I've always wondered why it seems nearly everybody charged with a crime winds up pleading it down to a lesser charge. On TV mainly. Not too many crimes pled down here at Fortress Chuckmeister.
It seems they get probation instead of incarceration, and with a smaller crime to boot. Or drop a few charges off the booking to give the perp a reason to play along. To plead "guilty," step outside the booking program, and let the court system do its thing.
So, having enough available time to research the myriad things which piss me off these days, I decided to research this one. And Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, I was right. The System sucks. I shouldn't have investigated it. And here are the statistics...
California has 366,000 laws on its books. All sorts of laws. Laws which can and do take your freedom and/or your money. But the primary thing the System can take is your FREEDOM.
That may not mean anything to you until you learn that the Federal Gubmint, yours and mine, has only 300,000 or so laws on its books! For 51 states. And New York comes in at Number Two with 264,000 laws. Illinois is Third with 179,000. So you know now what you always suspected; Taxifornia's in the business of ruining your life if it wants to, with crimes you never even heard of. So just throw up your hands, give it your money, and consider taking the U-Haul Exit. Like more than 1,000,000 of your friends and neighbors have done over the past few years.
As the famous prosecuting attorney once said, "You show me the man, and I'll show you the crime."
And it took me over two hours of digging to learn how many laws the Feds have. Because the Gubmint doesn't make it easy. They don't give out that statistic. I had to visit every one of the Gubmint's Cabinet secretaries' websites and total them up. Plus all the other 45 agencies, regulatory bodies and departments.
Our police here in Taxifornia can arrest you for any or all of its multitudinous laws, except I think we're safe from that. Because our police and sherriffs' duputies don't know anything about them either. The 6 months of Cop School only teaches them about the ones that rake in the dough. DUI's, speeding, careless and reckless, and elicit drugs are the ones that bring in the bucks. Not the other umpty-thousand laws.
But then the fun starts. 95% of all our arrests for felonies are pled down to a lesser charge! Often to misdemeanors. 85% of all civil matters are as well. And when they're arrested they're let out the back door within hours due to bail bonds being levied and posted. "No cash" bonds, or even "Own Recognizance" bonds (O.R) will be used. The perp is sprung before the arresting cops can even finish their booking report.
Which really pisses them off, BTW.
And yet, get this, 1 out of 8 of those bounced out catch another charge while out on bond. Which may violate the bond or cause another higher one to be issued. More money for the courts and more money for the bonding companies. And fully 20% of them fail to appear at court for trial! Which forces the court to issue bench warrants for their arrest. That's why cops always ask for your I.D. when they confront you. They're looking for bail jumpers so as to bring them in.
Want to know the average number of arrests before a perpetrator gets some Hard Time in the Big House?
31!
They say recidivism is rampant. Wouldn't you think that punishing a criminal from the very first crime would serve as a meaningful deterrent? I do!
Would you like to know how many accused murderers are out on bond here in balmy Taxifornia, but have failed to appear? And now have a murder warrant hanging over their heads?
2,900!
Now you know why so many people flee from the cops when the blue lights come on. Who wants to get arrested for a murder charge?
Add that to the other 126,000 that have warrants on them due to failure to appear, and you have a yuuuge number of felons wandering our streets. Many just looking for people upon which to prey. The same streets you and your family frequent, perhaps. I told you not to read this!
So why do the courts let hardened criminals out on bond if they know they're hardened criminals?
There's no place else to put them!
And why don't more criminals opt for jury trials? They could, and maybe should. But court officials tell us it would bring our judicial system to its knees if they did! Not enough judges, not enough court rooms, not enough prosecutors or enrolled defense attorneys, or even hours in the day. So they let them out on bond instead, to prey on you and me.
There's that, and the fact that the plea bargain between the perp's lawyer and the D.A. provides an upper limit on years of incarceration, while a jury trial might carry with it two or three times the prison sentence the plea bargain offers.
And why don't they build more courtrooms and jail cells? Not enough money. And our Democrat-controlled legislature here in the once-Golden State wouldn't appropriate it anyway. Because Democrats think jails should be abolished. They don't believe anyone should be incarcerated, and that all those in jail and prison right now should be released! Our BoyGuv ("Hairgod") Newsom has already let out 92,000 hardened felons. And he's closed 13 prisons during his tenure, at a time when we need more. He's also put into motion a plan to shut down San Quentin, our oldest and largest prison, and turn it into a day care center for the newly-released prisoners. Basketball courts and weight rooms and baseball diamonds and TV rooms, etc. I'm sure they won't reoffend. Rigggghhtt!
Prison gives you free room and board, and free meals, and free TV, and free medical care. Sounds better and better, now don't it? Maybe old folks who are being starved out should do a faux bank robbery. They'd be taken care for the rest of their lives.
And while we're on the subject of Newsom, he's signed some 125 anti-gun Executive Orders since taking office. Including outlawing all Glock pistols, even though most of our police carry them. More than 89,000 in cops' holsters right now. His mantra is turning loose hardened felons and then making it tougher for us to defend ourselves against them.
Gulp!
We have 93,000 state jail cells here in Taxifornia. And another 87,000 county and city jail cells, not to mention those under Indian Affairs, the Federal Gubmint, and Navy/Army lockups. And there's 200,000 inmates +/- in all those prison cells at anyone time, they tell us. They should have the room, but tell us they don't. The math ain't mathin' to me...
So somebody jacks your car or picks your pocket or sticks a gun in your ribs and gets arrested. He's booked and charged, and then meets the judge for a probable cause hearing. He's let loose because, "Hey, he's not such a bad guy! Let's give him another chance." And they do. Over and over and over again. Because Democrat judges, of which we an abundance here, are bleeding heart Libs. They let him loose on bond. With usually 10% o 15% of its face value. Meaning, a $10,000 bond requires $1,000 - $1,500 up front. And you never get it back, even if you show up for court.
And since it's only a few weeks before the guy's or gal's hearing, that's some dammmmd high interest rate! But if the guy's a bail jumper, the bail bondsman's on the hook for the entire bond amount. He'll then send his bounty hunter thugs to find the perp and drag him in to court. And they're not subject to the nicities of a cop or deputy. They operate under the same rules of procedure that 1850's bounty hunters did. They'll break down doors and beat the Bad Guy half to death if necessary. They're not deterred by the Constitution's guarantees or Rights. A word to the wise...
A bonding agency will take the upfront cash and usually a surety arrangement with the perps mom and dad on their house for the rest. They're there to give out bonds, and they'll do so for the most rotten among us. And they don't make bad deals or they wouldn't stay in bizz. Bail bondsmen make tons of money, all due to our court System managing 10 times the number of criminals it's designed to serve.
And over and above all that are the charges for court fees (a few hundred bucks), the defense attorney (a few thousand bucks), a "no start" device attached to your car to prevent you from driving if you've been drinking ($hundreds a month), and the "SCRAM" device attached to your ankle to monitor alcohol intake (another few thousand), etc. So the perp likely loses his job, if he had one, and now has no way to pay all the charges and assessments and fees for the court-demanded remedies. A downward spiral. Too bad, so sad. His problem.
Fellow Patriots, here's a System that's designed to fail. But because everybody up and down makes money on it, except the arrestee, seemingly nobody cares.
Plus, nearly every arrestee winds up with a hundred or two hours of "community service" to punish him. And most don't complete it all. Which is a bond violation in and of itself. Causing the perp to be dragged into court once again. A few hundred hours could be half a year. Can't get and keep a job if you're busy helping out at the soup kitchen, now can you?
So here's the Bottom Line: More than 9 out of 10 of those arrested are promptly released on bond, many to offend again while on release. With no real penalty for doing so because the same or a similar (and higher) bond will be issued several times. With no real anticipation that it will help them change their lifestyle. Which is the supposed goal. Because being a criminal in America IS a lifestsyle! They're crooks! That's what they do for a living. They factor in the risk of getting caught and doing the time before they do the crime. There's nearly a million arrests here in CA every year, and nowhere to put them. So our judicial system has come up with a unique turnstyle System to handle them. In the front door and out the back. Kacching! Get used to it.
Finding out all this crap has given me a headache. It's shattered my closely held beliefs and expectations as well. I used to have faith in our legal System. No longer. I wish I hadn't done the research. I wish I hadn't written all this stuff. And I wish I hadn't published it, either. I've got an idea. I'll pretend I didn't write it, and you pretend you didn't read it. Okay?
We'll both be farting through silk!
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