"The Tale of Two Felons"

As I have stated before in previous essays and articles, my sympathies are not without conditions. I am not the type of person to feel sorry for another based on their circumstance alone. Addicts, the homeless, criminals, and the average Joe or Jane that lives under a dark cloud, these things alone will not pull at my heart strings or strike a chord with my moral integrity. I want to know the truth, the essence if you will, about their happenstance. What road brought them to where there are? If the effort was poured into them, would they change? Do they even want to change? There is a percentage of people that walk forward blindly in their train of thought and feel that those questions should not matter and God bless them. As for me, I say fuck you very much for weakening our country and making society a worse place to live. I have two examples to put forth which will illustrate my point. I encountered both these criminals on the same night several hours apart. I use the word criminal because that’s what they are. There should be no argument here, no splitting of hairs. Both committed a crime, in one case multiple crimes, and got caught. So please, spare me the presumption of innocents, politically correct crap and let’s start calling things what they are.

           Our first contestant is a nineteen-year-old from the west valley. He has a job cleaning office buildings at night. He lives with his mother and younger brother and has thoughts of going back to school. He has no prior criminal history, not even a moving violation. We initially stopped this young man for having a headlight out on the driver's side of his vehicle, a minor infraction that would have been written up as a fix it ticket. This violation of the law is obviously not the crime of the century. Unfortunately, he was also in possession of marijuana without a medical marijuana card, and that is against the law in Arizona. He was taken into custody and transported to booking where he would wait for the bus to the 4th Avenue jail. This young man was scared, that was evident to me the moment the handcuffs came out. He was concerned about what his mother and brother would think. He was worried about losing the job he has been at for almost a year. He was petrified about spending time in jail.

            This kid was not a hardened criminal. This kid was a scared. A scared kid that was caught doing something stupid that many of us have done. However, tonight was his night to learn a harsh lesson in reality. As he sat there, handcuffed to the bench, I reached out to him and told him to relax. “This is not the end but a new starting point for you my friend.”. He looked at me with a lack of understanding. I explained that he should treat this as a life lesson. To let this event be a catalyst for change. I told him a little about my past and how I didn’t let my indiscretion define me. I gave him a heads up on what he could expect when he arrived at 4th Avenue. I told him to keep his head down, answer yes sir, no sir and most importantly be honest. Pulling someone’s dick down there would get him into a world of hurt. “Above all else, be a man, accept and admit what you’ve done and make amends.”, And a wave of calm washed over him. As the LEO escorted him to the holding tank, I told him to remember what I had said, that I would say a prayer for him and that things would work out.

           Hey, it’s time for contestant number two, Johnny let’s introduce this piece of shit predicate felon. This mastermind of a criminal was initially pulled over for criminal speeding on a surface street. I can’t begin to emphasize how dangerous this infraction can be. Once pulled over, it was evident that he was impaired and in no condition to operate a motor vehicle. Once taken into custody, LEOs inventoried his car, and I'll be damned if a large amount of crystal meth was found along with a digital scale and a loaded firearm. So let's do a quick recap: Driving while impaired, a substantial amount of illegal narcotics with intent to distribute and unlawful possession of a firearm, and the hits just keep on coming. Now my conversation with this upstanding citizen went a little differently than with our first guest on tonight’s show. I asked him I could speak with him for a bit and ask him some questions. He told me to “Fuck myself.” I asked him if that was his final answer to which I got no reply. From that moment on he spoke only in response to the law enforcement officer's questions. I can tell you this; he has spent multiple years in jail as well as prison. At the time of his arrest, he had active warrants for various charges. He is a drug dealer that lived on the east side of town who got caught peddling his poison on the west end of the city.

           What can I say about this scumbag? I know, that's so cliché and rhetorical it's not even funny. As I took my photographs, I filled with anger and complete contempt for our judicial system and the inadequacies that embodied it. This individual does not deserve to walk among civilized society ever again. Unfortunately, the most he could serve is 10-15 years, and that's if he doesn't make a plea arrangement. I feel he should never know the outside world again, locked in the darkest, deepest hole that prison can offer and forgotten. Now I would love to expand on this ideology of thought and my personal views on capital punishment, but that is another story for another day. Know this though, I feel capital punishment laws should need expansion and if you are found guilty by a jury of your peers you will be put to death, humane or not, the sentence should be carried out swiftly with no appeals. Now before anyone gets blood on my lens from their bleeding hearts with a haphazard argument on why capital punishment is wrong, you would do well to remember every murder victim, ever rape and molestation victim, and every victim of a crime perpetrated by a career criminal. Think about the pain and life-shattering consequences that they and their families had to endure and in some cases, relive every day.

           I would like to think that a reasonable person can see the distinct differences between these two individuals. For the first person, I do have a realistic hope and belief that he will go on to bigger and better things with his life. There was a genuine remorse for what he had done and a sincere desire not to be back. You could visibly see the shame he had and the worry for the heartbreak he would cause his mother. This person I would back and support on the road to redemption. He may not become a thoracic surgeon, but the world needs good retail managers, tradesmen and even custodians who take pride in their work. For the second individual, well I won’t attempt to disguise my feelings anger, disgust and hatred toward him nor will I apologize for them. I would love to see his mouth opened on a curb with a boot heel not far behind. A righteous act of retribution for the pain and suffering he has inflicted upon others over the course of his criminal career. It’s that simple, end of story. Because what the world doesn’t need is individuals like him. He is a predator that should be eradicated from the bosom of our societal culture. That would be chapter two on Social Darwinism.