Taking A Stand: Criminals lack responsibility
What’s the difference between a criminal and a law-abiding citizen? Not as much as you think.
It seems many of us sometimes tend to think we are somehow different, even better than, a person who has run astray of the law. We look down our noses at the names on the docket, wondering to ourselves how a person could let themselves sink to such a low level. Fourth-offense DUI, passing hot checks, theft and domestic assault: The law-abiding citizens of Warren County would never be guilty of such unspeakable acts.
Honestly, that last statement is right. Most of you reading this column will never be arrested for any criminal offense. Most people easily go through life without ever even getting close to a brush with the law, a select few even avoiding a traffic ticket. I’m already excluded from the latter.
However, obeying society’s laws does not make a person better than one who goes astray of the law. Now I’m not saying there aren’t bad people out there, because they are folks who exist who are rotten to the core who would have been better off never being born. But, for the most part, the people who are filling our jail cells aren’t bad people. Instead, they lack one thing the law-abiding citizen has, that being a sense of responsibility.
If you’ll do a check of our inmate population at this very moment, a large number of them out there are in jail for violation of probation. This means they were given a second chance after being convicted of a crime, yet, they failed. This, for the most part, wasn’t because they went back out and committed heinous crimes, but instead, because they did not have a sense of responsibility.
They did not have enough intestinal fortitude to finish what they started, in this case, their probationary period. They either didn’t pay their fines, keep a job, do their public service work, report to their probation officer or couldn’t keep off meth.
I’m up there often when they give their song and dance to the court. The most common answer as to why they failed their probation is no reason at all. They are unable to give an excuse to the court why they couldn’t accomplish the minimal tasks that would have kept them out of jail.
Of course, the admission they have no reason is better than the made up ones which are normally weak as water. And, these cheap excuses don’t seem to change with age. I can recall excuses 14-year-old kids gave in juvenile court right after I began here, which are the same excuses the same guy, now 28 years old, is giving today for violating probation. It’s truly amazing how a kid, never given a sense of responsibility, will never learn that sense, even much later in life.
Responsibility is something that must be taught. It’s not a natural thing. If a person is raised by an irresponsible person, they too will likely be irresponsible if something or someone else does not intervene. And, irresponsibility is not something we, as a society, tolerate. An irresponsible person is in for a long, hard life or poverty and brushes with the law since they will never hold down a job or stay in a relationship very long.
Like I said, most criminals are not bad folks, they’re just irresponsible. However, before you look down your nose at the names on the docket, ask yourself if you are teaching responsibility to your kid, because if you’re not, you’re part of the problem.
Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].