I glaze over at most small talk. Seriously. Chat it up with me for more than a few minutes about the weather, your friend having an odd habit of sniffling when they're tense, or that funny thing you observed last Tuesday that caused you to laugh so hard you passed half your latte through your nasal cavities, and I'll start to get glassy eyed. I'll feign interest and attention but my mind will gently tip-toe away and start working on some work related problem or contemplate some of life's greatest mysteries, like why they brought all that luggage on a 3-hour tour.
I had a chance to visit today with my brother in law, who was in the area on business, and who I've not seen for several months. Chris is an awesome guy, and I consider him a friend as well as a relation. We differ and disagree on various topics, including exchanges on this very website around global warming, for example. But we also agree on others and share a mutual respect for each other's rights to our opinions. The conversations we have are some of the more interesting, challenging and engaging ones I get to have, so I look forward to them.
Today, as we bantered back and forth about such complex and typically touchy things as science vs religion, politics and of course, American Idol, he made me aware of this recent situation in San Francisco, where a 21 year old gang member with two prior convictions on his record shot and killed a man my age and his two sons in broad daylight after they momentarily blocked his way at an intersection. Perhaps there's more to it than that, but we talked about it in detail and our mutual disbelief at not only the event, but the political circumstances surrounding it.
I posted an entry here back in Feb 2007 and as we talked, the same sentiment ran through my head. I’ll PAY for the Bullet. Really. Please. I honestly would, without hesitation, love to cut to the chase here and get this sociopath out of all of our way with a simple exchange of my own personal pocket change for ammunition. Yes, I'm that giving and generous.
Sure, there's clearly a line one must walk when talking about capital punishment and an 'eye for an eye', but you know what, to be brutally honest here, it's not a line that is difficult to draw. Intent and repetition equals a threat to the safety of those around us who, unlike this piece of shit scum-bag waste of space with no regard for human life, actually give some consideration to the rights of others and our own limited rights to act in ways against each other.
And here goes the circus, folks, because now there's trials, lawyers, defense strategies, detainment, incarceration, appeals and more on the horizon. All, once again, being footed by, guess who? US!
Do I think that, perhaps, with time and experience, this young man might go the way of "Ellis Boyd Redding" in The Shawshank Redemption? Do I think with some growing up, soul searching and rehabilitation, he'll likely one day follow in "Red's" footsteps, sit before the parole board and with eloquent defiance and disregard for their opinions, tell them that "I look back on the way I was then then, a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are." Sure, I guess there's always a chance that could happen, but you know what? Screw 'em. I'm not willing to pay to feed, clothe and shelter him on the random chance that there might be some redemption 20 years down the line. And it's not because I'm a cold, heartless jerk with no consideration for the circumstances and sufferings of my fellow man. It's because his crime and pattern are completely and utterly unforgivable and intolerable. Game over. You lose. Show a pattern of criminal behavior and then you intentionally, maliciously take the lives of three innocent people, then you lose yours.
Now here's the real kicker, and the thing that had Chris starting to escalate his voice, accentuate his gesture and cover me with a light dewey spray of spittle as he launched into justified rant; it appears this guy is an illegal alien, he should have been deported after the prior offenses, but because he lives in San Francisco, which is a 'Sanctuary" city and opts to not report his status or act on the otherwise procedural deportation, he was allowed to stay.
This is beyond belief, and it speaks to the far broader topic of immigration that I'll save for another post, but as far as I see it, any initial infraction by somebody not already a citizen immediately voids their eligibility to do anything but board a one-way passage back home. Period. End of discussion. Why in the hell would we think otherwise? Why, if the whole point of even tolerating let alone turning a blind eye to illegal immigrants is to enable them to have an opportunity to better themselves, would we possibly allow them to stick around after doing something like beating a bus passenger or stealing from a pregnant woman? What kind of screwed up backwards logic could possibly rationalize that? It's idiotic, and you can bet that a hard line drawn and then followed without deviation would send a strong message to those who actually do want to make the most of the opportunity to not f-it up by doing something that will get your ass back on a boat bound right back to where you came from.
I wish they'd carted this dip-shit off on the first offense. I wish they'd cart everybody off on first offenses. My heart goes out to the widow in this case, my head spins at the thought of what those last moments must have been like for that father and his two sons, my eyes role at the idea that taxes I pay will be spent on his defense and possible incarceration in any fashion, and my stomach churns to consider that this might have been prevented by having more stringent practices in place. This guy should have been shuffled onto a boat a long time ago.
Would I hesitate to stop the processing of his deportation papers so he had a second chance, or would I wince as the execution orders were processed and approved? Quoting "Red's" parole hearing speech one last time here... "you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit."
