Man. How do you take this? When a judge dismisses charges of illegal possession of a firearm and driving under the influence of drugs (Xanax) because the defendant is “a hero”… how am I supposed to feel?
On the one hand, I think patriotism within reason is a good thing, and I think heroic effort should be recognized. On the other, how does being a hero make it okay to not only break the law, but endanger the public?
The judge ruled that “a conviction would have no useful purpose” and that, in effect, it’s okay to illegally carry a firearm because the Second Ammendment says so, sort of. The charge of driving under the influence of drugs was dimissed without explanation.
I think that the best I can say about the decision was that it was populist. A conviction might have been construed as “un-American” by a certain faction of society.
The facts are that, for whatever reason, this hero was illegally carrying a gun and was driving on drugs– badly enough that he was busted for it. I don’t think it sets any kind of positive precedent to dismiss those facts as irrelevent in the interests of justice.
At least no one was hurt. No damage is mentioned in the article. It’s probably fair to say that if there had been any injuries the judge would, in the end, have served justice. Probably.
Nevertheless, if you’re going to ignore the law for your convenience, you should be willing to pay for it. And a judge who isn’t willing to back the terms of the law he claims to represent shouldn’t be permitted to practice.
Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. Sometimes there are larger factors to consider. I don’t see that here. I don’t see a guy acting heroically or a judge exercising justice. Just a broken system.
I totally agree… very broken!