Help Ward Bird of Moultonborough

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Originally Posted by songkrai

My $0.02 cents.

The "tough on criminals" people want mandatory sentences. This case proves that this viewpoint is flawed.

But go way way back to the beginning.

If Jimmy was still chief - none of this would have progressed beyond Mr. Birds yard. Jimmy would have told the lady to leave and Jimmy would have told Mr. Bird to go back into his house. End of story.

This may be a tad oversimplified.

I would argue that its not flawed at all, just used in the wrong places!

Showing/displaying/”Brandishing a handgun (or whatever you want to call it) on ones own property is in no way a violent crime, ant that’s where you want to focus most of your mandatory sentencing efforts.

I believe in erring on the side of conservative actions, and mandatory sentencing has a place in our legal system, the question is where and when and how much.

This is a case where it was applied incorrectly (maybe intentionally so to build support against mandatory sentencing) so from my perspective it’s a good concept, but one that needs to be implemented VERY carefully!