Legal Issues | Whada we think | What do you think?

Not Only Am I Pro – Death Penalty, I’m Anti – Lethal Injection Because It’s Not Harsh Enough

April 29th, 2013 by Michael Tabor

Can anyone think of a better way to exit this life than to have a great meal, lie down, go to sleep and pass away without pain or any sense of awareness? I have known the most wonderful, law – abiding human beings agonizingly suffer for years with cancer and yet knowing this our society or some people still find the putting to death of sociopathic murdering fiends to be inhumane. A disclaimer, let me be clear here, yes I am pro death penalty but we must be absolutely 100% certain that we have the right guy. If there is even a scintilla of doubt, we should commute the sentence until we know for sure.

Quite frankly, I think for a monster like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , one of the the 2 Boston Marathon killers, lethal injection is not punishment enough. This sicko’s malicious and cowardly act killed 3 people and injured 264. I would not object at all if we meted out punishment that bordered on cruel and unusual i.e let him stew in an 8’ by 10’ or rather 6’ by 8’ cage and then electrocute him rather than the usual lethal injection because I think the former is painful & more befitting to the heinous crime he committed.
People know me as a liberal which I proudly acknowledge but my motto is that All Life is precious and each and every one of us is uniquely special, so if some twisted fiend elects to terminate a special, precious, and unique human being, then he, she or rather it must be put down !!!

So Whadayathink ? What do you think ? Some of my very good liberal friends disagree with me on this issue and are somewhat surprised that I hold this view but I am always pro – victim; you take a life then we as a society have a right to protect ourselves. Another objection I hear is that capital punishment is not a deterrent, which I concur, but these anti – death penalty folks are missing the point.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Crime, Current Events, Legal Issues | 1 Comment »

Isn’t it About Time That We Legalize Marijuana???

March 13th, 2013 by Michael Tabor

My body chemistry doesn’t react favorably to the ingestion of weed, I get paranoid, so I don’t smoke it; however marijuana is in fact less dangerous than most drugs including the legal ones – tobacco and alcohol. I don’t like it but that’s me, others however love it and don’t abuse the substance … so let’s decriminalize, regulate and tax the stuff already. For most users, marijuana is no less of an issue than having a glass of wine with dinner; one would be shocked to learn the number of fashionable, cultured, and very high – functioning high society folks who enjoy a little innocuous weed now and then.

There is not a whole lot of downside (pot has been labeled a gateway drug to more dangerous ones – which is certainly debatable) and a plethora of upside. The first and most obvious benefit is the economics of it all: 1. This country will save around 7.7 billion $$ on eliminating the enforcement of the illegal drug status 2. The other awesome benefit if mary jane is regulated, decriminalized, etc. we can tax the good (lol – pot – a good) and reap in almost 3 billion dollars.

The other positive aspect of legalizing pot is the fact that there will now be regulatory control, which means the consumer will get exactly what he or she is paying for, hence a safer and better product. Furthermore, if in fact marijuana is decriminalized the price will be slashed dramatically and the profits will be garnered by law – abiding merchants. Marijuana also has medicinal properties and cancer patients have maintained that their quality of life has increased…. I can go on further with the pros and cons of decriminalization (and there are many more, which I certainly invite the readers to contribute) but I think you get my point.

So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? One other factoid is that pot is a uniquely different drug in terms of – you either like it or you don’t; as I stated in my first paragraph I don’t like the way it makes me feel so I don’t smoke it – period. So, let’s make marijuana legal already, this may in fact mend (or @ least help) our crippled current economy.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Crime, Current Events, Legal Issues | 5 Comments »

Our Judicial System is Flawed

February 26th, 2013 by Michael Tabor

I just finished watching ‘Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory’ over the weekend and I am still sick about how terribly flawed our current judicial system is. For those of you not familiar with the renowned documentary, ‘Paradise … Purgatory’ , this is the third and last film of the trilogy documenting the arrest, wrongful imprisonment, and eventual release of the “West Memphis 3″(after spending nearly 20 years sitting in prison).
I won’t go into detail about the three esteemed documentaries (must see if you haven’t already) and in this blog I want to raise just one prodigious flaw in our system of justice: the insistence of the prosecution to hold innocent people in prison and overturn an initial ruling, even when there is overwhelming evidence proving innocence i.e. DNA. Not just in this case, but over and over again, I read in the paper and hear about so many people who are innocent, yet are still held in prison – simply because the state and the entire prosecution team doesn’t want to admit they are/were wrong. This is absolutely INSANE !!! We are talking about real human beings who are not guilty of the crime for which they were incarcerated and rotting in a cell because somebody is concerned about their career.
My opinion is that if any given individual is found to be not guilty by virtue of compelling evidence such as DNA, he or she ought to be released immediately !!! I know the law is complex, precise, and full of red tape but this is a no – brainer. Let these people out, then cross your T’s and dot your I’s afterwards.
So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? What drives me crazy is thinking about what kind of person[s] can sleep at night knowing, because you won’t admit you were wrong or made a mistake, there is a person in an 8 by 10 cell. Please, let us do something about this.

Take a look at the pictures I’ve posted here – the before and after mug shots; these innocent kids, now middle – aged spent most of their life in prison.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Crime, Legal Issues | 4 Comments »

Numbers don’t Lie

February 20th, 2013 by Michael Tabor

I knew we led the industrialized world in terms of gun deaths and injuries but quite frankly I was shocked to find out how MANY people are killed or maimed from guns – deliberate or accidental:
Believe it or not, this country, U.S.A., has more guns than the actual # of people living in this country. Approx. 310 million firearms versus 305 million residents. (btw, that’s not including the military)



Per criminology census in 2010:

. 358 murders with a rifle
. 6,009 murders with a handgun
. 1,939 unreported gun deaths (I don’t really get this one.. if it wasn’t reported, how do they know ??? but anyway, this is an official census.
. 66.9% of all homicides in U.S. were perpetrated with a gun.

Now non-fatal injuries in 2010:



52,447 deliberate gun related injuries



23,237 accidental gun related injuries

Suicides with a gun in 2010
19,392

Total for 2010: 27,698 gun related deaths
75,684 gun related injuries
So that’s more causalities in this country in one year than all the casualties we suffered in 10 years in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oh yeah, we don’t have a problem with guns in this country – it’s only worse than 2 war zones. So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ?

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Crime, Current Events, Legal Issues | 3 Comments »

The Magazines And Bullet Capacity Limits

February 19th, 2013 by Michael Tabor

Since the Newtown Massacre, I have been spilling a lot of ink on gun control ; this is of course, a prodigiously important issue and we have an epidemic on our hands. I have been clamoring for a nation – wide ban on all automatic and semi – automatic weapons but the reality is, that’s probably not going to happen. We live in a democracy, which means that nobody can get exactly what one wants all the time; democracy equals deliberation and compromise. So, here we go…this makes sense.

Christopher Murphy, the Senator from Connecticut has been pondering and asking himself this one question: Why did the gunman, Adam Lanza, after killing 20 children, suddenly stop shooting, put down the semi – automatic rifle and finally end his miserable existence with a pistol ? The Senator vehemently believes that Lanza put down the rifle because the magazine was empty; if he wanted to continue with the killing, he would have had to change magazines, and for amateurs, this sometimes can be a little tricky or perhaps take a minute to reload. So, knowing this, couldn’t the answer for curbing (not eliminating completely – that’s impossible) gun violence be in banning the legal manufacturing and purchasing of magazines with a capacity of more than 6 bullets ??? I think this is the answer; law – abiding citizens can keep their semi – automatic weapons but can’t buy cartridges that hold more than 6 rounds.

Senator Christopher Murphy went on to say “I believe, and many of the parents there believe, that if Lanza had to switch cartridges 9 times versus 2 times there would likely still be little boys and girls alive in Newtown today.” This is a poignantly profound and powerful statement and I happen to concur with the Senator.

So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? I have been thinking long and hard about this and I think this is a reasonable and realistic compromise. Let’s not allow another Newtown happen again.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Crime, Current Events, Legal Issues | 8 Comments »

Why Gun Laws in Chicago Don’t Work

January 31st, 2013 by Michael Tabor

Since the Newtown massacre, gun enthusiasts have been vehemently protesting any sort of further gun control legislation citing specifically the fact that Chicago, the city with the strictest gun control laws on the books, has not curbed gun – related homicides one bit -in fact Chicago had more than 500 gun – related killings last year.

Here, the NRA and firearm – loving zealots, have been clutching their semi – automatic arsenals and screaming – see, see, see – look at Chicago, gun restriction laws don’t work. Well my gun-toting fellow citizens these are the reasons why the Chicago gun laws don’t work:



The most obvious reason is that one doesn’t have to travel too far from Chicago to get a gun, in fact just by taking a 30 minute drive to Cook county, Illinois, a person can find plenty of gun shops and easily purchase a gun. Furthermore, why not just go to another state like Mississippi (them their Mississippians’ love them their guns) & Indiana is not even an hour away. SOLUTION: Outlawing the sale of rapid- fire semi – automatic guns with insanely large magazine capacity NATIONWIDE. The only way the new gun restriction laws are going to work, is if you ban these crazy guns in every single state (Importing guns from other countries, I’ll get to that ASAP)



Here is another interesting factoid that the NRA loves to omit, is that, no, there are no gun shops in Chicago (the aforementioned makes this a moot point anyway) but the penalties for carrying a gun and breaking the law are incredibly, not as severe as other urban areas and communities are.



Kind of related to point #1, is the fact that, because we have not yet outlawed these weapons that kill scores of people within minutes – nationally, the coordination between the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago is completely heavy – handed, jumbled and unintelligible and it’s actually considered a joke according to law enforcement in Chicago.



Again, over and over my argument is – prohibit the sale of these assault weapons NATIONWIDE period. My opponents say, denying the sale of these weapons to solid citizens, second amendment jargon nonsense, blah, blah blah. Well, guess what – fact: gang members in Chicago have their girlfriends with clean records buy their guns outside of Chicago. Solution: with nationwide laws prohibiting sales of any assault weapons, criminals can’t buy from a legal establishment. Okay – last resort, black market – see last point.



Last Point – if the sale of all semi – automatic weapons are banned nationwide, the criminals will go on the black market, rely on gun – runners importing from other countries, etc. Broken Window theory implemented by the Giuliani administration cleaned up N.Y.C. What is Broken Window Theory ??? – in a nutshell, if you do anything unlawful, I mean anything i.e. loitering, law enforcement can stop you, & if you happen to be carrying – Prison – for a long time you go. 1. Legislate 2. Enforce 3. Draconian heavy penalties for owning and carrying semi’s.

So WhaDaYaThink? What do you think? Listen, we will never stop crazy people from killing other people and unfortunately we can’t stop homicide completely. A Psycho can always use a knife or a blunt heavy object to kill you, but we certainly can do something about maniacs with a mere index finger (yep, no martial arts necessary) from killing a whole lot of innocent people so easily in a matter of minutes.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Crime, Current Events, Legal Issues | 4 Comments »

Painkillers Continue to be A Huge Epidemic

January 26th, 2013 by Michael Tabor

This is shocking: since 2008, painkillers i.e. Vicodin and simply any drug that contains hydrocodone, etc. have taken the lives of more Americans than cocaine and heroin combined. Because, there probably isn’t a person in this country who hasn’t been given a prescription after an injury or surgery, my question was, basically how much does it take to O.D. on the stuff ??? I googled this, and of course, just like everything else, it depends on a multitude of variables such as size and weight of an individual, a person’s opiate tolerance (which varies), etc. but the rule of thumb is if you don’t take them to get high and ingest what the doctor prescribes, which is one pill (average is 5 mg. of hydrocodone which is the actual narcotic + it’s mixed with some Tylenol) every 6 hours you will not die from them. In fact, it’s hard to kill yourself with vicodin or Percocet (is a little stonger) because if you’re not an addict and already addicted to the painkillers, you will more than likely get sick and throw up before you reach the lethal amount.
So, rest assured, now we know who’s dying from the opiates – the drug addicts. One guy posted that he ingested in one day

15 pills / 7.5 mg of vicodin + drank a fifth of Jack Daniels and didn’t even need to go to the hospital. PLEASE do not do this ! This is certainly enough to kill the average person. The other problem is these addicts are probably ingesting 10 to a dozen pills over a long period of time, and even if one doesn’t O.D., the drugs are taking a big toll on your liver; the actual narcotic (hydrocodone) damages your poor liver but the 500 m.g. of Tylenol (acetaminophen) which is included in each tab is even more deleterious to your liver. Just Imagine taking 10 aspirin or a dozen Tylenol everyday for a year.

So, What are we doing about it ? Well, this is certainly a step in the right direction – here are the FDA guidelines:



Physicians can no longer give any refills, a person who needs more, has to get a new script from the doctor.



A doctor cannot fax over the prescription to the pharmacy (unlike other drugs that are deemed as not a controlled substance)



Doctors can no longer just call it in.



Lastly, distributers are now required to store the opiates in special vaults.

The legislation sounds reasonable and should effectively curb fatalities, but of course because of the irresponsible actions of the drug addicts (listen, I’m not perfect and believe me I know about addiction issues), old people, frail people who are suffering from cancer, people in nursing homes, and people who live in rural areas are going to suffer the consequences.

So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? Oh, keep in mind, the real heavy duty opiates such as Oxycontin, morphine (of course), Demerol, codeine, etc. already have these restrictions in place.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Current Events, Legal Issues | 2 Comments »

Should an Ex – Porn Star Be fired?

January 17th, 2013 by Michael Tabor

Well it depends, if she was an outstanding teacher who happened to have an ugly secret, then no. However, if she was anything less than excellent, then I would personally, give her the axe.
Stacie Halas, a middle – school science teacher from Oxnard, CA was fired after students learned that she was an ex – Porno star. Should she be fired? Okay, this is a tough one and I’ll do a Ben Franklin (pros & cons) and see if this was a good move or not.

Why the teacher should not be fired:



This is a blatant infringement upon her civil liberties



She appeared in X rated films before she became a teacher



Her boyfriend left her and she literally had no $$ and no job



Stacie Halas has acknowledged the fact that, even though she was broke, this CERTAINLY was an unwise career choice



Where are the parents? Why are kids allowed access to pornographic material?



Finally, she did not break the law – appearing in pornographic movies with consenting adults is not against the law.

Why the teacher should be fired:



She is teaching children and therefore a teacher should be held to a higher standard than the average citizen should.



There are a lot of “attractive” women who are jobless and would never appear in a pornographic film.



Is it legal? yes, but let’s face it, it’s definitely immoral (I know morality is relative, but…)



By very definition, the supreme court has maintained that pornography has no artistic merit nor any redeeming value whatsoever. So, even though this was something in her past, a teacher’s job is not only about math, science, and English, it also involves imparting values and integrity.

So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? I don’t know exactly where I stand on this one. Well, I guess I do (my first paragraph) but in my opinion, she would REALLY have to be an outstanding teacher – I mean a lot better than average. There are a lot of jobless teachers who don’t have that skeleton.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Current Events, Legal Issues | 24 Comments »

STOP GUNS NOW !

December 15th, 2012 by Magdalena Tabor

STOP GUNS NOW !
God Bless the victims of today’s unspeakable tragedy.
STOP GUNS NOW!
Our hearts go out to the children of Newtown, Ct.
STOP GUNS NOW!
The nation grieves as a family.
STOP GUNS NOW!
It’s already too late.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Crime, Current Events, Legal Issues | 2 Comments »

What should We Do With Juvenile Killers?

October 14th, 2012 by Michael Tabor

On the front page of the New York Times 10/14/12, there is an article about a young man, Maurice Bailey, from Pennsylvania who killed his 15 year old pregnant girlfriend, was shortly thereafter apprehended and subsequently indicted, convicted and sentenced to Life imprisonment without parole. This horrific crime occurred in 1993 and Maurice is now 34 years old; there is no question about his guilt – Law enforcement did an excellent job and got the right guy.
I have, however, 3 concerns about this sad story 1.There is an inconsistency with every state’s criminal justice sentencing policy – I mean why didn’t this juvenile (Bailey was also 15 at the time he committed the crime) get at least a chance at parole when the poster boy for heinous crimes, Charles Manson, is eligible (he’s always denied, thank God, but he does get a chance). 2. Maurice Bailey has never denied having committed the crime, is remorseful, and is a completely different man. 3. Inasmuch as Bailey is now a responsible adult and no longer a stupid, violent kid (Btw, I also want to let everyone reading this, that this was also a crime of passion) your holding or even very often (if the inmate is on death row) putting to death an altogether different person.
Let me be clear on this, if the victim were my child, I probably would not want the killer of my daughter to EVER get out, so I completely UNDERSTAND and can relate to the feelings and thoughts of the victim’s family. However, if the killer was truly rehabilitated, remorseful, and no longer a threat to society, I hope I would have the compassion (not unlike Jesus) to realize that the person who killed my child is no longer the same person and has paid his debt to society. I believe that EVERY human being is precious, and although my daughter would never get a second chance and would be gone forever, perhaps this once horrible person can be released and make a positive difference in the world. Killing or incarcerating a once upon a time monster won’t bring back the victim, it’s just a waste – another victim gone forever.
My neighbor, Valerie Vickers, 16,(I had a boyhood crush on her) and best friend with my sister, Mary, was murdered by another Juvenile (I’ve forgotten the killer’s name and couldn’t find him on Google) in the early 1970s when I was just 13. He was a gun collector, and for reasons, only the killer knows, shot Valerie in the chest, neck, and face area; she was so disfigured that the casket had to be closed. I remember the wake like it was yesterday – Fran Vickers, her mother, was literally laying on top of her daughter’s casket sobbing uncontrollably. I can also vividly recollect the state of Greg Vickers (the father) and Greg, jr (Valerie’s brother) – Ineffably and unspeakably sad. I still remember the spirited Valerie showing me the gigantic frog she caught and kissing me on the cheek for accompanying her on a scary ride at the local fair in our small town. The then surviving Vickers, Greg Sr., Greg, Jr., and Fran are all dead now (they tragically all died too young of cancer) and I have no idea what happened to her killer, but if he is still alive, and TRULY reformed, what good is it now, to just let him rot in prison.
So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think? I miss Valerie and my eyes are filling with tears when I think of that whole wonderful family, but what if her killer is truly a good man now. I will leave you with a French proverb that no human is capable of , but we can all try ! “To know all, is to forgive all.”

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Commentary, Crime, Legal Issues | 9 Comments »

Pages

Categories

Archives

Meta

Not Only Am I Pro – Death Penalty, I’m Anti – Lethal Injection Because It’s Not Harsh Enough

Isn’t it About Time That We Legalize Marijuana???

Our Judicial System is Flawed

Numbers don’t Lie

The Magazines And Bullet Capacity Limits

Why Gun Laws in Chicago Don’t Work

Painkillers Continue to be A Huge Epidemic

Should an Ex – Porn Star Be fired?

STOP GUNS NOW !

What should We Do With Juvenile Killers?