Another police shooting
The headline reads "two in two days," but there's now been four within the city limits within the past 12 days. This one involved Baltimore County police, who tracked a robbery suspect to his probation agent's office and ended up staring down a .50 caliber firearm. Since the shooting took place in the city, BPD detectives will investigate.
Police Commissioner Frederick H. Beaefeld III visited the scene, as he did yesterday when a man was shot by city police in Brooklyn outside a District Courthouse. With the year winding down, the commissioner is getting louder about his frustration with those who carry guns and what he sees as consistent slaps on the wrist by the judicial system. Perhaps he's recalling last New Year's Eve, when the commissioner himself arrested two people who fired guns into the air, only to see them enter plea deals in August that did not require them to serve jail time after Judge Martin P. Welch intervened.
Categories: Breaking news, Police shootings
Comments
Commissioner Bealefeld's frustration is completely understandable. He and the police have been doing an excellent job at reducing crime in Baltimore, and we need the support of the judicial system in getting the miscreants off the streets.
If the judges won't take a more strict stance, then we need to get rid of those judges. It's not only demoralizing to our police, but also to our citizens, when we see serious offenders given lenient sentences, especially since studies have shown that keeping criminals in jail costs far less to society than having them on the street committing crimes of violence.
I hope that citizens will take note of such weak-minded decisions and demand more strict adherence to existing statutes of law by judges who are far too liberal.
Liberal judges should be investigated to see why they let criminals off the hook. Perhaps if our newspapers and media monitors would shine a brighter light on liberal decisions by judges, and ask why, then we would see them making more intelligent decisions.
Posted by: Michael P. Sakowski | December 16, 2009 9:50 AM