Monday, December 31, 2007

Get Your Scorecards (and Horse Floggers) Out

Law-abiding Massachusetts residents who neglect to keep their address current on their car registration?

A clear and present threat to those around him and to society in general, unsuitable to be licensed to own a firearm.

Police officers convicted, in a court of law, of beating their wives?

Here's your gun and badge back. Sorry for the inconvenience.

POLICE OFFICERS who physically abuse their spouses or intimate partners too often elude justice. That certainly would apply to Boston Police Lieutenant David Murphy, who returned to work last week after spending eight months on paid administrative leave.

In May, a Maryland judge ordered Murphy to serve 18 months probation for punching his wife in a Baltimore bar. The officer's conviction for second-degree assault will be expunged when he fulfills the conditions of his probation. The plea deal was sadly typical of domestic violence cases involving police officers.

Prosecutors and judges need to put an end to the inside game that favors batterers with badges. Strong federal laws forbid anyone, including police officers, to own a gun if convicted of a misdemeanor or felony domestic violence offense. But officers routinely avoid such career-ending consequences through favorable plea bargains.


Welcome to the People's "Progressive" Republic of Massachusetts. Please check your ability to process rational thought at the door. And, oh yeah, be sure to vote more left-wing hack dingbats into office when next you go to the polls. You wouldn't want to effectuate any kind of change down there, now, would you? Perish the thought.

I wonder if Ted "Alleged Champion of Women's Rights" Kennedy's office will have any comment on this matter. He's all about getting guns out of the hands of violent criminals, right?

Yeah, right. Just so long as your definition of "violent criminal" includes the phrase "everyone not on the government payroll, whose job description includes the enforcement of leftist doctrine".

(link via Zendo Deb)