by Diane on February 7, 2011
America Locks Up Children Forever
Quick, a question: What does the United States of America have in common with the African nation of Somalia?
Answer: They are the only countries to refuse to sign Article 37 of the 1989 UN document entitled, “Rights of the Child.”
What’s that mean? Translated, it means America stands shoulder-to -shoulder with a primitive east African nation in routinely refusing to acknowledge the rights of children. And, America is also the only known nation in the world that allows children under the age of 18 to be tried as adults and sentenced to prison forever – with absolutely no chance for parole. In a majority of U.S. cases the child is charged with murder but sometimes they have simply been in the company of someone else who committed murder.
Hey, wait a minute! [click to continue…]
by Diane on January 31, 2011
State of President Obama's Union, 2011
One of the primary functions of government is to keep us safe – not only from foreign enemies but from fellow citizens who’ve turned to crime. We function best when we feel safe and secure in the world. It allows us to unlock our creative minds, produce more and better work and give back to society in the most positive ways.
So, as I watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech I listened carefully for what he would say that would address American’s concerns about crime and justice and help us feel safer. After all, consider recent events. Shortly before the speech, in states across the nation, eleven police officers had been killed in the line of duty in a 24 period. And the country is still reeling from the shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona that left 6 people dead and 14 wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
I was disappointed with the speech. [click to continue…]
by Diane on January 24, 2011
Mom takes me to Sunday School
Let’s just say my long ago Sunday School lessons often went in one ear and out the other. But one passage from Matthew 6:3 always stuck with me, “…When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing…”
I remember that saying confused me as a child. How could a part of your body not know what another part was doing?
As I got older I began to interpret the passage to mean when you give to those less fortunate do it quietly and with humility. To brag about your charity negates it somehow.
Every New Year I try to think of something more I can do to give back to the crime and justice community that fascinates me so. Almost always it comes around to what can be done for the most innocent victims – children – who through no action of their own are thrown into lifelong turmoil by the adults in their lives.
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by Diane on January 17, 2011
Tucson's Dead: Christina Taylor-Green, Dorothy Morris, Judge John Roll, Phyllis Schneck, Dorwin Stoddard, Gabe Zimmerman
Now what?
After the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona – 6 dead including a federal judge and 14 shot including a congresswoman left as a national martyr, a symbol of the evil people are capable of heaping on each other – now what do we do as a nation?
We’ve lived through more than a week of people throwing barbs tinged with poisonous political rhetoric at each other (Republican rantings made the gunman snap! No, it was the Tea Party! It was intolerant liberal politics that made him pull the trigger!) and now that the initial vomiting of invectives is over, can we please just take a breath?
We need to not be distracted from solving crimes and figuring out what drives people to mass murder.
Let’s logically look at the facts surrounding the history of 22 year old Jared Loughner and ignore those who would use this terrible calamity to advance their own political agendas. Examine what happened in Tucson on January 8th as a detective would who’s investigating a crime cops call Rampage Murder. [click to continue…]
by Diane on January 10, 2011
Jaime and Gladys Scott Breathing Free Air Again
Over the years there have been torrents of tears, rejected legal appeals, heartfelt rallies and now after nearly 17 long years there is finally clemency for Gladys and Jamie Scott. It’s a case that has had injustice written all over it from the get go.
The Scott sister’s 1994 conviction came on a crime they insist they played no part in – an armed robbery in which no one was hurt and about eleven dollars was stolen. Testimony at trial was completely contradictory and in later years witnesses admitted they’d committed perjury.
On Friday, January 7th, 2011 Gladys and Jamie jubilantly left the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility yelling, “We’re free!” and “God bless y’all!” They moved immediately to Pensacola, Florida to start their new lives. [click to continue…]
by Diane on January 3, 2011
Thinking of Ways to Make a Safer and More Just World
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the commandment to “Love Thy Neighbor as Yourself” was the only law we needed?
Strictly adhered to that would be enough to curb crime in a big way. There would be no murder, assault, fraud, burglary … well, you get my drift.
But as this New Year dawns we all understand that we’re way past biblical pronouncement at this point. Today society must have laws and rules and regulations. But I often heave a big sigh and wish they worked better to get crime under control!
In years past I’ve used this first column of each New Year to list my wishes for the crime and justice system. For 2011 the list is pretty simple … [click to continue…]
by Diane on December 27, 2010
A Gift for All - Immigration Reform
Everyone – especially young people – wants that one special gift for Christmas. Well, this year there’s a group of kids that will remember the holiday as disappointing after the sins of their parents came back to haunt them. All these kids really wanted for Christmas was a helping hand onto the road to U.S. citizenship.
Their parents brought them to this country illegally, some of them as tiny infants, and although raised here in the United States of America – knowing loyalty to no other country but this one – they’ve been told their American dream stops now.
Our procrastinating Congress ended the first half of its 111th session by once again failing to pass the so-called Dream Act. The act could have become the first brave and concrete step on the arduous road to immigration reform. [click to continue…]
by Diane on December 20, 2010
Marijuana as Cure - Not Crime
In November 2007 Steele Smith and his wife Theresa were arrested by federal DEA agents in Orange County, California for cultivating and selling marijuana. But the Smith’s aren’t your run of the mill drug dealers and the federal government has left them in legal limbo ever since.
The backstory: In the summer of 2001 Steele was a successful self-employed marketing man who was felled by a gut-wrenching mystery illness. He couldn’t eat and quickly dropped forty pounds from his already thin 6 foot 7 inch frame. His doctors were stymied about what caused the debilitating condition. After four excruciating months a rare-disease specialist diagnosed a condition called Zollinger-Ellison syndrome which pockmarks a victim’s upper gastrointestinal tract with multiple, painful ulcers. Morphine was prescribed for Steele’s constant pain and he lived in that legally induced drug dependent state for the next three years eventually becoming an opiate addict.
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by Diane on December 13, 2010
Computer as Weapon: Takes Your Thoughts - Reveals Your Secrets
How many times do we have to be told!? When you write an e-mail or send a text message (or photo) it lives on in cyberspace and could easily come back to haunt you in a big, bad way.
I know that texting on your own cell phone or sitting at your personal computer, writing down your thoughts, then hitting the “send” button may feel like a private activity but it’s actually one of the most public activities you can do. Once your communication hits the digital super-highway it is full speed ahead into immortality.
This lesson was shoved in our face again this week with yet another disgorgement of classified U.S. documents at the internet site WikiLeaks. [click to continue…]
by Diane on December 6, 2010
How Many Brides Gets You Arrested?
Laws are laws. You follow them and there’s no problem. You break the law and you’ll likely go to jail. Well…not so fast. Some laws are selectively enforced even after a suspect admits felonious wrongdoings on national television. A prime example concerns the state of Utah and its law against polygamy.
Even though Utah has one of the broadest laws against plural marriage, there are more than 20 thousand mostly secretive polygamist households tucked away in enclaves all over the sparsely populated state. Some are disheveled, disorganized compounds with poor sanitation, access to stores, health care and organized education. Other polygamists maintain their lifestyle in well heeled homes with plenty of amenities. [click to continue…]
