Driver in highway collapse had criminal record

I just love our criminal justice system. It is so fucked up. But even more fucked up is the way we treat people after they have "served their debt to society."

Case in point is this situation we had in San Francisco this past weekend. A fellow was driving a big rig loaded with gasoline. He was heading westbound on the I-80 and was attempting to go southbound on the I-880. Apparently he was driving too fast and didn't make the curve. The subsequent crash created a spectacular fireball, and the fire melted the supports of the I-580, which then fell down on top of the I-880.

Spectacular news story. Pain in the ass for me because that's how I go to work when I'm in San Francisco. Fortunately no one was killed. Only the driver was injured but he walked away from the accident. It happened at something like 3:30 AM on Sunday.

So here we are a couple of days later. The media has had time to dig into this guy's background, looking for the inevitable dirt. ET VOILA! We now know this guy has a criminal record. It's all over the news. Let's smear this guy's name and face everywhere. How dare he drive a truck with a criminal record?

But here's the point. His criminal record is from like 10 years ago first of all. It had NOTHING to do with the accident. And there is no law saying someone can't get a commercial driver's license with the kind of background he had. And, oh by the way, the Homeland Security people had to clear him because he was going to be driving trucks with hazardous materials. They obviously didn't think it was a problem.

So how is this news? His criminal record had absolutely NOTHING to do with the events on Sunday morning. But, by God, we're going to drag his name through the mud because its sensational, and that sells newspapers and gets ratings.

Which brings me to another point. No one in the criminal justice system ever "pays their debt to society." They keep paying and paying and paying all their lives. How easy is it for an ex con to get a decent paying job so he can support himself and his family? Not very easy. Because that criminal record hounds an ex con for the rest of his fucking life. There are some states that don't allow ex cons to vote. So even though they've paid their debt to society, let's strip them of their constitutional rights.

Now before you label me a criminal coddling liberal, consider this. Imagine how your life would be if you screwed up, learned your lesson, served your time, and then found yourself in a position where you had no options but working at McDonald's, even though you had paid your debt to society? Wouldn't be very pretty would it?

Some people are just trash. There's nothing you can do to keep them out of trouble. But I suspect that a fair number of these repeat offenders find themselves in that position because the system sets them up to fail.

for I was in prison and you visited me -- matthew 25:16