SENTENCE: Probation not enough

Drunk driver kills teenager and gets probation. The article left out a lot of facts. Let’s assume he did not get bail while awaiting trial, that’s less than a year in jail. One young man is dead and another injured.

This upstanding citizen was drunk driving, had possession of drugs and an expired drivers license. Do you think this was his first time driving drunk or his first time using drugs? What did he do in order to get his license suspended in the first place?

As a retired deputy sheriff for Los Angeles County for 26 years, I can assure you the answer to the first question is unequivocally — NO. When people get caught using drugs or driving drunk, it is not their first time. The odds against this happening is so rare. The truth is they do this kind of behavior so often that it is commonplace. So by the time the police catch them, they have been doing this as normal behavior.

Let’s assume this was all just a one-time incident. When you give someone a slap on the wrist for this misdeed, it just cheapens the person’s life they took. You’re telling the parents that their son’s life was not worth that much, not to mention the other child’s injuries.

If you think probation is such a deterrent, go visit any jail or prison. They’re filled with people who violated their probation.

GEORGE SILVA

Coeur d’Alene