On Wednesday’s PACOVILLA Corrections blog, Paco posted ‘Non-violent parolee murdered RPD officer as he pleaded for mercy.’ The tragic killing of a Riverside PD officer by a parolee who had been classified as ‘non-violent’ before he was released from prison, resulted in a number of comments.
My comment was:
No one, man or computer, can predict future behavior. Nothing is more non-violent than writing bad checks. But years ago, a bad check writer in Houston became a cold-blooded killer. He was passing through the check out line in a supermarket and attempted to pay for some groceries with a bad check. The telecheck system alerted the checker who called for the manager. At that point the bad check writer pulled out a gun and shot the checker to death. The asshole had no prior arrests for violence on his record.
So in memory of Ryan Bonaminio [the slain officer] and for the sake of other officers and members of the public, get rid of that stupid ‘non-violent’ classification!
One of Paco’s followers, ‘warm ham’, made some insightful observations in his comment. Here is what he said:
Politicians don’t get it, judges don’t get it and unfortunately the majority of the public doesn’t get it. It’s not about who is or is not non-violent, what a criminal’s past history was, or the factors that may indicate future violent behavior. It is about a mindset that criminals have.
Whether a check forger or a murderer, criminals are irresponsible, impulsive, selfish, opportunists. They are cut from the same cloth, all of them.
Those that manage to see the light and change their ways, more power to them, but for the vast majority of criminals, when a situation requires violence you can bet they won’t hesitate.
The politicians & so called "experts" think they have devised a [computer] program that can determine the likelihood a parolee will or will not engage in violence. Time and time again criminals will prove just how naive everyone really is. Problem is it comes at the cost of lives.
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