Excerpt: 9 mm Solution

I don’t know when we abrogated our sense of personal responsibility, when it became acceptable to put the blame on anyone and everyone but ourselves. There used to be a time when a person would own up, fess up (I believe they use the expression “man up” currently) to an act or event or a causality. I broke the lamp. I let the dog in the house with muddy paws. I didn’t do my homework. Those are simplistic examples in which there is very little harm in the outcome. But waning moral values and a softening in the justice and penal systems have resulted in a pure sense of outrage that can not be suppressed any longer.
It is readily easy to read or watch examples almost daily. Some miniscule technicality of the law results in someone being released from custody, never even brought to trial for a heinous crime. Lack of evidence, tainted evidence, doubt about valid evidence, frees a perpetrator. A prosecutor, more interested in the celebrity associated with a case, makes crucial mistakes resulting in an unfavorable verdict. Judges granting bail or bond of such a pathetically small amount that a defendant almost certainly does not appear for trial. Even worse is the idea that a prisoner, an individual who has committed a crime against society, gets the use of athletic equipment for working out, television service, some internet access. A working class family, struggling to make ends meet, struggling to simply put food on the table, would have to pay in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty dollars per month simply to enjoy these amenities. They have done nothing wrong against the rest of us and yet they PAY. Twice. Their tax dollars are paying for the criminal to enjoy these same amenities.