Off with his head

I understand the Jeff Wood story. And I won’t make excuses for him. He operated a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol which is inexcusable.

And Dan Bice has to fill column inches. Been there. Done that.

In truth, Wood and booze have a long and tangled history.

Since his arrest, two previous drunken-driving convictions have turned up, one in 1990 and another the next year.

1990 and 1991? Let’s see, Mr. Wood was born in 1969 so that made him, let’s see, mumble, mumble, divide by three, mumble mumble, carry the two, hmmmm, 21 and 22 years old. And this happened like 17 and 18 years ago.

Seems pretty harsh to bring this up. Oh, yes, there’s more,

Wood, the first independent elected to the Legislature in 80 years, was charged at least three other times in the early ’90s for incidents involving alcohol.

No, it’s not pretty. But he’s still in his early 20’s.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there,

More significant, Wood and a buddy were accused in 1989 of having sex with an underage minor they had picked up at a party. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and spent a year on probation.

Wood was 19. Nineteen.

Again, I’m not here to defend Mr. Wood’s reputation. Don’t drive when you’ve had too much to drink. The Journal Sentinel has pounded that into our heads the last few weeks.

But the marijuana found in his car concerns me more than this early stuff.

And where was all this information back in 2002 when Mr. Wood was first elected?

Well, of course, you know what has changed.

Police close books on Walsh killing

Yahoo! News

has a story about the police ending their investigation of the killing of Adam Walsh, the young son of John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted.

What it also did, said Mount Holyoke College sociologist and criminologist Richard Moran, is make children and adults alike exponentially more afraid.

“He ended up really producing a generation of cautious and afraid kids who view all adults and strangers as a threat to them and it made parents extremely paranoid about the safety of their children,” Moran said.

Seems like a harsh judgment. So are parents being more paranoid than they should be?

Waukesha crime

Josh at Blog Waukesha is listening to his scanner today.

Around the same time at 12:15 today, there was a call about someone walking car by car looking in the windows by associated bank. There wasn’t any chatter that I heard regarding if they caught the guy or not.My Wife’s purse was stolen one day like this, she left it in the back seat on the floor and someone busted the rear side window open and took it within a 15 minute period. I bought a 10 guage shotgun that night.

Meanwhile Darryl Enriquez reports on an increase in another type of crime.

This just in from police Capt. Mark Stigler, Criminal Investigations Division commander:.

“We have seen a significant increase in motor vehicle thefts in 2008 as compared to the same time period in 2007. In the month of January, seven vehicles were reported stolen, eight were reported in February and five so far in March.

More people leaving the motor running while they just “pop in for a minute.”

Waukesha sex offender ordinance

Waukesha passed a sex offender ordinance limiting how close they can live to parks, schools day care centers and recreational trails.

Fox Head weighed in with this,

Ok, as these other municipalities adopt the ordinaces, the state will need to work harder to place these people, it is typical to follow the path of least resistance, ie they will go to the communities without the ordinances. So, the conclusion is to get an ordinance set up to prevent that occurance.

Granted, I agree that 2,000 feet would be better and I like the idea of a cardboard box out in a cornfield, but if 1,000 is what we got, then go with it and we can always refine the rule later.

Cindy Kilkenny notes on a similar ordinance in Brookfield,

I am also a little concerned about the label of sex offender. There are some heinous examples of humanity out there, and some of them wear that label. Others who have been tagged look more like the typical high school senior. And has anyone noticed we only label the men? I would suspect women are as capable of sexually deviant behavior as men. Until we are willing to spend the time to differentiate the issue of sexually deviant behavior as a society, I think we’re sliding down that slippery slope that lets labels trivialize an issue of great importance.

Jessica McBride observes in posting about a Franklin offender,

At the same time, I’m a bit conflicted about these sex offender living ordinances.
It seems to me that if you don’t want the city to restrict where you live, then don’t molest kids. At the same time, don’t we live in a country where, if you serve your time, you’ve served your time? Granted, the restrictions are much like a probation or parole condition. Yet, these individuals – as depraved as they are – aren’t all on probation or parole anymore. What do you think? Are these ordinances getting over the top? I know that’s controversial to say and will be easily pilloried by some. After all, attacking child molesters is the safe side to be on. But why don’t we craft living restrictions for other offenders, too, then. Let’s restrict all felons from living 2 miles from a school, etc.

And don’t ask me whether I’d want a child molester living next to my kid’s daycare center. Of course not. But even if we had such a living restriction ordinance out here, it wouldn’t prevent a sex offender from living next door to our HOUSE or across the street anyway (I live more than the normal restriction zone from a park, school, and daycare). So, I am not 100 percent sure you can stop sex offenders from ever seeing your kid in an urban, suburban, or exurban area. So what are we accomplishing?(15 registered sex offenders live in my zip code).

Nick points out in the comments,

…the danger here has many facets. First of all, the legality of such ordinances is dubious at best. In essence you are punishing someone after the fact, without legal representation. This violates their due process rights, and could even be challenged on the grounds of double jeopardy.

Secondly, it continues to put a spotlight on “registered sex offenders”, when the sad reality is that “stranger danger” type attacks are the vast minority of cases. This gives people a false sense of security and safety where it’s not warranted.

Finally… it sets a bad precedent. If we say its ok to do this to this class of criminal, then another criminal will be next.

Dad29 also brings up a pertinent point in the comments,

If the State attempts to preclude “possible” criminal activity, we are setting up a framework which is truly frightening. It is akin to barring people with DWI conviction(s) from going into taverns or buying beer.

The Freeman on Saturday interviewed one of owners of a rooming house that rents to sex offenders.

My own personal opinion? I’m not all that excited about having sex offenders around, but our society’s laws say that the offenders has served his time. What are they going to do now that they are “free” men and women? And what are we going to do with them to keep our society safe?

Cat urine mimics meth?

From the Week magazine’s daily website.

When I first read this account, I was mildly upset at another strong arm action by cops.

Bad week for: Rushing to judgment, after a Florida woman was jailed for 50 days when police found a vial of a yellow substance in her purse. Cynthia Hunter, 38, insisted the vial contained dried cat urine purchased for her son’s science experiment, but cops didn’t buy it. A full lab test this week revealed that the vial contained . . . dried cat urine.

But then I read this account that fills in some of the detail.

Hunter, 38, of Lithia was arrested Aug. 15 for petty theft and possession of a controlled substance. The theft charge came after she was accused of stealing from a Brandon Wal-Mart store.

Hunter told a deputy the dehydrated cat urine was for her son’s science project, according to a court transcript. The deputy, though, did a field test for drugs and the substance came back positive for methamphetamine, according to court records.

The prosecutor said that there are a variety of chemical compounds in methamphetamine and doesn’t know how the presumptive test was positive. [Emphases mine]

So they thought it was drugs. And who believes someone you think is an addict. And a thief. But still,

“I still sat in jail … on an assumption,” Hunter said in court. “And I mean that’s not fair either.”

She’s got a point.

I guess that’s why the chopper was hovering

From JSOnline’s NewsWatch,

Police have arrested a 15-year old boy in connection with a shooting in the 1800 block of Manhattan Drive about 3:40 p.m. in which a BB shot from an air rifle narrowly missed a woman lighting a cigarette while driving.