Daily Commentary – Monday May 7th, 2007 – A New Way Home For Drunk Drivers

Dana discusses:

• How tow trucks in a Chicago suburb could be a new way home for drunk drivers

Aruban Justice … 6 Years Is the Punishment in Aruba for the Mutilation and Burning of Pit Bulls Body

Justice is supposed to be blind, not foolish.

One really begins to wonder when they see such justice handed out for such heinous crimes whether it makes any difference whether Aruban officials ever bother to prosecute or find anyone guilty of a crime. However, the mind set of the OM in prosecuting this case speaks volumes of a more media covered case in Aruba, Natalee Holloway. 

SIX YEARS FOR MUTILATING AND BURNING A BODY!!!

In the court of appeals, the joint Court of Justice convicted Sijgmund Heyliger (37) to six years imprisonment.  Heyliger appealed his five-year imprisonment verdict for his involvement in the mutilation and burning of Dinesh Djoegan’s body, too high.  The attorney general has demanded 7 years. (Amigoe)

This is what is considered justice on One Happy Island. Does the word “justice” even appear in the Aruban dictionary? Let alone the fact that the OM asked for too short a period of time, how is it that the judge consistently gave lesser sentences? What also happened to the possibility that Pit Bull was forced to take the drugs?

The family was informed that Pitbull was not murdered, but had an amount of cocaine in his body.  There is a possibility that he was forced to take the drug.  The OM is also investigating the relation between the cause of death and the fact that Djoegan was found burned and crucified. (SM via Amigoe)

During the investigation the family of Dinesh Djoegan (Pit Bull) demanded why it was taking so long and that they “just needed to wait”. I guess they will now be asking why people who did such a heinous crime only got six years.  

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A “Royal” Defeat … Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy Wins France’s Presidential Election … “the US could count on France’s friendship”

Call it a “Royal” defeat or Strike 3, Socialists in France go down in smoke as Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy wins  Presidential election with an estimated 53% of the vote.

PARIS (Reuters) – Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won France’s presidential election on Sunday, beating his Socialist rival Segolene Royal by a comfortable margin and extending the right’s 12-year grip on power.

Forecasts by four pollsters showed Sarkozy, 52, a hard-line former interior minister, won around 53 percent of the vote in the second-round ballot and will succeed fellow conservative Jacques Chirac, who was president for 12 years.

In an even more stunning and welcome  turn of events come the following comment from  France’s President elect:

Sarkozy wins French presidency

PARIS, France (CNN) — Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy greeted news of his election Sunday to a five-year term as France’s president with a vow to serve as a leader for all people of France.

“The president of the republic must love and respect all the French,” he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. “I will be the president of all the French people”.

Sarkozy added that he wanted to tell his “American friends that they can rely on our friendship … France will always be next to them when they need us.”

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Video of Tornados & Severe Weather in Midwest that Destroyed the Town of Greensburg, KS

 Amazing Video of the Tornados and Severe Weather that Wiped out Greensburg, KS

Driving In Denver? Beware of the Ticket Quota Cops

If you are driving in Denver, Colorado, keep your eyes out for the men in blue. The commander of the traffic operations bureau for the city has publicly announced that their motorcycle officers are expected to write 2 tickets an hour, or 16 traffic tickets for their 8 hour shifts.

This is so wrong on so many fronts. We know that ticket revenue is a big part of police budgets, but to mandate a certain amount of tickets is pure revenue generation. Do you think that a police officer in snowy Colorado is now under the gun to write a ticket on a day when the speed can only go below the speed limit? Or does he drive by a fender bender to get the kid with a tail light out?

Police officers are their to protect the peace and enforce the law. They are not created to be revenue generators and have the pressure to save their jobs by writing tickets.

For about two dozen motorcycle officers, the order is to write 16 tickets for an eight hour shift. Fall short, and they will have to explain their slacking to superior officers.

Captain Eric Rubin, commander of 79 officers in the Traffic Operations Bureau, contends it’s “not a quota,” but he calls it a “measure of performance” for officers whose primary duty is to enforce traffic laws. “It’s a goal we are striving for,” he said. The American Heritage Dictionary defines quota in part as “a production assignment.”

Rubin said he instituted the quota system last September and the 16 tickets per shift for some 26 motorcycle officers was arrived at after six months of studying officers’ typical ticket writing patterns. via CBS4Denver