Street Racing: The carnage continues

[jmatta]

After the driver recovers, they should take him/her out back and shoot 'em.

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by jmatta

After the driver recovers, they should take him/her out back and shoot 'em.

That occured to me also.

[Kirk]

Anything I read like this I only take half seriously. The media has something out for street racing and will sensationalize it whenever they get a chance. The last time I read something in the paper about street racing it said that three people were injured in a street racing accident. In fact it was some drunk that plowed into a crowd of people watching street racing, it wasn't in fact a directly street racing related accident. But it was more interesting to report it as such rather than as a drunk driving accident.

No doubt it's a tragedy as to what happened. The fact is that the baby is dead. Whether or not street racing was actually involved though I would not take as fact.

[Quickurt]

I witnessed a three year old girl going into a life-flight helicopter, after being removed from the carnage of an accident. An officer had to be pulled off from kicking her dead father, laying on the ground.
Cause of accident? High speed police chase on a dead end country road.
Isn't a high speed chase street racing that's legal for one of the participants?

[LoveBunny]

Unfortunately there are, and always will be, a whole buttload of stupid people in this world. Years ago my mom witnessed a woman she knew get killed when she got in the way of two cars racing. My mom watched her take her last breath.

[nefarious986]

Stories like this makes me thank god that he was looking over my shoulder when I was younger. Although nothing as dumb as racing with my new born baby, I can't say I've always been able to resist the urge to do stupid stuff for the momentary thrill. I think that's true for all of us at one time or another.

The guilt / pain of killing your own child would be punishment enough for him. That's a life sentence of personal guilt and trauma on top of whatever jail time criminal charges felony reckless driving carries. No need to take him out back with a shotgun.

That said, if he does it a second time .. I'll help load your gun.

[Brucelee]

Part of maturing is understanding that what you did or are doing is really very stupid. Once you have a child, it is time to get smart pretty quickly.

Obviously, this doesn't happen as much as we would like.

[RandallNeighbour]

Originally Posted by LoveBunny

Unfortunately there are, and always will be, a whole buttload of stupid people in this world.

Never have truer words been typed.

[pteam]

Originally Posted by Quickurt

I witnessed a three year old girl going into a life-flight helicopter, after being removed from the carnage of an accident. An officer had to be pulled off from kicking her dead father, laying on the ground.
Cause of accident? High speed police chase on a dead end country road.
Isn't a high speed chase street racing that's legal for one of the participants?

The officer was kicking the dead father laying on the ground? why?

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by pteam

The officer was kicking the dead father laying on the ground? why?

The officer was upset at what he had done to the little girl.
I was building a house on the road and found out the same cop punched the cop chasing them. The father had kidnapped his daughter from ex-wife. Another custody battle gone fatal. The girl didn't survive.

[FrayAdjacent]

Sounds kinda like the infant was not properly restrained.

But yeah, street racing is STUPID.

[TimAustinW]

Originally Posted by jmatta

After the driver recovers, they should take him/her out back and shoot 'em.

If by "they" you mean his wife, I'm sure she will. This is horrible.

[ChrisZang]

Originally Posted by jmatta

After the driver recovers, they should take him/her out back and shoot 'em.

That's not punishment, that's just revenge. Rather have him life with his guilt for the rest of his life while he stares through the steel bars of his prison cell.

[timothy]

Originally Posted by ChrisZang

That's not punishment, that's just revenge. Rather have him life with his guilt for the rest of his life while he stares through the steel bars of his prison cell.

Annual cost to incarcerate a prisoner is in the range $20,000 - $25,000 (citation). Cost of a single 9mm round is $0.25 including tax (citation). Who are we punishing more, the criminal or the tax payer?

[RandallNeighbour]

Timothy, I clearly see your point (the math is simple) but the human rights issues are far more complex. Do we take someone out and shoot them for being stupid? Where should we draw the line? When they seriously hurt a person or if they kill a person?

I ain't no bleeding heart liberal by any means, but taking them out and shooting them is a slippery slope in and of itself.

Now I've always believed that our prison system should be run a tad more like the Mexico prisons... nasty places you never want to go back to and have nightmares about every day you are there and every day after you leave. Your family must bring you food too or you don't eat much.

And I like the warden (wherever he's located) that put the men in pink jumpsuits and make the work in the fields growing vegetables for 12 hours a day to pay for their incarceration. They live in non air-conditioned tents with no electricity in the fields as well.

Why they don't make prison far worse than it is today I do not understand. I know it's no picnic, but hey, changes could be made to make it far less tolerable and pay for itself.

[timothy]

Randall, don't get me wrong, the bulk of the comment was in jest and intended to raise a economic concern about our current system of locking up someone "for the rest of his life," as ChrisZang put it. I don't advocate capital punishment as routine, regardless of the incarceration costs. But with life in prison costing over 800k (assuming 40 years), I get frustrated by the ever increasing prison population as another group to be supported by Mr and Mrs tax payer. Clearly shooting someone is not the answer but neither is an overcrowded jail system. I like your idea of a jumpsuit and shovel as standard issue. Driving through west Texas I've seen guards on horseback watching over prison work crews. If the courts took that approach with early offenders there may not be so many who return for a second and third stay.

[RandallNeighbour]

I should have wrote initially that I had guessed your response was in jest (well, 80% of it anyway!)

We need serious prison reform in this country. However, constitutional amendments must be drafted and pass congress to really clamp down on the problem or the ACLU will continue to whine on behalf of poorly treated prisoners... who should lose a vast majority of their rights while in prison.

[Quickurt]

I have your prison reform plan, you'll LOVE this!

Anyone can make a mistake. As long as it is not murder or extreme aggravated violence, I would have one sentence - five years.
During those five years there are no possibilities of early release, for any reason. Also, during those five years, you WILL learn a trade, and you will be paid minimum wage for those 80 hour weeks you WILL work at mastering the trade you have chosen. You will, however, have no access to those funds you are earning, other than whatever the alotment is currently to buy cigarettes, coffee, etc. So, when your five years is up, you will have a nest-egg (that has drawn market interest) to set yourself up in a place to live, purchase some sort of transportation and have living expenses while finding a job. You will have NO EXCUSE for returning to a life of crime.
IF the crime is murder, extreme violence or a return offender, you have forfeited your right to exist in our society. Bye-bye.
I see no circumstance in which we (society) owe more to a violent criminal, or one who refuses to accept the rules for remaining in our soiciety, than we (society) owe to ourselves.

[23109VC]

Originally Posted by timothy

Annual cost to incarcerate a prisoner is in the range $20,000 - $25,000 (citation). Cost of a single 9mm round is $0.25 including tax (citation). Who are we punishing more, the criminal or the tax payer?

Screw a 9mm. Just get a .22 for about a penny or two and make sure it's well placed.