The Judiciary in Distress

At the federal level, the law and court procedures are pretty much set in stone although every so often the interpretation of these points needs to be fine tuned. At the state level, laws and procedures vary from slightly to drastic from state to state. On the left coast, the tardy defendant donning his best PJ's is threatened with jail, but the circus atmosphere prevails and he is only severely admonished for for his behavior. How many times does an admonishment have to be severe before it becomes a most severe admonishment? Adding fuel to the fire, even the comedians have to bring in their legal beagles to overcome gag orders that prevent them from spinning jokes. Farther away across the country a judge, a court stenographer and a deputy are gunned down by the defendant in a brutal rape trial. The assailant overpowered a guard, taking her gun and calmly went back to the courtroom with the calculation of ending the life of another human being. Some pragmatic dissenters will bemoan the fact that a mere female should not have been assigned the duty of guarding this individual. This is not an issue of male v. female physical ability, it's an issue of why a greater number of guards, male or female notwithstanding, were not assigned to escort this guy to court. Were there any red flags to warn the authorities of the suspects propensity to violence? Maybe the fact that he was found with homemade sharp and pointy implements of destruction in his possession the day before? Three fatalities, one critical wounding, the pistol whipping of a random victim during the escape and the bad actor remains at large as of this time. It is very likely, based upon his track record, that others will be harmed or worse. This all comes on the heels of the brutal and senseless murder of the husband and mother of a federal judge in Chicago The victims just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time since the judge was the actual target of a disgruntled "casualty" of the system. Members of the front line law enforcement community know what they face when they walk out the front door in the morning. We should be grateful for the physical and emotional sacrifices that they make each day. Members of the judiciary and prosecutors however should not be one of the expendable pawns in the game of cops and robbers. Granted some are overzealous and a good swift kick in the rear should be awarded for their endeavors. But for the most part, the defendants of the world know they were wrong and part of the game is paying the dues. Even the Mafia didn't go after these folks with a vegence. Budgetary constraints will be cited for the breakdown in security. The court system is low profile and so the money to protect judges is not forthcoming. Instead, both the state and federal legislators cut the budgets in some areas to provide for friends in others. They pay more attention to the FCC's desire to protect us from five seconds of so called indecency than they do trying to protect us from explaining to our kids why the events in Atlanta took place. They change the bankruptcy laws to protect big business at the expense of the poor guy who lost his job and has enormous family medical expenses. They cut funding for programs to assist child care and education and like the anti Robin Hood give it to the developers in tax incentives funding or maybe even to build a new baseball stadium. One incident such as this is one too many.