The Other McCain

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

PUT CRIMINALS IN PRISON!

Posted on | July 31, 2021 | Comments Off on PUT CRIMINALS IN PRISON!

Say hello to Cody Wayne Russell, and pray to God that you never encounter him, because Cody is the pluperfect example of what happens when the criminal justice system fails. There is a judge in Ohio who needs to be removed from the bench. He or she had a chance to send Cody to prison, but instead this dangerous felon was sentenced to probation.

NO MORE MERCY FOR PUNKS LIKE THIS!

Fortunately, Cody is likely to be off the streets for a while now. When last heard from, he was being held without bond in a Florida county jail. If he ever sees the outside of a cell again, it will be too soon.

Last December, not long after he turned 18, Cody was convicted in Montgomery County, Ohio, of assaulting a police officer. Were it up to me, such a felony would mean serious prison time, because assaulting a cop should be considered an attack on the law itself. Such crimes are disrespectful, an expression dangerous antisocial tendencies, and I wish our courts were entrusted to judges who understood the importance of upholding the dignity of society by imposing harsh justice on those who exhibit an attitude of defiance toward the law.

PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN THESE WORTHLESS PUNKS!

Excuse my angry outbursts, but I just got through watching a YouTube video of the 12-mile police chase through two Florida counties that ended with Cody Russell’s arrest in April. This punk is clearly a menace to public safety, and discovering that he was out on probation when it happened — because of some LIBERAL BLEEDING HEART JUDGE in Ohio — only increased my rage. Judges who go soft on criminals put the public in danger, and this leniency must be stopped.

So (he says, taking a deep breath and trying to get his blood pressure down before suffering an apoplectic stroke) what happened was that Cody, like the vicious criminal he is, stole a black Dodge Durango and then stole the tag from a Toyota Avalon — apparently because in his dimwit criminal mind he imagined that having a stolen tag on a stolen truck would somehow deceive cops — and took off for Florida. In addition to grand theft auto, going to Florida was a violation of the terms of Cody’s parole, which forbade him to leave Ohio without authorization from the court. Cody traveled about 900 miles to reach Sumter County, Florida, where he was spotted near mile marker 322 by Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Kjekstad. At that point, Cody was heading north in the stolen Durango, indicating that he was coming from somewhere further south, perhaps Tampa. Trooper Kjekstad reported:

I observed a black Dodge Durango with an unknown Ohio tag traveling northbound on the outside emergency lane at a high rate of speed passing numerous vehicles. While in the emergency lane, the vehicle was all over the shoulder kicking up numerous debris at nearby motorist[s], causing an immediate hazard to their safety. Due to the Driver’s wanton disregard to the safety of the motorist and reckless nature, I activated my emergency lights and sirens to initiate a traffic stop on the before mentioned vehicle. The vehicle made erratic lane changes into the inside lane accelerating away from my fully marked patrol vehicle with an agency insignia, at which time I initiated a pursuit at approximately 4:27 PM.

You see that Cody might never have attracted law-enforcement attention — despite being a felon on probation, driving a stolen vehicle with a stolen tag — had it not been for his “wanton disregard” for public safety in recklessly zooming up the shoulder of the highway. Now, if you want to watch it, here’s the video of the ensuing chase:

 

Do you see why that made me so angry? I was hoping to see the trooper do one of those high-speed PIT maneuvers the way they do in Arkansas, where the fleeing felon sometimes dies as a result. (Trooper Tanner Middlecoff fatally rammed Lakita Davis at 126 mph.) But this is Florida, not Arkansas, so Cody unfortunately survived, getting off I-75 at exit 341, making a zigzag through traffic, going north on a two-lane highway, then crashing into a tree while attempting a high-speed left turn.

It took about 10 minutes for Cody to travel 19 miles on I-75, meaning his average speed was more than 100 mph, and at times he was traveling as fast as 115 mph, according to Trooper Kjekstad. If you watch the video, you’ll see how dangerous such speeds are in “moderate” traffic.

WHY IS IT NOT LEGAL TO SHOOT PUNKS LIKE THIS?

Sorry for another angry outburst, but this business of criminals having no fear of law enforcement is the real root of the problem. If it were up to me, cop cars would have laser-sighted, remote-control miniguns mounted on the hood. There would be a trigger mechanism on the steering wheel, and once the computer aiming system had a “lock” on the target — BBRRRRRRR!! — those miniguns would unleash a burst of .50-caliber automatic fire that would destroy the fleeing vehicle.

Most criminals are so stupid, some of them still might try to outrun the cops, but I guarantee you none of them would do it twice.

Being authorized to inflict sudden death on fleeing criminals would do wonders for the morale of America’s law enforcement community, not to mention the benefits to public safety of lowering the recidivism rate to zero. You run from the cops, you die — that would be my policy.

Alas, the Supreme Court in its 1985 decision Tennessee v. Garner didn’t see the benefits of this approach and, even in dissenting from the majority, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor didn’t seem to endorse my laser-sighted minigun solution to fleeing suspects, so we’re forced to live in a world where criminals lead cops on high-speed chases without fear of .50-caliber fire directed by computer-assisted targeting systems.

Be that as it may, we can start putting criminals behind bars where they belong, instead of turning them loose the way that Ohio judge turned Cody Russell loose, and if I were a citizen of Montgomery County, Ohio, I’d be investigating this case to find out who that judge was, so I could organize an effort to remove them from the bench. Meanwhile, when last heard from, Cody Russell was in the Sumter County Jail, charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors, being held without bond because he violated felony probation. We can certainly hope that Florida authorities will send him for a nice long stay in Starke. By the time he gets out, maybe I’ll have convinced law-enforcement to try my computer-aimed .50-caliber minigun idea, and we’ll see if maybe the Supreme Court wants to repent for its mistake in Tennessee v. Garner.




 

Category: Crime, Florida

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