It was about 25 years ago, and my mother was just about the same age as I am now. She came out of B.M. Newman’s Grocery on Breckenridge Street and was knocked down by a young man who grabbed her purse and broke the strap off her shoulder as she carried her groceries.
The police came and my mother (if you knew her, you will remember, was no shrinking violet in the face of adversity) insisted that she get in the car and ride with the police to search for the offender, as she could identify him. They reluctantly allowed this, and, with her help, found the thief. He was arrested and carried downtown.
My mother recovered her purse (which had very little money but did have her passport), and she got the satisfaction of knowing the young criminal would be punished.
But that did not happen.
She went to court over six times, and each time the case was postponed or delayed with all kinds of excuses given. Finally the district attorney said he was dropping the charges because so much time had passed. My mother was disgusted and disillusioned and predicted that this young man, allowed to weasel out of punishment, was setting off on a bad path.
It was no surprise to me to see the mug shot of this man who is now in his 30s being arrested for yet another crime. Over the years I have followed his criminal career, and he has truly become a repeat offender. It may have started before he was twelve, but at the age of twelve he was strong-arm robbing a female senior citizen in broad daylight on a city street.
You may think this first offense was not serious and should have been overlooked because of the perpetrator’s age, but it was serious to our family. For months my mother was fearful every time she walked her dog and a stranger approached. For months she called the courthouse and pestered the court system to take action. A few months after the theft, she was diagnosed with a serious illness that I believe was brought on by the stress she endured. For months she felt that the young man was really heading into a dangerous life and that the system was failing him. You see, she had compassion for the twelve year-old, and she knew that without proper punishment he would continue a life of crime with impunity.
And it seems he has.
This is why it is so discouraging to read that the court system today believes that for criminals there is an “ineffectiveness of community consequences.” I say, if it is ineffective then it is your job to make it effective!
Another excuse is “savvy defense lawyers who know the ropes.” Is this an admission that our district attorney and prosecutors are not as savvy as defense lawyers? This is a preposterous excuse.
And if our “courthouse is not protecting us”, then it is high time that the state takes over and shows them how to do the job. It is an insult to people in Vance County to say that things are done differently in Vance County. It is an insult that should be corrected.
You can be part of that correction. Send an e-mail to every single North Carolina representative and every single North Carolina senator and tell them to sponsor and support the Repeat Larceny Offenders Bill that is being proposed. It is easy to do — the web site to find all the addresses is www.ncga.state.nc.us.
Do not let the New Year begin without taking some action. Get your PTAs, your church groups, your Community Watch groups, your civic clubs, the Chamber of Commerce, the Ministerial Association, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and the folks at Bojangles and Hardee’s to get the word to all legislators. Print this out, pass the addresses out, and tell people that we need to take back our city from the criminals. Tell your friends in other cities to do the same.
Do not leave this in the hands of our local elected representatives. They may still think that this is just Vance County, and we do things differently here.