Letter: Misdemeanor crime is still crime

October 25, 2012

8 Comments

Recently, on more than one occasion, Mayor-President Kip Holden voiced his opinion that operating a misdemeanor jail is a bad idea. He also stated he does not believe those people who chose not to pay their traffic fines should be arrested for not doing so.

I posted a question about this matter to Mayor Holden on his Facebook page. Neither the mayor nor anyone on his staff has responded as of the writing of this letter.

I would like to know how he intends to collect the outstanding fines from these people. It appears by his comments that he generally believes enforcing misdemeanor crime is silly and a waste of time and police efforts. Just how does he plan to clear the approximately 160,000 misdemeanor warrants that are currently active? How does he intend to collect the millions of dollars in fines owed by these people?

Does he plan to ask each one of them nicely to come in and pay their fines? Does he intend to suggest to his newly appointed chief of police to not enforce misdemeanor crime any longer?

The crime in Baton Rouge is bad enough without the mayor insinuating that enforcing misdemeanor crime is not important.

I find it very disturbing that the mayor, who is also the parish president of East Baton Rouge Parish, has this view of misdemeanor crime. How can a person in his position be this soft on crime? The citizens of East Baton Rouge Parish deserve to have these questions answered.

Richard Sobers

retired police lieutenant

Ethel

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Comments (8)


1) Comment by simbatigercat - 21/10/2012

I wonder if retired policeman Sobers was a police officer during the Pat Screen administration. I remember many years ago a retired officer wrote a letter to the Advocate where he said the pressure to write tickets was "relentless". I would be interested to know if the Advocate could do an article on how many tickets officers in similarly sized cities write. It seems that every time a city gets strapped for cash they turn to ticket writing to increase revenues. A misdemeanor jail would cost about 2 million dollars to operate. Would the amount of money taken in be worth it to operate? If you have ever been to Baton Rouge City court, especially traffic court, and watch how judges run roughshod over citizens to find them guilty and slap them with fines you would realize its not about justice. It's about revenue enhancement.

2) Comment by 8point6 - 18/10/2012

It's hussein's fault!

3) Comment by phil - 18/10/2012

Is it a crime to hide public records or delay someone from obtaining them? Can someone file a criminal complaint on that?

4) Comment by DMJ - 18/10/2012

And somehow this became about CATS. No unrelated issue to random to relate to CATS. But hey...at least you didn't find a way to blame President Hussein.

5) Comment by Chucky - 18/10/2012

@tradewinns -Great analogy tradewinns.

6) Comment by 8point6 - 18/10/2012

Speaking of "crime". This should be a crime. I saw this yesterday afternoon. This should have been the front page headline in today's paper: "CATS sounds alarm on service promises". http://theadvocate.com/home/4169047-125/cats-sounds-alarm-on- service Look at "our views" back in May: Our Views: Congratulations for new CATS http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2657434-123/our-views- congratulations-for-new

7) Comment by tradewinns - 18/10/2012

so the mayor doesn't believe in the old "broken window" theory?

8) Comment by Chucky - 18/10/2012

If you enforce Misdemeanor crime's you send a message of strong action on crime, good letter.