Thursday, October 18, 2007

An Easy Way to Keep Dumb Criminals Behind Bars

If you've ever had the pleasure of taking a leisurely stroll around the lovely Monroe County Civic Center, you've probably had the joy of seeing litter strewn about in a sadly predictable fashion on many adjacent streets. Beyond the typical Wendy's bags and discarded Watchtower literature, the most common form of trash you'll find are clear plastic bags. But these aren't just any plastic bags, look closer and you'll see that these bags contained the possessions of a recently-released inmate of the County Jail. Or rather, a recently-released dumb inmate of the County Jail.

True, most criminals are dumb, especially those that get caught. But these are the type of criminals who, upon getting released from prison, immediately litter our city's sidewalks. These are the most braindead of the dumb criminals. It stands to reason then that these are the types of criminals that are the most likely to be repeat visitors to our area's most exclusive resort. Litterbugs piss me off, but these assholes take the cake. The funny thing is, with minimal effort, we can put these geniuses right back in the slammer. You see, these bags have the inmate's name on them in big bold letters. If these shit-for-brains can't figure out that they shouldn't leave trash displaying their personal information on the streets immediately outside the jail, then we should throw them back in jail before they commit a much worse crime.

My suggestion is a simple one: any time one of these bags is found, the police should be immediately notified and dispatched to the former inmate's home to arrest him or her for the offense. These offenders should be put back in jail for a minimum of three months for showing depraved indifference for our community. If we are serious about "zero tolerance" then we should at least show no tolerance for this form of littering. This is a simple and easy way to get some of the most ignorant scum in our community off the streets before they have the opportunity to really harm an innocent person. And if that doesn't help, there's always the death penalty...