Comments on: Man Faces 30 Years For Doughnut Theft

Shoplifting Incident Becomes "Strong Arm Robbery," Could Lead To Life Sentence If Guilty

[incog-nito]

The prison industry loves cases like this. No wonder the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate among Western nations.

[l8c6]

Erinye_fury

so h*illb*illy, do you figure the CEO of Blackwater or ones like DeLay should do 30 years for stealing millions or is there truth to the theory of evolution. In other words, natural selection takes care of the masses of ignorance in this country that chew at each other in the most extreme oppressive manner over petty crime while multinational corporations like Wal*Mart welcome shoppers with big bold face threats of the most severe prosecution to shoplifters of plastic toxic cr*ap made in China that Wal*Mart peddles after taking advantage of the lack of human rights laws in China that might result in prosecution in the U.S. effectively exploiting those who are essentially slave workers in China? Justice doesn''t come to some in this world and it appears to be the millionaires and billionaires who are members of corrupt private pseudo government regimes who cohort with the corrupt regimes of other countries.

[l8c6]

the slang term "sk*ank* is even censored on here... insane.

[erinye_fury]

Bring this back to reality: the guy is a professional crook with a long rap sheet. Send him away, but make him earn part of his keep doing some sort of wark.

[l8c6]

Missouri has turned out to be one sick f*&^$ing state. The state has some of the most perverse pseudo religious *** for politicians as one might find in the south.

Meanwhile Blackwater, a private company takes over a billion dollars from U.S. taxpayers with "freedom" from accountability to the american people. Yes, Bush''s freedom is selective freedom that executes and incarcerates the least of them and allows lawlessness for high functioning anti-sociopaths in government office and multinational corporations.

[random_radar]

Oh, but wait, we are missing the point--it''s not about the donut, it''s about shoving someone during the commission of a crime. Okay, repeatedly shove someone while grabbing low-value items and go to prison for thirty years? Wouldn''t it be more reasonable to ask for an apology and pay for medical bills if the person was hurt?

The real problem is that we have defined everything as a heinous crime and we love punishing people to unreasonable lengths. America is in love with imprisoning people. We love to see people go to jail, directly to jail, do not pass go and do not collect $200. No matter how we want to frame the issue, these cases manifest severe, sick cultural pathology.

[random_radar]

If we had laws that required compensation instead of prison time, everyone would be better off. Making criminals pay triple damages for the harm they cause is pretty reasonable as a deterrent and to make things right for the victim.

Putting people in prison does not help the victim (who winds up paying taxes for prisons on top of their losses due to the crime). It doesn''t help the criminals who get an all expense paid vacation in hell and come out worse than they started.

Putting someone in jail for thirty years over a donut? What kind of a nation would say this is a good idea? I would be glad to pay for his donut instead of paying $40,000 a year for 30 years to incarcerate him. America is the land of the insanely vindictive.

[tucano2]

Lae enforcement and prosecutors, as usual, focus NOT on the doughnut, but rather on the hole. Ridiculous waste of taxpayer monies - IF the guy is guilty put him on the county''s road trash pick-up crew for 15 days.

[Krazcarl]

griking...it was a pastry he was unarmed going for a qiick treat this does not mean he will pull a gun tommorrow and steal a dozen. You probably think that guy in texas that got life for a 12 dollar rubber check is cool{repeat offender clause} we may not hang with these guys but lets be fair. If your going to incarcerate foks on what they may do we''ll have to turn several states or more into nothing but prisons and to be honest we can''t afford it.

[Krazcarl]

undermyboot....I agree