MUG THE MUGGER

As many of you know by now, a New York mugger punched out a 101 year old lady in the foyer of her appartment building, breaking her cheek bone in the process. He followed that up by punching out an 85 year old lady outside her apartment building. Each robbery netted him less than 40 dollars. MSNBC's Tucker Carlson labeled this thug "the leading candidate for a public flogging."

During the latter half of my 25 years as a criminal justice professor, I concentrated on teaching HUMAN RELATIONS IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. I always advocated the principles of good police work which requires officers, among other things, to refrain from using excessive force druing an arrest, regardless of any provocation on the part of the arrestee.

Years ago, I attended a law enforcement conference in San Francisco. The keynote speaker was a federal official with the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in Washington, D.C. who was formerly a California peace officer. The speaker happened to be black. He started his presentation with the obligatory joke. "In the good old days, 10, 15 years ago, the police were not prejudiced. We just kicked the shit out of everyone."

When I was a cop, did I participate in some ass-kicking arrests? I'm not going to lie about it - sure I did. Did the arrestees deserve to get the shit kicked out of them? You bet they did. Which brings me to the asshole who mugged the two (probably many more) elderly ladies. When he gets caught, his lawyer will plead that this punk was the product of a teenage school dropout's unwanted pregnancy, deprived of a loving family relationship, beaten by several of his alcoholic mother's live-in boyfriends, addicted to drugs, and on top of everything else, a victim of racism.

Well, I'm sorry, but the principles of good police work be damned. In this case the mugger should be mugged. I hope some good old New Yorkers catch this asshole before the police do. Civilians will kick the supreme shit out of him and that is what he most certainly deserves. But, if cops catch this punk first, I hope he is stupid enough to resist arrest.