Sad Day in Tracy, CA

What in the world is wrong with us? Sandra Cantu, this pretty 8 year old girl, was found stuffed in a suitcase in a dairy pond near her home in Tracy, CA. Her autopsy is scheduled for later today. The grief for her family must be unimaginable. How tragic to lose someone this young and crippling to let thoughts run rampant about her last hours and moments on Earth. As someone that interacted with sex offenders during my years of service in law enforcement I can tell you that this type of deviant is simply the worst among us. To be definitive, there is no cure for the type of animal that did this to an innocent child. Recidivism rates skyrocket and even the touchy-huggy rehabilitation types find no statistics to back their theory of returning "rehabilitated" offenders back into general society.

My view on the death penalty has softened over time. I used to be a member of the "kill them all" chorus. Well publicized mistakes and cases of innocent men and women being convicted and in some cases executed for crimes they didn't commit seems just as dastardly. However, why do we fight so hard to modify laws that would adjust to a sort of legal common sense? Why does it have to be a death penalty versus no death penalty argument exclusively? Can't we modify the death penalty debate to include specificity and absolute knowledge? In other words, if DNA links the suspect to this girl's savage murder, light him up Jack. If eyewitness testimony and circumstantial evidence convict the suspect beyond a reasonable doubt without DNA, then let it be life in prison. And for you child molesters entering the prison system, don't drop the soap if you get my drift.

It doesn't matter whether or not the death penalty reduces the number of vicious crimes in each respective category or not. The death penalty remains in my eyes as a specific punishment for a specific person for having committed a specific act. Case closed. I've interrogated sex offenders myself and winced with a knot in my stomach while eliciting a confession. They like it, they want to talk about it. You have to rationalize with them and it is as sickening as anything you'll ever sit through. One guy told me about a three year old girl he abused and that she "wanted it." I wanted to tear his throat out with my bare hands. Thankfully I didn't but as I get older I'm happy to say I might handle things with a pipe if given half a chance.

When examining your own thoughts regarding the death penalty's place in society, try not to make it an all or nothing argument. If DNA connects the suspect to a victim scientifically beyond any doubt, it's barbecue or killer cocktail time. If evidence convicts him without the positive link of DNA it's life in prison. The important thing is to keep innocent adults and children safe from roaming predators that serve no benefit to society now or in the future.

Children at Risk

"And a little child shall lead them." Some of the horrible news bytes regarding the reprehensible treatment of children drifted across the nation's airwaves this past week. Don't get me wrong, they didn't receive as much airplay as did animal cruelty cases but they received an eighth the time so I guess that is progress. Is it just me or should some people simply be barred from reproducing because they are too selfish, irresponsible, or flat unable to care for a young child in a way that would promote stability and happiness and a productive future for this child? I fully understand that children are most at risk in our society and any civilized culture and democratic government must step in to help save "at risk" kids but can't we recoup from shabby parents the costs associated with their irresponsibility?

Too many times children come along as the result of an adults sexual greed and the cesspool of moral relativism promoting this accepted behavior in our society costs all of us dearly but usually no more than it costs the future of a child. If the taxpaying public must take over for the physical, emotional, and psychological development of the child the ignorant parent(s) should be required to pay us back the FDR way. I want to see them cleaning public toilets, removing weeds and debris from public canals with a shovel and rake, or perhaps spit-shining public sidewalks and roadways with a bucket and brush. These activities have to take place on their time and their dime and not ours.

How many times have you heard the story of a child being seriously injured or dying as the result of being left inside of a vehicle strapped tightly into their seat on a hot July afternoon? The news quote usually reads like this, "I forgot that he or she was in the car." You have to have the most selfish nature in the entire solar system to sputter this ignorant response to law enforcement and emergency response personnel as they remove the lifeless form of a child from an environment that you were responsible to provide them care in. That child strapped into that seat was your only REAL responsibility that day and you forgot? Drag these stupid deadbeats and parental impostors from the scene of the CRIME and lock them into a tanning bed with my aftermarket bacon-curing thermostat attached and see how you feel after about three hours. If you make it you might learn a lesson and if you don't you didn't deserve any better.

How about the guy giving the 10 month old girl a bath. She balked at having water poured over her head to finish the bathing process so he put her in a clothes dryer, shut the door, and turned it on. In cases this obvious the police, neighbors, or any passersby that could ascertain the facts this easily should be allowed by law to proceed with the following steps.

1. Take copious notes during the interview process with this animal. His responses will probably sound something like this, "Ah, yeah I wanted to wash the soap out of her hair but she cried and I couldn't get her hair dry so I thought the dryer must work."

2. Nod in agreement to affirm that you in fact understand his logic from that intellectual perspective and that he must have been at wit's end having been stumped and stymied by a 10 month old baby.

3. Tell him you'd like to move the interview process to a garage, storage shed, or barn as applicable to your particular situation and crush his skull with the largest shovel or blunt instrument at your disposal. Continue until he is no longer able to decide why he put a 10 month old baby in a clothes dryer. If you are unable to decide as to a proper disposal of a worthless carcass, transport it to Michael Vick's pit bull kennels as I'm sure those dogs haven't eaten in awhile.

The terrible predator (Couey) in Florida that terrorized, raped and buried Jessica Lunsford alive was sentenced to death in court this past week. He admitted to doing what he did but as is our process in this slow and skeptical criminal justice system in America, he may live out his natural life in a prison cell wasting our resources so that he can be fed, clothed, and sheltered while his state-appointed attorneys bilk the American taxpayer for more money in his defense during an appeals process. Quite a system, right? At any rate, when a lifelong predator and scumbag does not contest the state's allegations against him, save us some money and give the family some closure post haste. After the judge verbally advises Couey that he has been sentenced to death as Couey stares blankly with that stupid and lifeless expression, a well-oiled trap door opens beneath his chair. The drop occurs so fast the last image television cameras capture is his hair standing straight up as he plunges into the depths. Waiting for him at the bottom of his fall is a very soft, comfortable, and cushy air bag. Just when he thinks that he's survived this treacherous fall, two gates above him and to the side open and bury him with tons of earth excavated from the very yard where he buried Jessica alive. His well-deserved screams are muffled by the pungent dirt choking him into oblivion. "An eye for an eye." The older I get the more I enjoy rereading the Old Testament.