It seems that some people now think it was a good idea for the Morning News to publish Florence’s arrests. I am glad you decided years ago not to do that. While printing an arrest report can serve some good, it can also do harm to innocent people, their family and friends. You cannot un-ring a bell. When someone’s name is printed in the paper as having been arrested, in the minds of many readers that person was tried and convicted. If they are tried and found innocent or the charges were dropped the Morning News is not going to print that, so forevermore they will be remembered as someone that broke the law and got caught.
I certainly agree that crime in the Florence area is remarkably high. Florence has become a Little Chicago. Drug and gang activities are rampant. It appears that law enforcement is doing its job, but the judicial system is not doing its job.
Whether they are letting us down because they are liberal judges or because liberal laws force them to set low bail or allow bail at all, I do not know. I do know that our jails and prisons have become revolving door facilities. There have been several situations recently where people with an arrest record that goes back many years have been released only to kill innocent people soon after their release. That is totally unacceptable.
I realize being a judge is not an easy job. They literally hold people’s lives and futures in their hands. If a person is committing a first time minor, non-violent crime perhaps they do deserve some consideration. When you let somebody out of jail with multiple convictions for violent crimes you need your head examined.
To whomever the judge or judges were that allowed those animals that are charged with killing the two women in Florence to get out of jail on bond, shame on you. I hope you think about that every time you step up to the bench and every time you lay your head down at night. You had to know their past, and you let them out anyway. Why? Did laws on the books force you to do that or what? I think the citizens of Florence and Florence County deserve and should demand an answer to those questions.
Dave Hicklin
Florence
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