It's absoluetly disgusting what people get away with here. It's obvious that the punishments handed out these days are not deterrents to others thinking of committing the same crime. If anything its like hanging out the welcome sign.

Many will have heard me mention this before, but I lived for a while in a country that is known for it's quick and harsh justice of criminals-China. We can whine all we want about the human rights violations but, honestly, it seems to be working. I lived in a city with 14 million people, that makes NYC look like a small village. It had almost all the same problems of a typical big US city: overcrowding, poverty, income disparity, etc. What it didn't have was violent crime. Even though I, a white, rich (by comparison), foriegner stuck out like a sore thumb, I could walk down any back alley, at any time of the day, and never fear for my personal safety. I'm sure some of it was cultural but I can't help but believe that the fact that everyone knows that if they commit a violent crime they will be faced with quick and harsh, often permanent, justice.

All the loopholes that allow criminals to get off the hook are even worse. The worst case I ever heard was from quite a while back so I don't remember all the details. What I do remember was that in some Midwestern area there was a serial killer on the loose. One day a cop pulls over a guy for something like a broken tail light and then demands to search the car. He ends up finding a bunch of arms and legs, not attached to their owners, in the trunk. Yeah, the serial killer has been caught. Unfortunately they had no other hard evidence against the guy and the search was detremined to be illegal because the cop didn't have probable cause. They had to let the guy go. Of course they knew who the guy was and were able to build another case against him eventually but not before he killed again. It's disgusting that so much is done to protect criminals rights but not the victims.