Posted on 04/24/2009 4:54:40 PM PDT by Crazieman
Emphasis on announces . I’ve read this piece three times and can’t convince myself that I’m not missing something obvious that makes it all perfectly rational. Surely if a D.A. were forced to turn his district into a free-fire zone for certain crimes, he wouldn’t broadcast to the public what those crimes are.
Right?
The decision not to go after any perpetrators of certain offenses, Grove said, amounts to “holding up a sign and advertising to the criminal element to come to Contra Costa County, because we’re no longer going to prosecute you.”
Don’t even bother submitting the cases, Kochly said Monday in a memo to the Contra Costa County Police Chiefs Association. “If they are submitted, they will be screened out by category by support staff and returned to your department without review by a deputy district attorney,” he wrote…
Supervisor John Gioia, who represents Richmond, said the list of crimes that Kochly says he won’t prosecute is far longer now than what he told the board during its budget deliberations.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for the chief prosecutor in the county to inform the public at large what cases they’re not going to prosecute,” Gioia said…
Kochly said prosecutors will still consider charging suspects with certain misdemeanors, including domestic violence, driving under the influence, firearms offenses, vehicular manslaughter , sex crimes and assault with a deadly weapon.
Also among the offenses he won’t prosecute, according to the following clip: Grand theft and hit and run . Seriously, what am I missing here? Click the image to watch.
I strongly suspect this is a ploy to convince the public that the spigot to public spending must NOT be turned off...
All California is giving the obvious S.O.S. and the dolts in Sacramento still don’t get it.
I didn’t see “speeding tickets” on the list. It must be one of those crimes that are on top of the most dangerous crimes list.
Absurd. They should have fired the police, fire/paramedics, teachers, shut down garbage collection and water before it came to this.
That’s how they do it by me. We usually cry uncle just at the announcement stage and pay up.
If you think about misdemeanor statutes, two things are obvious. The first is that there are a vast number of them, and the second is that many are pretty frivolous. But the devil is in the details.
For example, grand theft and hit and run sound serious, but *typically*, what do those amount to, at the prosecutorial level? In the story, a woman was complaining about check fraud, but there is an easy way around that for retailers: do not accept personal checks.
Hit and run? You would think hit and run where someone is seriously injured or killed, but that is the exception. Most hit and runs are dented fenders or single vehicle accidents against property.
Annoying, yes. And if they could prosecute for it, it would be nice. Nice but not essential.
So what does this mean in Contra Costa County? Well, probably not that much. There are probably few or no “county islands” that are not part of some city, so if you are too obnoxious, the city police will nail you.
i thought selective enforcement of the law was a crime...
Yep.
Misdemeanors should be a profit center for the county. He’s probably playing hardball to get a bigger slice of the pie for his office.
This is the law-enforcement equivalent of the school superintendent who threatens that the schools will have to cancel recess and arts & crafts unless the taxpayers agree to their extortionate budget increase demands...
Most people pay them and don’t contest them and they are big money makers so they will be prosecuted, but if you force a trial then your probably home free (after you pay your lawyer). Of course most people don’t fight them because of the time it takes and if you lose the judge will be ticked off about taking the courts time and think about a max sentence.
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