Sunday, January 11, 2009

God Bless Armed Robbers

I have never been robbed at gunpoint, so I can't know for sure how I would react. But somehow I doubt I would say "God bless you" to the perpetrators as they left with my cash.

But this is how one Hilary Chavez, in a Journal Sentinel letter to the editor, claims to have reacted after having been robbed recently. While being robbed Chavez thought that perhaps the young perpetrators were "looking for a little Christmas money" or "may have had problems with addiction." Her larger point was to defend the idea of "restorative justice" which "provides the opportunity to show criminals that their actions have consequences for others" and that we can't "incarcerate our way out of the drug problem." Chavez is the Program Coordinator of Milwaukee Treatment Initiative, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

I don't claim to know much about "restorative justice", but I can state, unequivocally, that we should be highly suspicious of any policy proposals coming from someone who's first instinct is to excuse and even bless the behavior of armed robbers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Incarceration ended the drug problem like prohibition ended alcoholism.

Nemo said...

The Community Advocates Public Policy Institute is just another group of looters. Don't think for a second that her blessing had any religious overtones. It was just a professional courtesy to fellow robbers.

Denis Navratil said...

That was a good one Nemo.