DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Santa Ana's pot shop raids, marijuana policy targeted in lawsuit

OK, you catch your kid stealing from the neighbor. then again, then again. Violence or not, repeated bad behavior that does not change requires different, and often harsher punishment.

You get caught speeding too many times, you eventually lose your license.
You have too many accidents, your insurance goes up.
You show up to work late repeatedly, you lose your job.

so a dumbass with drug issues is more important to take off the streets than a child rapist.

k.

No, it doesn't. Your kid goes to stay with his grandma one day a week.. one day he steals $20 from her wallet so you make him apologize and pay it back, the next week he steals again.. and again so you ground him, take his phone, make him cut her grass for free, then one time it's $40 so you try to come down even harder on him.... then after being caught 8 or 9 times, you catch him one more time only this time it's only $10...

Do you punish him as a kid who stole $10 from his grandma or do you punish him as a kid who has stolen money 9 or 10 times and has completely ignored being punished for the times he has done it before and appears to be showing no willingness to change?

different offences should command different severities of punishment.

Lying and beating up another kid are completely different.

Lying will make you look bad, while beating up a kid, could harm somebody and put the kid in juvy. They are not the same offence so you can't compare them as similar.

I might be able to be late on my job 20 times before I got fired, what if I got caught stealing from the register? do you think I would get 20 chances?

You are arguing severity, everybody else seems to be arguing escalation... whether it's a violent act or a non-violent act, if you continue to break rules, the punishment is going to escalate.

If you are late for your job once you are probably going to get, "Hey, you need to call us if you are going to be late." Second time will be a little worse, 3rd or 4th time they will do some kind of improvement plan for you, 5th or 6h time is going to come with a stern warning that if it happens again you could be terminated... I doubt you would get to 20.. but eventually you will be fired.

Just like this guy... you don't think he knew that with each arrest the sentence could get worse until at some point they really lowered the hammer on him?

If you are stealing from the register you might not get a second chance, and if you do, the punishment will escalate a lot quicker.. it took this guy 8 or 9 times to get to this point.. had he raped somebody before, the punishment would have reflected that.

I am arguing severity of an escalation.

The fact that a judge even has sentencing guidelines that permit a person to be jailed for 10-13 years for possession of weed is the worse part.

J/C ... I will say that I am not a fan of minimum sentencing guidelines and 3 strikes guidelines. I think that each case should stand on its own, based on precedent, and especially on the facts and history of the person involved.

However, when a community or state has minimum guidelines, then those who violate the law habitually should stop. If you asked the guy in question in this case if "2 joints" was worth the price he has paid, would he say it was, or not? I bet he would say it was not. I wonder if he would/will go right back to selling drugs and carrying illegal firearms when he gets out of prison though?

On an entirely different topic, though somewhat related ...... I would love to see a program set up for those who are coming out of prison so that they could work on infrastructure projects, earn some money, establish a work record, and do some good for the communities whose laws they violated.

The problem with your thought process on this is that having two joints and no gun in his possession this time, it already looks as if he learned his lesson about "selling drugs and carrying firearms". He was simply found to have two joints.

But he still violated the law. As I said, I am not a far of minimum sentencing guidelines, and 3 strikes laws, but he did violate the law as were on the books.

Fair enough but the guy had been busted 8 or 9 times... not sure how many times he has to be busted before the system gets serious.

For the record, I think it's probably a bit excessive but I don't think it's nearly as ridiculous as the original article made it out to be... Like the guy got caught with 2 joints and they sent him up for 13 years... but I think a lot of the feelings behind those who think it's excessive, is the feeling that it shouldn't be illegal at all.. and that is, for the most part, a different argument.

So I'm not in the legal profession and I can't say for sure that I'm reading this all correctly, but it sure looks like this guy has had it pretty light with all the crimes prior to this one.

Date / Link / Sentence / Charge / Note
9/20/1989 / 216864 / none / illegal possession of stolen things /
10/27/1989 / 338694 / 1 yr probation / 1st MJ / skipped court/forfeited bond
1/10/1990 / 221454 / No trial / first weapons charge & cocaine w/ intent to distribute /
11/15/1990 / 234480 / / cocaine w/ intent to distribute & 2nd MJ & cocaine poss /
1/3/1991 / 347136 / 3 months & fines / 2nd MJ, 1st cocaine / violated previous 1 year probation
2/11/1993 / 362422 / 6 mo probation / 3rd MJ / trial proceedings apread across 1 1/2 years
1/30/1996 / 304164 / no sentence / 3rd MJ /
1/16/1998 / 397231 / Not guilty / cocaine poss /
4/21/1998 / 397217 / Not guilty / firearm possesion by felon /
2/26/1999 / 349931 / One Day / 2nd MJ / (again charged with 2nd possession)
9/23/2002 / 433421 / 3 years, but released on time served to pay fines only / 1st MJ & 2nd MJ & possession schedule 2 & possession w/ intent - cocaine / skipped court/forfeited bond
11/3/2010 / 501594 / 13 years / 4th MJ / skipped court/forfeited bond


Seems like a strange choice to champion this guy as someone being trated unfairly IMO.

I really believe it's more about the marijuana laws being unfair as far as I'm concerned. To me, no matter a persons record or past violations, I believe nobody should be able to be sentenced to 13 years in prison for having two joints.

Now that doesn't mean the laws don't exist but at some point there needs to be some sense of balance.

I obviously can't say for certain but I'd bet good money on the notion it was not the joints but "skipped court/forfeited bond" this little tidbit that got the book thrown at him.