Brickbat: The Fugitive

A SWAT team raided Cornealious "Mike" Anderson's St. Louis home, hauling him out at gunpoint. Anderson was wanted for a robbery. A robbery he'd been convicted of 13 years earlier. For some reason, authorities never actually sent him to prison. And they didn't discover he was free until it was time to release him. In the meantime, Anderson has not only stayed out of trouble with the law, he has married, started a family and started a business. But the local prosecutor says that now that they know Anderson never served his time he has to go to prison.

Comments

[invisible furry hand]

And in 13 years' time they'll realise they didn't shoot his dog and will come back to finish the raid properly

[Pathogen]

And seize his home and business for good measure.

[db]

JUSTICE(tm) has been served.

[Pathogen]

"Alt" + 0153 = ?

[UnCivilServant]

I thought he got time off for good behaviour.

[Snark Plissken]

On the one hand, armed robbery is no joke.

On the other hand, there ought to be a statute of limitations, including if the state fucks up and forgets to put him in jail, that's the state's bad. Also, if the professed goal of prison is to get dangerous people off the street and to rehabilitate them (I know, I know), then it seems like this guy has shown that he is neither dangerous nor needs to be "rehabilitated".

Of course the DA doesn't want to "set a precedent". God forbid the justice system actually show some flexibility and actual prudence in its jurisprudence.

[WTF]

The goal is rehabilitation, it's just Idiocracy-style rehabilitation.

[Capo]

I'm wondering what kind of "precedent" would actually be set here. Does the prosecutor believe there are a lot of people running around free because they just forgot to lock him up?

This doesn't seem like something that should, you know, come up very often.

[Robert]

If the rules say he has to go to prison now, that's an admission that prison is supposed to be a punitive deterrent rather than rehabilitation.

[Pope Jimbo]

Wait, I thought that if there was a screwup in sentencing there was no way to fix it. Clerical errors were just part of the landscape and you bastards just had to accept that a mistake was made and move on?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04.....itics&_r=0

Now you are telling me that the state might find a way to work things out? I think this guy should tell them that the paperwork says I get out in 2014 and too bad for you if you forgot to put me in the slammer in the first place.

After all paperwork is paperwork.

[Dr Fallout]

"... mistakes were made..."

[Pathogen]

Obviously, instead of costing the taxpayer somewhere in excess of $80k a year to incarcerate, money that the various prison guard unions and assorted cronies are absolutely counting on, this jackoff was building a family, a business, and contributing to society via corporate/income taxes. The prison guard unions find this totally unacceptable, and he should be punished for failing to quietly point out such an egregious fuck-up as allowing a convicted violent felon to roam free, and then quietly reporting to prison to "repay his debt to society"...

[Spoonman.]

Map of every government-owned parcel in the city of Philadelphia

I'll post this on the AM links too, but it's too amazing to wait until then.

Note that this doesn't include large parks like Fairmount, which I guess aren't deedable property.

[invisible furry hand]

it's gorgeous and horrifying all at once

[Harvard]

The most horrifying part of this story is the first sentence. When made aware of what this guy has been doing the past 13 years the prosecutor and police chief naturally send out a team of assassins.

[Steve G]

Exactly. Other than SWAT job security, what possible explanation is there. If he'd gone to prison 13 DAYS later he probably would have been visited by regular uniformed cops in a non-'tactical' setting, but 13 YEARS clearly means he's violent.

[sarcasmic]

Other than SWAT job security, what possible explanation is there.

An opportunity to kill someone.

[Steve G]

If it weren't for the fact that they would simply escalate the use of force, it would be poetic if a few more of these SWAT visits began with a Biden-approved shotgun blast to the face of the lead 'operator'. Naturally, though they would end with the execution of every civilian in a 50 yard radius.

[sarcasmic]

Back in my restaurant days, one night the local cops basically took over the bar. They were being loud and obnoxious, driving off the rest of the customers, but what are you going to do? Call the cops? Anyway, while they were one-upping each other with stories about choking people and holding their pistols to women's heads until they peed their pants, one guy complained that he'd never had a chance to kill anyone. His buddies consoled him, telling him that he'd get his chance. The guy joined the force to kill people, and his buddies were totally down with it. That's our police.

[Karl Hungus]

. . . if a few more of these SWAT visits began with a Biden-approved shotgun blast to the face of the lead 'operator'.

You'd see a lot fewer SWAT raids if this started happening with any regularity.

The appeal of the job for these guys is knowing they're largely going after people who aren't armed, aren't dangerous, and are unlikely to do anything except cower in terror at the end of their gun barrels. Strip away all their black S&M regalia, and you'll find these men are cowards at heart.

I believe their true nature would quickly be revealed if there were ever an actual element of danger added to their jobs.

[Drake]

The "S" in SWAT should be removed. They used to be used ONLY during a hostage situation or a real shoot-out where the police might be outgunned.

Now they dress up like Paratroopers on a combat patrol to arrest a guy who hasn't stepped out of line in 13 years.

[pan fried wylie]

"WAT HAPPEN?!"

/willard

[wareagle]

Man starts business, has family, lives normal life; state responds with assault team. And the descent into self-parody continues.

[Agile Cyborg]

Meanwhile let's work feverishly as a police department to protect and insulate our own armed thugs from the long arm of the law when they are caught violating and abusing and even killing.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I can't believe this thug is still walking the streets.

[invisible furry hand]

Don't worry, God will strike him dead soon enough

[Rich]

What is this thug, chopped liver?

[invisible furry hand]

Barnes, a retired Western Union dispatcher, admits that he thought about keeping the book but decided to return it to get a piece of the limelight.

"It's like the Andy Warhol quote," he said. "I wanted my 15 minutes of fame. I only got two minutes of it, so I've got 13 minutes to go."

i hope that's a joke

[Rich]

See what I mean, ifh? What an insufferable bastard!

[Karl Hungus]

I know two things:

1. If I were sentenced to 13 years in prison then sent home to "await instructions," I would vanish. I understand that I'd most likely eventually be caught, but I really don't believe I could voluntarily report to prison.

2. If I'd instead did like this guy did and did try to resume a normal life at home, I'd have spent the last 13 years sweating bullets.

[The Late P Brooks]

He cheated Society. We don't want rehabilitation, we want vengeance.