Well Slap My Wrist

There's something that bothers me. Recently in my home town there was a policeman on trial for pointing his service revolver at his live-in girlfriend's head and telling her she wasn't worth the bullet. All of this happened because she told him she was meeting an old friend who happened to be male. I think they were going to dinner, I can't remember the exact details of all of it.

Anyway, the officer was placed on leave with pay until he went to trial. His girlfriend told the arresting officer's that she didn't believe he would have shot her. Because she made that statement, when the officer went to trial he got off. He wasn't charged with assault because his girlfriend didn't believe he would shoot her. Let's hope she was right.

To me, that officer should have been terminated. I wrote a letter to my hometown newspaper stating such and they decided not to publish it. I mean, here is a guy who is carrying a gun around all the time who, obviously, has a character flaw. All of us have some kind of character flaw(s) but we are not all carrying a gun around everyday. Here is a man who has sworn to uphold the law and breaks the law and gets away with no consequences. Sorry, I just can't agree with that. I know this, I wouldn't want him to mistake me for a criminal he is trying to arrest. If he can't control himself when it involves someone he cares about will he control himself if it is someone he doesn't? Perhaps he shouldn't have, necessarily, gone to jail but I think he should have definitely lost his job and not have been allowed to own a gun again.

And, then, just a couple of days ago there was a story in our local paper about a local prison guard who smuggled marijuana into prison and she got off with an eighteen month suspended sentence and unsupervised probation. Well, slap my wrist!

Can you say favoritism? We are sending the wrong message with this lack of justice. We are telling public servants that they are exempt from the law. I, personally, think that these people should have been held more accountable because of their position, not less accountable. It bothers me that just because of their jobs we turn our backs on right, slap them on the wrist and let them go on to have another opportunity. Oh, the guard did lose her job. Let's just hope the policeman don't lose his temper again or his girlfriend may lose a whole lot more.