So, it turns out that the prosecutor in the Ray Rice case is also the prosecutor handling Shaneen Allens case. Shaneen is a single mother of two, working as a nurse, who, after being robbed twice in one year in her home state of Pennsylvania, decided to get a concealed carry permit. She had her weapon with her when she was pulled over in New Jersey for a minor traffic violation. Following the advice of her self defense instructor, she told the cop that she was licensed to carry a handgun and that she had her firearm with her. For telling the truth, and making the somewhat reasonable mistake of assuming that her Pennsylvania permit was recognized in New Jersey, she was immediately arrested and charged with felony possession of a firearm. Should she have known where her permit was or was not valid? Yes. My problem starts once the case gets to court. Ray Rice, as most of you know, was caught on camera in a hotel elevator beating his then-fiance, now-wife (which is a whole other can of worms which Id prefer to leave sealed at this moment) to unconsciousness. The callous and carefree way in which he introduced his wifes face to the floor of the elevator, combined with the utter lack of concern or remorse for what he had just done, leads most people watching the video to believe that this was not the first time he had hit a woman, and probably wasnt the first time hed hit this woman. This would, however, become the first time that he would get caught. So, both of these cases dealt with, first time offenders, and both were / are being handled by county prosecutor Jim McClain. New Jersey gives prosecutors an option for non-violent first-time offenders, called pre-trial intervention, or PTI. Essentially, if approved for the program, a defendant avoids going to trial and keeps the incident off of their record if they successfully complete the program and stay out of trouble for a few years. It is designed specifically for situations like Shaneen Allens case: first time offender, non-violent crime, productive member of society who accidentally ran afoul of a law which they did not intend to break, etc. The program is NOT, however, designed for situations like the Ray Rice case, since beating someone unconscious is a violent offense. Guess which one got accepted into the PTI program, and which was denied because, there is a greater good served by prosecuting this defendant, which will hopefully serve as a warning to others in the future that we absolutely will not tolerate this kind of behavior, no matter who you are. Yep, thats right! THE SAME PROSECUTOR who let Ray Rice avoid a trial, any possibility of jail time, and even kept the domestic violence charge off of his record, is now denying Shaneen Allens request to enter the PTI program. This is truly screwed up. Jersey now believes that honest mistakes made by otherwise good people, who own up to those mistakes without trying to hide anything or run away, are a MUCH more serious problem than domestic violence, perpetrated by someone who most likely has a history of abusing women. Oh wait, I forgot, that honest mistake involved a legally owned firearm being carried by a legally trained and permitted law-abiding citizen. God knows, theres nothing these liberal bastions of, gun-free zone signs hate more than a gun in the hands of a regular citizen. Pray for Shaneen Allen and her family. Shes about to go through a show trial, with a guilty verdict nearly a certainty, and be proverbially bludgeoned and made to suffer - publicly - so that they can hold her up as an example of what gun owners should expect if they ever make a mistake. Last I checked, our justice system doesnt allow egotistical - and disgustingly hypocritical - prosecutors to be as heavy-handed as possible with one defendant, not because the facts of the case suggest that such a tactic is warranted or necessary, but specifically to ensure that she becomes an adequate, judicial scarecrow to keep others from committing the same offense. Prosecutorial misconduct, anyone?
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 08:37:43 +0000
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