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yeah, screw the terrorism charge and life w/out parole stuff...he should receive the death penalty for killing a 10 yr old girl.
but gangs do terrorize..they terrorize the neighborhoods in the areas where they are.
The state of New York is preparing to put a terrorist on trial. He's not a member of Al-Qaeda though; he's a member of the St. James Boys, a Mexican-American gang. The terrorism charge added to the murder case against Edgar Morales will remove all options for sentencing except life without parole.
Yahoo NewsMorales, 22, was indicted on murder and other charges as acts of terror in May, along with 18 other members of the St. James Boys Gang, a Mexican and Mexican-American street gang.
Morales faces the most serious charge of second-degree murder as a terrorist act. A New York grand jury returned the charges against him in connection with the shooting death of 10-year-old Melanie Mendez, who died from gunshot wounds two years earlier
"Gangs are a forum to promote terrorism," said Balvoni spokeswoman Lisa Angerame. "Therefore, the anti-terrorism statue would be applicable against them, even if the original intent for this law was not exactly to prosecute them."
I consider a gang member to be among the lowest forms of criminal- second only to congressmen. There probably should be laws which add to the sentences of gang members- in some states they are already in place. That being said, no such law exists in this case and the misapplication of the terrorism law sets an extremely dangerous prescedent.
I find it digusting that law enforcement would twist and manipulate the events of 9/11 and the preventative measures enacted afterward to achieve other social aims which they have been unable to pass into law on their own merit. If they want to crack down on gang members they need to pass an applicable law, not misapply other laws.
Suppose plain old ordinary joe gets into a fist fight that he didn't start and wins. The district attourney who handles the case just happens to have a particular aversion to violence, which right or wrong is entirely separate from the law. This DA is unhappy with the light sentence that he expects from a battery charge, especially under these cir stances, so the DA trumps up the case with this very same anti-terrorism law by saying that all violence is terrorist in nature. Well now if the defendant looses the stakes are WAY too high, so he has almost no option but plea bargain, and he's going down for a crime he never comitted because the personal beliefs of law enforcement officials were taken as license to manipulate the law in ways not approved through our democratic process.
yeah, screw the terrorism charge and life w/out parole stuff...he should receive the death penalty for killing a 10 yr old girl.
but gangs do terrorize..they terrorize the neighborhoods in the areas where they are.
Um, isn't this still a jury trial?
You know what? Until my odds of being tried in America as a terrorist are greater than my odds of being killed as an infidel, in America, by terrorists I'm just not going to give it much thought. I couldn't read the article because of my self-imposed Nbadanallah ban but, sounds like the s needs to be behind bars. I don't care under what statute his incarceration is effected.
Um, in my eye anyone who terrorizes a neighborhood, including killing ten year old girls, definitely qualifies as a piece of and a terrorist.
The only disturbing thing about this case is that he could get life instead of the death penalty.
Well, that, and Dan worrying about the DA doing everything in his power to make sure this asshole doesn't ever walk the streets again.
It would have to depend on what the gang member is being charged with. For example, if they targeted a particular person (for instance, a rival gang member) I wouldn't agree with this kind of charge... But...
The randomness of these crimes DO compare with terrorism. I don't think it's any less de able than an extremist commiting an act of "Jihad" on a small part of the population.It included a long list of crimes cited as evidence they terrorized a city neighborhood, including allegations they harassed and robbed customers of a local restaurant, fired guns into a crowded park, shot a teenager in the face and slashed someone's throat.
And I couldn't care less about his mother. Not sure why the writer thinks anyone would. Cry me a river, , your son is s .Every time Lourdes Morales watches the TV news and sees a story on terrorism, she weeps.
Family members have stopped trying to console her, but they, too, cannot understand why Edgar Morales, the family's youngest son, will see the new year arrive in prison where he is waiting to be tried as a terrorist.
Maybe if she had done a better job raising him, it wouldn't have happened, just a thought.
Could it be that Dan makes his donations to the ACLU???????
A quick take on why I am against special "terrorist" laws... and how it ties in with me actually agreeing with Dubya on something.
Recall the 2000 election when the DNC tried to make a big deal out of Dubya opposing laws that allow for specific punishment for murders who commit what are deemed to be hate crimes? What was Dubya's reasoning: all murders are hate crimes. I agree with Dubya on this point, and believe all murders should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of what their motives were.
I think the same holds true for terrorists. Specific laws for punishing terrorists are stupid... punish them, and all other criminals, to the fullest extent of the law. Instead of reserving special punishment for terrorists, lets expand them for the non-terrorists committing similar crimes.
Bingo Scott. I mean if a KKK member kills a black man all he has to do is say, "I just like killing!" That way he won't be prosecuted for a hate crime.
In a sense, I agree. However, as long as the Left keeps screaming for ACTUAL terrorists to be treated as criminals -- and, therefore, en led to due process -- instead of the enemy combatants they are, I'm conflicted.
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