LAW AT FAULT, NOT CAPELESS

Here's what I think: State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, D-Lenox, is absolutely
right in his determination to do away with two-year mandatory sentences for
selling small amounts of drugs. Pignatelli, who shows some real courage in
calling for this legislative change, realizes that the answer is not to
yell at District Attorney David Capeless, who is doing his job, but to
change the law that Capeless is upholding.

With that said, it should be remembered that mandatory sentences are
usually put in place for a couple of reasons. One of them is that, more
often than not, our judges are not doing their jobs and tend to allow
people to walk away with little more than a slap on the hand.

Another concern that I have always had is that we have a classic American
tragedy where the sons and daughters of the middle class tend to get away
with serious crimes, while the children of people of color are more likely
to get much harsher punishments. Whatever law is passed will have to set
some standards and goals so that the seriousness of law-breaking is
emphasized. I find myself in agreement with many of the letter writers to
this paper who make the point that there has to be one law and one standard
for everyone. I don't want to second-guess a court, but my bet is that what
looks like a case of jury nullification might have been avoided if a few
jury members in a recent drug trial didn't think that a possible two-year
sentence was too much. I can tell you that it is now a pleasure to walk
through the Taconic parking lot and not be confronted by some very bad
language, manners, insults and taunts. I can only hope that a law can be
constructed that holds people who break the law accountable. I also hope
that parents of young drug dealers pay a little more attention to what
their kids are doing.

I am sick and tired of seeing drunken drivers use their automobiles to kill
and maim, causing havoc among families and loved ones. This is one place
where I believe our laws are entirely too lenient. A guy with a gun in a
grocery store is often given more punishment than a repeat drunken driver.
I have often wondered whether the lawmakers, some of whom have been known
to bend their elbows a time or two, are more lenient with drunken drivers
because they are able to project themselves into the drunk's dilemma
rather than that of the grieving family of the victim.