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Mike Hendricks

Mike at Night

Mike Hendricks recently retires as social science, criminal justice instructor at McCook Community College.

Opinion

Some crimes don't deserve a plea bargain

Friday, November 20, 2015

When I was a police officer I always hated plea bargains given to defendants, especially defendants I had arrested but I understood the reason they were used. The prosecutor gained a conviction without having to go to court plus time and money was saved by not having to have a trial. So most of the people involved in the process were happy. The county or state didn't have to worry about too many trials clogging up the justice process, the prosecutor gained another conviction to add to his campaign rhetoric and the defendant was happy because they were spared a longer sentence. Police officers were about the only ones who WEREN'T happy!

A plea-bargain story that appeared in Wednesday's edition of this newspaper bothered me a lot. It involved a 23-year-old local man that had physically assaulted his girlfriend three different times and in addition to that, had blind-sided an older man at a house party, knocking him out and causing him multiple injuries including a fractured jaw and broken ribs.

So here we have a bad guy. A criminal. A person who has no self-control. A person who does what he wants to do instead of what the rules and the laws tell him to do. This is not the occasional law abiding offender. This isn't a person who deserved a second chance because this guy had had second chances before to no avail. As a sociologist, I know he's very unlikely to change his behavior. He is who he is. He is who he learned to be. He is who he was taught to be, either intentionally or accidentally.

So after the plea bargaining is finished, he gets less than a year in jail. 300 days to be exact, minus the 89 days he's already served, plus he didn't have to pay any court costs. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal for the defendant and a pretty lousy deal for the people. This guy will be back out on the streets in seven months, most likely beating people up again, instead of tucked away in the Nebraska State Prison on a serious felony conviction where he would have had lots of time to think about where his evil ways got him.

When he was arrested the last time, investigating officers had to kick the door in to rescue the girlfriend who was being assaulted while the officers were there. They witnessed him hitting her in the head with a liquor bottle and punching her in the face with his fist. One officer said in his report that the believed the offender would have killed the victim if they hadn't of kicked in the door to save her.

So what we have here is another coward in a long line of cowards in this part of the state. They beat up women and blind-side guys who can't fight back to show their buddies how tough they are. And their buddies are likely to be similar to them.

We're not born with a conscience. We're not born knowing the difference between right and wrong. We're not born with the rules and the laws already in place in our brain. We have to learn these things which means somebody has to teach us and, unfortunately, some people don't have good teachers. This young man was not taught self-control. He didn't learn that he couldn't assault other people. He wasn't taught respect for the law or the laws themselves. And now it's too late. He is who he is and unless he has a burning desire to change his life around and make amends for his misdeeds, he'll continue down the same path he's been on.

That's partly his fault, partly the fault of the people who raised him, and partly our fault for not holding him accountable and giving him what he deserved before now.

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  • THANK YOU!!! Every single time I read McCook news, there is another person caught with methamphetamine....a felony, and every single one of them gets probation as a plea deal. First, second, third time offenders...when will the "system" start making these people learn something from their actions?? Here is Kearney, if you get caught with Meth...straight to jail, do not pass go. Second time...you will be serving time. Why is McCook so passive?

    -- Posted by SkyeKirch on Sat, Nov 21, 2015, at 3:40 PM
  • Well said, Mike. The type person, you describe, sadly, may well be the 'cop of tomorrow.' At least, that is what I see coming, as the young (not all), tend to think the old ways should be set aside, and to the whole problem, I will make one statement, and leave it at that: "Mankind, without God, in their lives, tend to be, what we call, inherently evil, it seems, by nature."

    We the People, have allowed the 'tail, to wag the dog.' (OK, so I gave two, Ooops).

    -- Posted by Navyblue on Mon, Nov 23, 2015, at 6:12 PM
  • Kuddos! I'm so sick of the "pat on the hands" and the "turning of the heads". Why can't we hold people to their accountability these days?

    -- Posted by FNLYHOME on Tue, Nov 24, 2015, at 1:39 PM
  • I wonder if this is true --- " We're not born with a conscience. We're not born knowing the difference between right and wrong " -- tough question.

    -- Posted by bob s on Mon, Nov 30, 2015, at 3:34 PM
  • Well this is an important issue but turn the clock back. What were the issues that divided us in 1960? We had prayer in schools, abortion was not legal, no one believed in gun restrictions, no one was living together outside of marriage, there was no internet, Facebook or cell phones and there were probably other belief systems I am forgetting. Today we have turned all that on its head. It is no wonder that we have the kind of anger that we have in society today. I can only imagine that in the time of the civil war the lines were also drawn as distinctly. You either were for or against slavery. There is no middle ground and the country went to war. With many issues like abortion, just as an example, there is no middle ground - and there probably can't be. My point is we wonder why people are angry and I say look at the issues and where we are. If I knew how to put the genie back in the bottle I would try but I don't know how we move back from where we were. I just think this is why our society is where it is today and why we are so at odds with one another.

    -- Posted by shirsch on Tue, Dec 22, 2015, at 8:40 AM
  • Sorry I meant that post to be on a different opinion article. I re posted it there but can't delete it here.

    -- Posted by shirsch on Tue, Dec 22, 2015, at 8:44 AM
  • Actually this opinion piece should be commented on. Just look at today's article on the repeat offender of the day. He has no intention of being a productive citizen, yet our local criminal justice system does everthing in its power to keep him out of jail, at the expense of those he's restricted from.

    Since this article appeared, there have been numerous examples of repeat offenders committing crime after crime. When someone breaks into your place of business, steals the tools of your trade, pawns them off, and after exhaustive investigation, get arrested, your told as long as you have insurance, there's really no loss. Then the perp leaves town without paying restitution.

    I feel for our law enforcement officials, they do incredible work with results only to see that work wiped out because those in the judicial department feel it is more important to get a conviction, sacrificing real justice by plea bargining to lesser offenses. So yeah, we're ****** at you, Mr. County Attorney.

    -- Posted by Hugh Jassle on Wed, Dec 23, 2015, at 6:33 PM
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