Monday, December 6, 2010

Massachusetts is the Land of Second Chances!

And third chances, and fourth chances, and fifth chances, and... tenth chances!

Man arrested for 11th DUI in Seekonk

SEEKONK, Mass. -- A Massachusetts man was arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence on Saturday, but this wasn’t anything new for the Seekonk man. It was his 11th time being arrested for the same crime.

Vernon Perry, 52, still had a valid driver’s license when he was stopped by a police officer after 1 a.m. Saturday morning.

I'm trying to figure out how that's possible, given that in MA the penalty for a fifth OUI conviction is permanent revocation of one's driver's license. The story is short on details, but I can only come up with two possibilities - either he was not convicted of OUI each time (meaning that he beat the rap more than 50% of the time, which seems pretty unlikely), or the MA "justice" system is incompetent at best, and coddling outright criminals at worst.

From a "danger to the general public" standpoint, drinking and driving is no different than just randomly firing a gun into a populated area. Sure, you might not hit anyone with the bullet, but the danger exists; is very real and deadly; and it's only a matter of time before someone gets killed if you pull that trigger enough times. Someone arrested for drinking and driving on eleven different occasions has a drinking problem, and most likely has driven under the influence hundreds of times where they never got caught.

It's a good thing this guy didn't buy a paperweight at a gun show, though - then they would have held him in jail without bail for months...

That is all.

6 comments:

bluesun said...

Can you perform a citizens arrest on the entire court system?

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

I find it highly suspicious that they say how many times he's been arrested for OUI, but not how many times he's been convicted. The conviction information should be no more difficult to find than the number of arrests.

My first guess is that he was able to plead down most of those charges, or the DA dropped them for some reason. Playing devil's advocate, and remembering that the cornerstone of our legal system is (supposedly) "innocent until proven guilty", I would have to assume it's a legitimate reason.

The cynic in me, however, wonders if this guy is connected to someone important. After all, it is MA.

Freiheit said...

This is just another sign of our dysfunctional justice system.

There are two options:
1) Incarceration - Lock his ass up and give him time to think about what he's done. Teach him that prison sucks and its best to stay out.
2) Rehabilitation - Still lock his ass up, but put him through rehab, fill in the gaps in his basic education, and try to turn a dangerous miscreant into at least a harmless miscreant but ideally a productive member of society.

The problem with the justice system in America is that it cannot decide which type of justice system it is. It confuses rehabilitation with second chances. It confuses "not allowed to" with "actually stopping them from doing it".

Mike W. said...

Ah, but if he'd cut a few inches off a rifle barrel he'd be a danger to society!

Steven M. said...

It's as if Liberal/Progressives have a death wish, and will do anything that keeps the doors to the insane asylum wide-open.

Conversely, anything that smacks of personal responsibility or independence is an anathema to their religion.

Robert McDonald said...

Offer him a plea of reckless driving. He pays, and is back on the road, a continuing source of revenue. If he's not driving, he's not paying for the newest tacticool gear.

Maybe I'm too pessimistic.