2/2/2010 9:57:00 PM Editorial: Why do violent felons walk free?
After the tragic death of a Gilbert police officer this past week, an ensuing 50-mile police chase and a gun battle that put other police officers at risk, people have to ask, "Why?"
Gilbert Police Department veteran Lt. Eric Shuhandler had stopped the suspects in this case when he spotted an obstructed license plate on their work truck. He discovered that one passenger in the truck reportedly had an arrest warrant out for him and called for backup.
When Shuhandler returned to the truck, he was shot. His body armor could not have stopped the bullet he took to his head. He died an hour later.
The horrific ordeal culminated 50 miles later when an army of dozens of law enforcement officers from five agencies caught up with the suspects and apprehended them just west of Globe - but not before a burst of gunfire that put even more people on the doorstep of death.
According to police reports, the two suspects, who suffered non-life-threatening wounds in the incident, are now out of the hospital and in a Maricopa County jail medical ward. One faces initial charges of first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer. Police booked the second man on initial charges of aggravated assault and felony flight. More charges may come, police say. Reports also indicate that both suspects have histories of criminal assault against others.
Time eases the pain of loss, but let's hope our questions never go away and that we get answers.
Why? Why are people who have been convicted of physically attacking others free on our streets?
Are judges too lenient? Are our laws too lax in establishing harsh sentences for people who go to prison for assault crimes? Are there no evidenced-based criteria that tell us that some people have the potential to be dangerous and should be monitored closely in prison and after they are set free?
The right to carry weapons hardly bears on this question. Weapons will always end up in the hands of the wrong people, no matter the laws.
And that's a difficult fact to explain to Shuhandler's 10-year-old and 12-year-old daughters, his parents, his sister, his comrades, friends and a community that loved him.
Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, February 05, 2010
Article comment by:
trippetta
Everyone has an excuse or an outrage but no reason, and that is Why.....
Posted: Thursday, February 04, 2010
Article comment by:
proud but not free
In Peoria last week, 3 police officers responding to a domestic violence call were confronted by a 62-year-old man armed with a baseball bat. The officers were "forced" to kill the man. Where's the outrage?
Posted: Thursday, February 04, 2010
Article comment by:
RL
NPR had a great feature on people who couldn't make bail. One individual (homeless) was caught stealing eighty dollars worth of blankets, they posted bail at three hundred but he could not pay it and had no one else to step forward to cover it. He ended up serving three years at a cost to the taxpayers of around eighty-five thousand dollars.Multipy this by thousands of inmates and you start to see the prison problem as well as some of the state and federal budget issues. Same issues arise with the three strikes mandatory sentencing laws, sounds great coming out of a politicians mouth but in reality it doesn't work and creates the same problems decribed above with the added injustice ridiculous sentences that don't fit the crime.
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Why do Violent Felons Walk Free?
We have to make room in our prisons for pot smokers, people that are late paying their automobile insurance premiums, and people that are caught driving on suspended licenses. We don't have room for dangerous, violent felons. It is an issue of priorities
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Parker Anderson
There are several factors here---first, you cannot keep a felon in prison longer than his sentence...that debate has been argued many times. So, the fault is in the sentencing. Second, prison overcrowding has much to do with it...there simply isn't room in America's prisons for everyone who should be there BUT YET the American people go apoplectic if anyone suggests decriminalizing certain non-violent crimes AND no one wants any new prisons built in their areas. Look what just happened in PV! These are main reasons habitual violent criminals are walking our streets---they will continue to do so until we realize that some things have to change in order to rectify this.
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Corky
Had I been one of the police officers involved in the chase, those miscreants would never have been taken alive.
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Focus on criminals and crime, not law abiding citizens
Too many Judges/Parole Boards confuse their role with that of social workers. Here's the solution for violent offenders: very long mandatory prison terms with no parole, it's actually not that hard to protect innocent victims if we really want to do so.
If some people worried as much about preventing violent criminals from walking the streets as they do law abiding citizens owning and carrying firearms (hello Courier, see your recent editorial on this subject) we wouldn't have a problem. Unfotunately, the many of the same people that do not believe in the 2nd Amendment are far too quick to excuse criminal behavior. "It's not really their fault, society made them do it, the firearm made them do it, etc. and so on). Advocating restricting the rights of law abiding citizens, at the same time being soft on actual criminal behavior, and this is what you get.
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Protected!
Right on L.E.O.!
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
Simply, too much Political Correctness. If we did not coddle these felons and kept them in jail, they would not be out attacking the population. Most of crimes are committed by a very few. Keep these few locked up and we will all be safer.
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Retired AZ L.E.O.
The other problem as I see it, is that with dozens of police officers involved in the final gun battle, these two pieces of #*#* should be in the morgue, not in jail. Time to go back to the range for more training !
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Protected!
They can't make money by locking up felons! So they prefer to chase cars instead! More money there!Just ask Y.C.S.O.!
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Norml arise!
There is only one answer to this question.....violent offenders are sometimes kicked loose because........there are too many non-violent pot smokers and drug users in the prisons. The "flaw" in the system are the Draconian marijuana laws in this state.
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Article comment by:
angry taxpayer
From what I have heard & read lately, one should also address why our local paramedics, nurses and hospital staff are assaulted on a weekly basis and the county & city choose to NOT persecute a felony offense. Sometimes people just KNOW other people to get out of trouble.
