The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Criminal Justice Reform’

Posted on | September 22, 2020 | 1 Comment

 

There wasn’t much left of the car after the high-speed chase ended in South Carolina, and not much left of the driver, either. Behind the wheel of a stolen Toyota Prius, Kamontie Gross, 19, led police on more than a 20-mile chase April 18, 2019, from Charlotte, North Carolina, after he and two accomplices committed an armed robbery. Police from Charlotte backed off the chase, letting a police helicopter track the stolen vehicle down I-77 to the border, where South Carolina state troopers took up the pursuit. At one point, troopers used a PIT maneuver to spin the car around, but it kept going until its fiery conclusion near Rock Hill.

 

You will probably not be surprised by this information:

According to Mecklenburg County Jail records, Gross had been arrested nine times since 2016. Four of those arrests included charges related stolen vehicles.
Jail records also show [Gross’s 17-year-old accomplice Aniya] Taylor had been arrested seven times since 2017. Her arrests also included several charges for Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, as well as Fleeing or Eluding Arrest with a Motor Vehicle.

 

Between them, these two teenagers had 16 arrests, and while I couldn’t find the name of the third suspect, who survived the crash, we can imagine that this person had his or her own string of arrests. Why weren’t these criminals already behind bars? What is going on in our criminal justice system, when repeat offenders are being turned loose to wreak havoc on our streets, endangering public safety? The media amplify complaints from activists who say “mass incarceration” is the problem, but it seems to me the problem is rather the opposite. Authorities appear reluctant to lock up young criminals; grand theft auto used to be considered a serious crime, but now it’s just a videogame title, I guess.

A TV reporter interviewed Kamontie Gross’s mother:

Channel 9’s Tina Terry spoke with the mother of the man behind the wheel, who said she waited for hours at the hospital before learning that her oldest child had died in the crash.
“It’s so hard to lose a child. It’s so hard, it’s so hard,” Chaquia Gross said.
The crash killed her son Ka’Montie Gross, who was behind the wheel, an unnamed passenger, and seriously injured a second passenger.
Chaquia said she has no idea where her son was going or why any of this happened, but she said her friend messaged her about the crash shortly after it happened.
“I was like ‘Is he OK?’ They said ‘He’s gone’ and I’m like ‘What,'” Chaquia said. “She said ‘I can’t, I can’t let you see him, if you did you wouldn’t recognize him.”
Chaquia said her son had a big heart that cared for others, but he never extended that same care to himself.
“He’d tell you don’t walk across the street cause a car coming, he’d walk,” Chaquia said. “If you were down, he would pick you right back up. We might clash, but I love him to death. I’m gonna miss him.”

Oh, he “had a big heart,” when he wasn’t stealing cars, perhaps. The reader will probably not be surprised to learn that, according to jail records, Chaquia Gross was arrested on charges of breaking and entering a motor vehicle and larceny about six weeks before her son’s death. According to records, Chaquia Gross was born in June 1984 and her son Kamontie was born in June 1999, before his mother’s 15th birthday.

Go ahead and blame “systemic racism” for this.




 

Category: Crime, South Carolina

Comments

One Response to “‘Criminal Justice Reform’”

  1. “Catch and Release” with Criminals Is Perhaps Not the Best Strategy | 357 Magnum
    September 22nd, 2020 @ 3:53 pm

    […] But a continuing cycle of violence is apparently what the Left wants. ‘Criminal Justice Reform’ […]