This is a heartbreaking story and a classic case of a our States failure to protect it's most vulnerable citizens.. The man who committed this murder was clearly certifiably insane and extremely dangerous; from what has been reported about the crime it sounds as if he is schizoid or one of the many sub-types, and he was walking the streets ( of Bridgeport in this particular case) glaringly belonging in a high security mental facility at the very least.
Signs of schizophrenia and related disorders where people hear voices and cannibalize their victims, show signs of severe mental illness for years before committing a brutal murder on a vulnerable person. The man arrested for this crime was well into his forties, I cannot fathom that he had not come to the attention of Police and or social service mental health agencies prior to committing this horrible crime.
When will our Connecticut state agencies begin to take a pro-active role in preventing all of these unnecessary violent crimes. It almost always comes back to the same issue, legislators and the State's latest official bean counters weighing what one murder will cost the state to prevent, via plucking these offenders off the street at the first violent offense: stricter sentencing and a revamp of of current priority's within said justice system. We have the right to expect and demand a system where Police, Prosecutors,
Parole//Probation, A criminal records department and related Social service agencies are are all easily able to communicate via one computerized network.
If a brutal crime befell the family of a legislator, and he or she had to deal with the system that is in place, you can be sure that "defendant" would wind up with a considerably higher bail, stricter sentence, and liberal plea deals would be out of the question.
Therin lies part of the problem - elitism. The very people we vote to put into that legislators seat are by and large not getting it done. With the exception of the larger inner city assemblymen, the majority of legislators do not place crime prevention and public safety at the top of their list of priorities. And yet some of these inner city Reps have a major conflict of interest as they are representing minority's, whom they have expressed in sessions that they believe are treated unfairly by our States judicial system.
This presents a real conflict in expecting these legislators who comprise a fair number of lawmakinng votes, to vote upon crime bills without that particular prejudice.
And then there is the general rule of thumb that has long guided our States House of Representatives; They are playing the same old boy network IE "hop on board with us on this one, and we''ll help you out on that one, that nearly every political machine embraces. Politics as usual.
As a people we have come to expect this from our politicians, but high has the time come where we let our legislators know that this is not acceptable in matters of life and death, such as violent crime and predation of human beings..
The worst part is that it needn't cost the state overtly additional funds, there are monies that we are already spending willy - nilly, creating a revolving door for repeat offenders. A safer State, a better judicial system, requires a re-grouping, a new age prioritizing of our crimes, including using what we know through experience are pre-cursor crimes for predators moving up the predatorial ladder. I personally would rather see any violent offender in a Connecticut prison cell (and this includes breaking and entering/potential
violence!) than the thousands of inmates whose only crimes have been possession of, or procuring a drug that they are addicted to.
This is but one single change in law and judicial sentencing that would save the State millions of dollars and free up resources for prosecuting and housing violent offenders.
Instead of shaking our heads and feeling awful for the latest victims, I suggest we use our collective power to vote in our own legislators jurisdiction, against any lawmaker senator or assemblyman who is not making his/her vote on crime bills reflective of what we as citizens want. This includes the upcoming death penalty abolishment bill where repeated polling has shown that the residents of Connecticut want to reserve the right to pursue the Death Penalty as we traditionally have, conservatively cautiously and only in the most egregious capital murder cases.
Vigil for victim in homeless man's murder
Signs of schizophrenia and related disorders where people hear voices and cannibalize their victims, show signs of severe mental illness for years before committing a brutal murder on a vulnerable person. The man arrested for this crime was well into his forties, I cannot fathom that he had not come to the attention of Police and or social service mental health agencies prior to committing this horrible crime.
When will our Connecticut state agencies begin to take a pro-active role in preventing all of these unnecessary violent crimes. It almost always comes back to the same issue, legislators and the State's latest official bean counters weighing what one murder will cost the state to prevent, via plucking these offenders off the street at the first violent offense: stricter sentencing and a revamp of of current priority's within said justice system. We have the right to expect and demand a system where Police, Prosecutors,
Parole//Probation, A criminal records department and related Social service agencies are are all easily able to communicate via one computerized network.
If a brutal crime befell the family of a legislator, and he or she had to deal with the system that is in place, you can be sure that "defendant" would wind up with a considerably higher bail, stricter sentence, and liberal plea deals would be out of the question.
Therin lies part of the problem - elitism. The very people we vote to put into that legislators seat are by and large not getting it done. With the exception of the larger inner city assemblymen, the majority of legislators do not place crime prevention and public safety at the top of their list of priorities. And yet some of these inner city Reps have a major conflict of interest as they are representing minority's, whom they have expressed in sessions that they believe are treated unfairly by our States judicial system.
This presents a real conflict in expecting these legislators who comprise a fair number of lawmakinng votes, to vote upon crime bills without that particular prejudice.
And then there is the general rule of thumb that has long guided our States House of Representatives; They are playing the same old boy network IE "hop on board with us on this one, and we''ll help you out on that one, that nearly every political machine embraces. Politics as usual.
As a people we have come to expect this from our politicians, but high has the time come where we let our legislators know that this is not acceptable in matters of life and death, such as violent crime and predation of human beings..
The worst part is that it needn't cost the state overtly additional funds, there are monies that we are already spending willy - nilly, creating a revolving door for repeat offenders. A safer State, a better judicial system, requires a re-grouping, a new age prioritizing of our crimes, including using what we know through experience are pre-cursor crimes for predators moving up the predatorial ladder. I personally would rather see any violent offender in a Connecticut prison cell (and this includes breaking and entering/potential
violence!) than the thousands of inmates whose only crimes have been possession of, or procuring a drug that they are addicted to.
This is but one single change in law and judicial sentencing that would save the State millions of dollars and free up resources for prosecuting and housing violent offenders.
Instead of shaking our heads and feeling awful for the latest victims, I suggest we use our collective power to vote in our own legislators jurisdiction, against any lawmaker senator or assemblyman who is not making his/her vote on crime bills reflective of what we as citizens want. This includes the upcoming death penalty abolishment bill where repeated polling has shown that the residents of Connecticut want to reserve the right to pursue the Death Penalty as we traditionally have, conservatively cautiously and only in the most egregious capital murder cases.
Vigil for victim in homeless man's murder
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