8 years in State Prison

[marksiwel]

How many of you remember Michael Fay? He was a teenage punk who went on a graffiti crime spree in Singapore in the early ninety's. He got caught and was sentenced to 6 lashes with a cane. The American public freaked out by the horror.
Personally, I think that is a lot better an option than prison. Take the kid out and cane him publicly. If you put him in prison, the taxpayers support him for however long he is in there. If you whip the tar out him publicly, he can then go home, clean up his act, and get on with his life. I am willing to bet that a return to crime will be much less likely. Oh yeah, make him clean up his graffiti mess too.

I would be good with that

[Lodge2004]

When my Mother, bless her heart, answered my one call from the 'pokey', she hung up the phone. Not that I grew up as a model citizen but, I ain't been in jail since. I think that's sometimes referred to as, "lessons learned".

My mom placed a call to my brother, who came by in his patrol car from an adjacent jurisdiction to take me home. The ride home was not a pleasant experience.

There is a place for public humiliation, being ostracized by society, physical punishment, etc...Unfortunately, we just warehouse people today because it's easier and less risky.

[Zee]

How many of you remember Michael Fay? He was a teenage punk who went on a graffiti crime spree in Singapore in the early ninety's. He got caught and was sentenced to 6 lashes with a cane. The American public freaked out by the horror.
Personally, I think that is a lot better an option than prison. Take the kid out and cane him publicly. If you put him in prison, the taxpayers support him for however long he is in there. If you whip the tar out him publicly, he can then go home, clean up his act, and get on with his life. I am willing to bet that a return to crime will be much less likely. Oh yeah, make him clean up his graffiti mess too.

I remember this case. I think the public outcry got a reduction in lashes, not a free walk. I also remember the US public thinking overall he needed a good thrashing. I assume he got one.

For data purposes it would be good to call this fellow and ask if his graffiti habit has risen, lessened, or remained about the same.

[marksiwel]

An Update
http://rawstory.com/2009/2009/12/eight- ... -graffiti/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A Texas teenager who was sentenced to eight years in prison for graffiti and marijuana possession has had his sentence reduced under new state legal guidelines.

Corpus Christi Judge Marisela Saldana sentenced 18-year-old Sebastian Perez to eight years in prison last week for three counts of graffiti and one count of marijuana possession, giving Perez the maximum two-year sentence for each charge. Both crimes are felonies under Texas law.

But a new law that took effect in the state this fall means judges can no longer "stack" consecutive sentences in cases like Perez's, and on Friday Perez had his sentence reduced to two years, according to KIII-TV in Corpus Christi.

yep, you shouldnt be able to stack cases like this, hopefully this "wise Latina'" judge will get whats coming to her

[joe817]

hopefully this "wise Latina'" judge will get whats coming to her

I agree! Re-election!

[The Annoyed Man]

For four felony convictions eight years seems about right. Did you see the crockagator tears? I if more judges would throw the book at criminals and there were less slap of the wrist sentences there would be fewer career criminals on the street because they'd be locked away where they belong. I applaud the judge, agenda or not, for being tough. It will probably be overturned on appeal by some bleeding heart.

8 years WITHOUT Parole, 8 years with the option of parole sounds better to me. Throwing a minor trouble maker into State prison isnt going to do him anygood when he gets out. 10 years from now I bet they are taking him down for REAL Crimes with his Prison homies

Mark, it seems as if the difference of opinion you're seeing here is because you don't view tagging as a "real" crime. My answer... have you been tagged? Repeatedly? Have you had to cover the cost of undoing the tagging? Repeatedly? To you, maybe it's only a nuisance. But to the person who has to repeatedly invest actual financial resources, actual labor, and actual time into undoing what a tagger has done, it is an expensive destruction of property, and it also diminishes the value of the owner's property, which affects the owner's future financial prospects. In this case, you are also dealing with a repeat offender; and an offender who, if not dealt with harshly, would likely continue to destroy the property of others.

You've gotten some negative response because you seem to care more about what will happen to this criminal than you care about the rights of those whose properties were affected. Justice should never be comparative. By that, I mean that legal retribution ought not be based entirely on precedent. Precedent can be a guide, but it ought not be the final arbiter because the fact that perpetrator A got a lighter sentence than perpetrator B may be due to extenuating circumstances which do not apply to perpetrator B. What you have in an increasingly permissive society and an increasingly coarsening culture is a judge who finally said, "Enough! THIS is the place where we are going to begin reversing the trend of lawlessness we brought upon ourselves." The facts are that this young man is a serial destroyer of property. That it is his unlucky day to be the one the judge chose to draw a line in the sand with is merely incidental. It needed to happen to somebody. He's the one.

Now if we can just apply the same standard to rapists, wife-beaters, child-molesters, armed robbers, etc., etc.

I'm just sayin'...

[marksiwel]

I was more upset with the Judge wrongly giving 8 years for a 2 year crime.
the state backed me up on this one

[marksiwel]

What you have in an increasingly permissive society and an increasingly coarsening culture is a judge who finally said, "Enough! THIS is the place where we are going to begin reversing the trend of lawlessness we brought upon ourselves." The facts are that this young man is a serial destroyer of property. That it is his unlucky day to be the one the judge chose to draw a line in the sand with is merely incidental. It needed to happen to somebody. He's the one.

Now if we can just apply the same standard to rapists, wife-beaters, child-molesters, armed robbers, etc., etc.

I'm just sayin'...

So you support "activist judges"? the judge was wrong in her ruling, I posted information that backed me up, the state agreed with me.

I more than understand the toll taggers take on people, but like I said, "8 years in How to be a Criminal 101" aka State Jail turns out worse things than Taggers.

[Crossfire]

Mark - I believe you fully expressed your views about 3 pages back in this thread. Continuing to do so is just being argumentative. We know how you feel. You have heard how the others feel. How about we just let it go now?

[The Annoyed Man]

I'm willing to let it go. The old "activist judges" canard that progressives throw out there is funny and disingenuous in one fell swoop.

I'm going to start a humorous thread about arguing with progressives.

[DONT TREAD ON ME]

Mark - I believe you fully expressed your views about 3 pages back in this thread. Continuing to do so is just being argumentative. We know how you feel. You have heard how the others feel. How about we just let it go now?

this is just getting old now...kinda like the $50 firearm tax we will have to pay in 2008, 2009, 2010...

[MasterofFajitas]

http://www.kiiitv.com/news/local/79310347.html

8 years in jail for graffiti charges?! without Parole!

How is this helping the community by turning this kid into a Career Criminal?
We should lock up the people we are afraid of, not the people we are MAD at.

What a waste of a judge, she's a democrat too (what do you expect?)

I live in Corpus and graffiti is a major problem and as Barney Fife said, "Nip it! Nip it! Nip it!"! BTW, my neighbor's new BMW was spraypainted the other night as was every house on the block two streets over.

Tagging is so much a problem that the city has a full-time graffiti removal crew riding around every day in a high dollar paint removal truck funded by taxpayers...while the owner of private property has only a few days to remove the graffiti before being cited by the city and fined.

I'm 100% in support of this particular judge as she WILL take action as opposed to others here in town that let taggers go with a $150.00 fine. Enough is enough I say.

[marksiwel]

http://www.kiiitv.com/news/local/79310347.html

8 years in jail for graffiti charges?! without Parole!

How is this helping the community by turning this kid into a Career Criminal?
We should lock up the people we are afraid of, not the people we are MAD at.

What a waste of a judge, she's a democrat too (what do you expect?)

I live in Corpus and graffiti is a major problem and as Barney Fife said, "Nip it! Nip it! Nip it!"! BTW, my neighbor's new BMW was spraypainted the other night as was every house on the block two streets over.

Tagging is so much a problem that the city has a full-time graffiti removal crew riding around every day in a high dollar paint removal truck funded by taxpayers...while the owner of private property has only a few days to remove the graffiti before being cited by the city and fined.

I'm 100% in support of this particular judge as she WILL take action as opposed to others here in town that let taggers go with a $150.00 fine. Enough is enough I say. As Barney Fife said, "Nip it! Nip it! Nip it!"!

Action that the states deems wrong, why is this thread not locked?