Ford for burglary and Henry for bank robbery, records show.
Henry finished federal prison time eight months ago for a robbery in which he put a gun to the head of a Union Township bank employee.

So two of the accused carjacking killers had only recently gotten out of the slammer and evidently none of them has ever done anything for a living except deal dope and steal stuff. Career criminals, one and all, and nobody is safe as long as such criminals are on the streets, not even the affluent residents of Short Hills, New Jersey, a community 22 miles west of New York City. The population of Short Hills is 81% white, the median household income is $235,799 and if you’re a criminal from Newark looking for rich people to rob, Short Hills is a target-rich environment.

The irony is that the cops on the Anti-Carjacking Task Force actually know who commits these crimes: Today’s dope bust or burglary suspect is tomorrow’s armed robber or murderer, but our legal system has been perverted by decades of liberal jurisprudence so that courts and cops are required to pretend that crime happens utterly at random and 30-year-old lawyers get shot dead at the shopping mall by criminals who had no business being anywhere near that mall because they should have been behind bars. Our legal system has been hijacked by radical ideologues who apparently believe that criminals have a monopoly on “rights,” but in the immortal words of Inspector Harry Callahan: “Well, I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.”

 

 

(Via Memeorandum with more blog commentary at Weasel Zippers, Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys and Hinterland Gazette.)

 


Category: Crime

Comments

19 Responses to “Crime Is a People Problem”

  1. Shutterbugfun
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 10:07 pm

    RT @rsmccain: In the immortal words of Inspector Harry Callahan: “Well, I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.” http://t.co/eUr0J7r4Bm

  2. Steve Skubinna
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 10:11 pm

    Oh right, blame the criminals for crime.

    How conveeeeenient. Waaaaaaacist!

  3. robcrawford2
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 10:15 pm

    Earlier this summer, a joint NJ state and federal task force launched an anti-carjacking public awareness campaign, aimed in part at warning would-be carjackers of serious consequences for related offenses.

    Gosh, that sure was effective!

  4. robertstacymccain
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 10:16 pm

    Exactly: “Be careful, would-be carjackers — we’re serious this time, you guys!”

  5. DaveO
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 10:41 pm

    At one time, there were hundreds of crimes that rated death by hanging; or being sent to a penal colony such as Georgia. Most of those crimes we, for humanitarian reasons, consider petty: theft, vandalism, non-payment of debt. Each criminal costs the very few tax-paying Americans $25,000 per year. That’s tax money that could be used to start businesses, pay for Junior to get through college without any debt, spend more and save for retirement so as not to burden society with Social Security payments. Considering the brutality and rape culture of prisons (a genuine rape culture, as opposed to feminazi’s latte flavorful word of the day), expanding the death penalty while also reduce the number of laws and regulations may be the best way to go for our society.

  6. DanRiehl
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:11 pm

    RT @prosqtor: @DanRiehl Re: your tweet about the repeat offender in Chicago – see this? http://t.co/tLEgQCGOt1 (or did I get it from you?)

  7. politics_right
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 12:05 am

    RT @rsmccain: In the immortal words of Inspector Harry Callahan: “Well, I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.” http://t.co/eUr0J7r4Bm

  8. DSwenTx
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 12:06 am

    RT @prosqtor: @DanRiehl Re: your tweet about the repeat offender in Chicago – see this? http://t.co/tLEgQCGOt1 (or did I get it from you?)

  9. Adjoran
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 12:40 am

    Jail isn’t much of a deterrent for criminals anymore, either.

    So many states and localities have jails so overcrowded – partly by locking up bad guys, and also by unnecessary “mandatory” sentences for nonviolent offenses – that you have to be a multiple-convicted serious felon before you do much time. They cannot parole those on mandatory sentences, so they release the least violent they can early until the overcrowding meets minimal standards. But then the overcrowding resumes immediately.

    So the car-jacker who doesn’t hurt anybody, even if he brandished a weapon making it “armed robbery,” gets out in a year every time until he does hurt or kill someone.

    It’s easy to say, “build more prisons” but they have to be paid for, and few of those who want to see them built are willing to raise taxes to do it, and those who don’t want them fight any cuts to pay for it.

    There is still one effective method, though: arm yourself, know how to use it, and don’t be afraid to use it if you must.

  10. Steve Skubinna
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 1:33 am

    It works best if delivered by McGruff, the Crime Dog.

  11. regularrightguy
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 2:09 am

    RT @rsmccain: In the immortal words of Inspector Harry Callahan: “Well, I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.” http://t.co/eUr0J7r4Bm

  12. John Bradley
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 4:30 am

    But of course, this being New Jersey, there was blessed little chance of the late Mr. Friedland taking — or being permitted to take — that last bit of advice… thereby saving the nation a reenactment of the whole St. Trayvon of the Blessed Hoodie incident. For the racial harmony.

    Apparently, you’ve got to break a few white lawyer eggs to make whatever sort of hellish omelette our most benevolent * overlords have planned for us.

    —
    * Just ask them!

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  14. New Jersey Crime: Just in time for the Super Bowl… | Batshit Crazy News
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 10:44 am

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  15. rsmccain
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 11:44 am

    ICYMI: Crime Is a People Problem http://t.co/eUr0J7r4Bm #TCOT

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  17. Dana
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 1:02 pm

    Just wait for it: now that the suspects have been identified, we’ll soon be getting the information not only that they all had priors, but that most of them, if not all of them, should still have been in jail for past convictions, but were released early or sentenced leniently.

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  19. thatMrGguy
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:35 pm

    Crime Is a People Problem http://t.co/avamOxx3l6