"Don't you just love our court system. The two men responsible for the Wallow fire could get six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. It will cost us that much to house them for six months. The fire cost us millions and millions."
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"Let's see, we have 419,500 unemployed and it rose to 428,000 and our Washington leaders said it's because companies hired less and not due to more layoffs. To think, us taxpayers pay these idiots. Do they think we are all as stupid as they are?"
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"Where do blacks get off calling the Troy Davis execution racist? Seven out of the 12 jurors were black. All the eye-witnesses were blacks. Davis was also found guilty of shooting another black man an hour before he killed the white policeman. The jurors came to a unanimous guilty verdict in less than two hours. Seven black jurors and five white jurors all came to the same conclusion after hearing the evidence that Troy Davis was guilty."
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Your chance to sound off: E-mail Vent submissions to vent@evtrib.com
Dale Whiting posted at 6:18 am on Mon, Sep 26, 2011.
First Venter:
Do I accurately detect sarcasim in your words? The basic fine is set by statute. Would you have everyone convicted pay a fine large enough to pay for the Wallow fire in order to cover most all fires? These men could have been ordered to pay restitution to those who lost money in that fire. Assuming that they were not so ordered, one reason might be that one cannot get blood out of a turnip. So why bother trying? We'd just loose even more money!
Second Venter:
Each and every day we have people seeking to join the workforce. And there are more ways that one to become unemployed! One can leave school and seek work, get fired, have their self-employment end. The list goes on and on.
Third Venter:
After hearing all of the evidence not presented, and finding out that all but two eye witnesses came to recant what they said, one of the two not recanting being the more likely one to shoot the officer, the conclusion reached was the both the Governor and the parrol board acted without reasonable compassion but with prejudice. A whole lot more that blacks see this as being the problem. Even actual jurors stated that with today's knowledge, they would not have voted to confict! You need to stop watching only FOX News.
Arizona Willie posted at 8:29 am on Mon, Sep 26, 2011.
1st venter ... while 6 months in jail ( jail / prison what's the difference? ) and $5000 might not seem like much to you, to the average person it would effectively destroy their life.
The conviction and jail time alone will prevent them from getting a decent job for a long time after they are released.
The fine, although paltry compared to the cost to the State, would have many people working a long long time to pay it off. Most likely the State will garnishee any wages they have until it is paid.
So how much fun do you think they will have working in a car wash and seeing half their paycheck taken for X years?
Perhaps you and I could pay the fine out of petty cash ... but most people can't.
I can remember back when I was the age those guys are. And if I had done this and gotten that sentence I would have:
1 ) lost my wife
2 ) lost my house
3 ) lost my job
4 ) lost my car(s)
5 - inf ) many other ungood things
Now if these men were wealthy Paradise Valley residents who owned businesses or were surgeons or something where they made / had a ton of money --- I would agree the fine was too light and the jail time too little ( possibly, depends on circumstances how they started the fire -- I don't remember them at the moment ).
Unless there was proof positive they set the fires on purpose I would say the sentence smacks them pretty good.