Smashing that old ladies car with a pipe was the best thing that ever happened to me

[Elta]

So I saw someone from High School today at the grocery store.

I wasn't good friends with him, but I had some classes with him and I recall him getting kicked out and sent to adult ed in 11th grade.

Anyway our conversation went like this about three minutes in -


Me : So what's up, are you in college?

Him: Actually I just got my degree.

Me:

Him: Yeah, check this out. A while back I got a couple hundred in traffic tickets. I didn't pay them so of course a warrant was issued, I got pulled over and went to jail for a few days. The judge told me that she would drop my fines if I took and passed the G.E.D. test, you know because I don't have a diploma. I did it because, it's cheaper to try and take the test then it is to pay the fines you know?

So I passed! It saved me a lot of dough.



A couple months later I was over at (Name of guy I also know from high school)'s house and we were having a little kick back. Then we noticed his keys were gone. One of the chicks who was there took them. I was hella drunk so I was like " F-that!, lets go get it back, I know where she lives, lets go get it back!"

I knew that she lived on Donner street (which is in the hood) and I knew I would stick out (He is a tall skinny white guy with freckles and red hair). So me and him both grabbed to metal pipes he had by the door in case of a brake in.

We rolled over to her house and no one was there. We waited a little while and a new Camry rolled down the street, so we waited to see if it was his and she pulled up right in front of the house. We could see it was her and some big ass dude in the passenger seat. I wanted his big ass to know that I wasn't F-ing around, and I knew my dad could fix the glass at the shop for free anyway. So I ran up and smashed the windshield!

She pulled out and ran off. The cops were there hella fast, and It turns out it wasn't even the right car.

So anyway the same judge lady said she would give me time served and lower it down to a gross misdemeanor if I went full time in college for two years and maintained a 2.0 GPA and wore one of those bracelets on my legs that reads sweat to see if you are drinking for 6 months.

I was like "6 months no drinking and two years of school? Better than 9 to 24 months in the penn" So I did it.

Anyway, I did the Air Conditioning Associates degree and I graduated this summer. I just started working and went from making minimum wage to 24 an hour. Tight huh? Smashing that old ladies car with a pipe was the best thing that ever happened to me.


Me:



We talked some more, but that was it for the totally insane part of the story.




What is your opinion of people charged with misdemeanor to short time Felony crimes being given a way out by getting more educated?

Is this some how unfair to the highly educated?, they wouldn't get such a chance would they? Though I have heard of Doctors being given a chance by working a free clinics and such. Isn't a skilled person using their skills for free almost the same in a way?

*Edit - I meant Car in the title, not care.
Moderator Action: Changed - Rik

 

[Arwon]

Kinda like how it's unfair to rich people that they'll never get given public housing or social welfare benefits?

 

[Leifmk]

So, instead of this guy continuing on with a life of alcohol abuse, more or less serious or petty crime, incarceration, unemployment, more crime etc. and generally being a drain on society, he's cleaned up his act, stayed out of trouble, and begun achieving something. Better for him, better for society as a whole, better for whoever might otherwise have the ill fortune to get on his wrong side in the future. Sounds like a bit of rehabilitation that actually works.

 

[Volum]

So, instead of this guy continuing on with a life of alcohol abuse, more or less serious or petty crime, incarceration, unemployment, more crime etc. and generally being a drain on society, he's cleaned up his act, stayed out of trouble, and begun achieving something. Better for him, better for society as a whole, better for whoever might otherwise have the ill fortune to get on his wrong side in the future. Sounds like a bit of rehabilitation that actually works.

I support this message.

Smashing that old ladies car with a pipe was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Maybe a strange way to say, but if it lead to him cleaning up his act and getting a well paying job i guess its true

 

[Kraznaya]

So the lenient policy turned his life around. Hmm.

 

[Yeekim]

So, instead of this guy continuing on with a life of alcohol abuse, more or less serious or petty crime, incarceration, unemployment, more crime etc. and generally being a drain on society, he's cleaned up his act, stayed out of trouble, and begun achieving something. Better for him, better for society as a whole, better for whoever might otherwise have the ill fortune to get on his wrong side in the future. Sounds like a bit of rehabilitation that actually works.

Indeed.

 

[Dragonlord]

So, instead of this guy continuing on with a life of alcohol abuse, more or less serious or petty crime, incarceration, unemployment, more crime etc. and generally being a drain on society, he's cleaned up his act, stayed out of trouble, and begun achieving something. Better for him, better for society as a whole, better for whoever might otherwise have the ill fortune to get on his wrong side in the future. Sounds like a bit of rehabilitation that actually works.

Jepp.

After this definitive reply, thread can be closed...

Edit: .... and if an educated person behaved in this way, he deserves all he gets..

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Great, another intellectual. A low-life thug would have been better for society.

 

[Brighteye]

He took the easy option because he was threatened with punishment for his crime. It's good that he was forced into cleaning up.
It's bad that people who need to clean up get a couple of 'free crimes' which people who made the right decisions in the first place wouldn't get. His life is better, everyone is safer and the economy is doing better, but that's still not necessarily excuse enough for that sort of injustice.
Perhaps next time a teenager from a nice home does something criminal, he should be let off the first offence because he's made the right decisions already?

 

[Kraznaya]

Great, another intellectual. A low-life thug would have been better for society.

An air conditioning man isn't an intellectual.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Did they at least also make him compensate his victims for the cost of repairing the damage he inflicted? Victim compensation should the prime focus of punishing such crimes.

2.0 GPA and 6 months without drinking seems rather light. 2.5 GPA and a year (or more if he was underage) without drinking would have been better.

 

[emzie]

How unfair I had to motivate myself to enrol.

An air conditioning man isn't an intellectual.

No, but he does more a service to me than any sociologist ever could.

 

[bhsup]

IF the guy actually changed his outlook in general as well, then I'd say it worked. If he's still prone to being a drunken bastard who would merrily attack people with a lead pipe, then it was a dismal failure and his next crime should send him to the lockup for a long time.

 

[Phlegmak]

So, instead of this guy continuing on with a life of alcohol abuse, more or less serious or petty crime, incarceration, unemployment, more crime etc. and generally being a drain on society, he's cleaned up his act, stayed out of trouble, and begun achieving something. Better for him, better for society as a whole, better for whoever might otherwise have the ill fortune to get on his wrong side in the future. Sounds like a bit of rehabilitation that actually works.

Agreed .

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

If he's still prone to being a drunken bastard who would merrily attack people with a lead pipe

He attacked a car.

 

[Leifmk]

In general I think rehabilitation measures are likely to work much better if applied early like this; that is, before a guy has been convicted of & served hard time for a felony. Ounce of prevention, pound of cure, etc.

 

[Cutlass]

Hell of a story. The judge deserves a

 

[downtown]

Perhaps next time a teenager from a nice home does something criminal, he should be let off the first offence because he's made the right decisions already?

They have the money to settle out of court before it hits the criminal justice system.

 

[Newbunkle]

This would have been a good thing if he a) learned his lesson and regretted his actions, and b) was still punished and forced to pay compensation using his new higher salary. Its disgusting to reward people for committing crimes.

 

[dutchfire]

How was the education payed for?

If he had to pay for the education: Great work, turned a thug into an air conditioning repair man.
If the government payed for it, how does the cost of education compare to the cost of locking him up?