It sometimes seems that one conscientious Herald reporter is charged with reminding us, again and again, of the instructive definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
It was just two months ago that we were regaled with the depressing tale (Jan. 6, “Breakdown in communication’ blamed for low bail amount leading up to killing”) of how a repeat wife-beater, who had just been let out of jail on a trivial bail, came right back to Ignacio and, after a night of alcohol-soaked abuse, allegedly murdered his wife (with a gun) – a wife who had just been released from the hospital bearing the scars of his most recent act of violence.
The district judge who let him out never apologized. Our elected district attorney managed a mere, “Oops, I goofed.”
Now, in today’s Herald. we find the just-as-mystifying tale ((March 27-28, “Man who robbed Durango gas station avoids prison”), by the very same reporter, of a New Mexico habitual criminal just out of a three-year prison term and the subsequent violation of his parole, robbing a gas station; with another district judge – not Jeffrey Wilson this time but William Herringer – considering his record too trivial for jail time, and instead remanding him to Hilltop House; where he can once again be “treated” and “rehabilitated.” With the newly appointed Judge Anne Woods sharing their gentle predilection for “restorative justice.”
So, one is prompted to ask: How many more repeated violations, and mayhem and death inflicted upon innocents – invariably poor – victims would it take for our judicial potentates to recognize these adult, repeat-offending perps for what they are – habitual violent criminals – and then lock them up to protect the rest of us from harm and loss or death? Isn’t the past the best – if imperfect – predictor of the future?
Tom GivónIgnacio
