How many times can a criminal be violent before he is punished?
By Michael Letts
One reason crime is so rampant in the U.S. is because the criminals aren’t punished. Case in point is the case of a businessman and father of three who was killed in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His killer was a man who had been arrested and charged at least 66 times.
By all accounts, Christopher Wright was a good husband, father, and citizen. He was in the city for a high school reunion when Darryl Roberts had a verbal dispute with Wright and shot him in the head at point-blank range. Wright died at a nearby hospital.
Roberts has a long rap sheet with at least 66 arrests going back decades. According to WDEF, some of the arrests include:
· 6 counts of assault over that 30-year time period that were bound over to federal courts or Roberts pleaded guilty.
· A conviction on aggravated robbery in 2000 where Roberts pleaded guilty.
· Three separate DUI charges, one which resulted in a conviction in 2017.
· 16 different theft charges varying in amount stolen resulting mostly in misdemeanor convictions.
· Four separate drug possession charges including the aforementioned crack cocaine conviction in 1993.
This is why we need prosecutors who go after criminals, and judges who don’t have endless patience and give criminals the lightest sentence possible. Don’t get me wrong. People deserve a second chance, but do they deserve 66 chances?
When is enough enough and the weight of their repeated criminal behavior land them in the jail permanently?
The problem with leftist prosecutors and judges is they are so focused on being kind to criminals, they forget about getting justice for the victims.
In this case, at least, it seems that prosecutors were willing to prosecute Roberts for his crimes. The problem seems to be at the sentencing stage where he was repeatedly given light sentences that ignored his history of criminal violence.
Where was the incentive for Roberts to stop his criminal ways? He rarely suffered any consequences for his actions, and when he did, it was minor.
This time, he faces a first-degree murder charge with a potentially lengthy time in prison. He also had a bond set at $5 million.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said in a statement, “Some suggest that this is the result of a police department that isn’t doing its job. Nothing could be further from the truth. The effectiveness of CPD’s presence and engagement throughout the community and its focused deterrence strategies are well documented. The sad reality is that sometimes proactive policing only goes so far, particularly when you’re dealing with the kind of person who would commit a murderous act of apparent rage in front of witnesses on the steps of his own apartment building under the blue light of a well-known public safety camera.”
However, he blamed the problem on gun violence rather than Roberts. Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp also blamed gun violence.
They are part of the problem because they refuse to place the blame where it belongs on Roberts.
Until the left starts to place the blame on crime with criminals and fully prosecute them, the problem of rising crime in America will only grow worse.
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
