Confused and....confused

[samsom]

A few months back a friend of a friend - who is visibly gay - was crossing a city street one night when a goon in a truck yelled at her to hurry up and cross. She yelled back. Goon gunned his engine and ran her down before fleeing the scene. Friend of a friend suffered severe injuries, and will suffer the rest of her life from the aftereffects, emotional and physical.

Goon was caught three days later 30 miles away in another town. He immediately pulled the 'feel sorry for me' routine and told the cops he was about to turn himself in.

Guys, there are three CHP hubs, at least one Sheriff's Dept., and three PDs that are open twenty four hours in that 30 miles, and yet he managed to miss all of them in three days and only 'was about to turn himself in' when the police caught his ass.

My friend told me today that the goon got 90 days in County Lock-up and didn't have to pay any kind of restitution to this uninsured person he ran down out of homophobic road rage. He tried to murder her with his car and his only consequence is that he can't own a gun. WTF? He doesn't need a gun, he's got a truck!

I usually have faith in justice, I (naively) believe it works. And yet I can't explain how this very blatant act of attempted murder got such a slap on the wrist unless I believe the DA is homophobic too. And that means that justice doesn't work. It bothers me more than I can ever say, and it will the rest of my life.

Comments

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Sounds like the New Zealand judicial system, which seems to be geared around helping the criminals, not the victims. All you can do is hope that karma smites his prejudiced ass.

[samsom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hope, since that's about the only satisfaction I think will be had from this jerk. From the second he was caught, it was all about him, not the girl he ran over. It's disgusting. The beauty part is now that he knows the punishment for deliberately running someone down is mild in comparison to, say, littering, the next time a particular someone pisses him off, there's nothing to stop him from doing it again. Especially since he knows his mother will be there to bail him out.

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

This is horrific on every level. I hate people sometimes.

[samsom.livejournal.com]

I'm not people's biggest fan right now either. Especially since this is just going to enable him to do even worse the next time a certain segment of society has the nerve to mouth off to him.

[damnskippytoo.livejournal.com]

Injustice always makes my blood boil and my stomach churn. I'm surprised there isn't an outraged crowd protesting in front of the DA's office. What is this woman supposed to do with her bills? I truly hope she at least sues him in civil court. Not that an idiot like this has any money, but she can at least make his life miserable with legal bills.

[samsom.livejournal.com]

My friend tells me she's going to try and move on, which probably means she can't deal with him anymore. She planned on attending his arraignment but ducked out at the last minute because it was too hard to be in the same room with him.

I'd like to think there'd be more public outrage, and I have this rather cynical opinion that if she'd been some blonde, petite college co-ed, there would be, but I've come to accept that things like this are a blip in the paper to 99% of the public. If it doesn't happen to someone you know or someone you love, it barely registers. I remember thinking at the time that if it hadn't traumatized my friend so badly, I wouldn't have given it more than a second of sympathy. But because of my work setting and because I found my friend crying in a back room the day after it happened, I feel it more than the general public. But I almost understand why the public isn't worked up over this, not with little girls being dumped like trash because the wrong person saw them walking home from school.

[damnskippytoo.livejournal.com]

Your email is bouncing back. Did you change email addys or is your server just down? Of course, you probably won't see this because you won't get your comment notifications. :)

[samsom.livejournal.com]

Ha! Didn't know I'd be waiting with baited breath for your reply, didja?? Gimma a few minutes about the email...