Crime and Non-Punishment

I'm sure I am not the only one to notice that our judicial system is badly broken. It is geared toward protecting criminals while penalizing innocent victims.

The Bill of Rights guarantees us the right to be protected from illegal search and seizure. No problem - that is a good amendment, to be sure. The problem I have lies in how lawmakers and the courts have usurped and corroded it.

Nowhere in the amendment does it say that a proven criminal should go free, to wreak more havoc on innocent people, just because of a typographical error on a search warrant. Nowhere does it say that a guilty person should ever get a "get out of jail free" card simply because someone did not cross all the T's.

But that is exactly what happens. It seems the courts - more interested in protecting the rights of criminals - have arbitrarily decided that an illegal search should result in the criminal being set free - rewarded for being guilty.

That is bad law. VERY bad law! Two wrongs do not make a right!

In a sane world, the guilty party, being guilty, would still be punished, but he would have company - the person who made the error and violated his rights. This is a simple case that there are two crimes here - the crime that the criminal committed, and the crime that was then committed against him by violating his rights. Two crimes should result in two punishments.

Instead, our legal system says that two crimes should result in NO punishment. The criminal goes free, and the people who violated his rights are not held accountable, either.

Is it any wonder we have so much crime? And so much disrespect for the legal system?

We, the People, need to stand up and demand that crimes be punished, regardless of technicalities. And if a criminal's rights are violated, the violator should be held accountable, as well. But to actually reward a criminal just because a law official makes an error is absolutely unconscionable.

Yes, we are to be protected from illegal search and seizure. But that in no way erases our liability when we commit a crime.