I do not know how much national coverage this story received, but since Monday all the news media in Connecticut has greatly covered a triple-homicide home invasion that began at 3 a.m. and involved rape, arson, burglary, and kidnapping.
The horrific story gained so much coverage, because it happened in in the upscale town of Cheshire. If the incident had happened to an inner-city black family, we probably would have never even heard about it.
Nonetheless, my heart goes out to the victims of this tragedy and their family. The direct victims include Dr. William Petit Jr. and his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their daughters, Hayley, 17, and 11-year-old Michaela. Only Dr. William Petit survived.
This horrible incident irks me even more because the two monsters who committed it, Joshua A. Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, have extensive criminal records, including various other burglaries and larcenies. In fact, both of the two monsters committed this atrocity while on parole. Before sending Komisarjevsky to prison in 2002, a judge even called him a “cold, calculating predator.”
If the state had never released the two disgusting monsters on parole, then they could not have committed this atrocity.
I have frequently written about the dangerous release of dangerous villains. In fact, the day before the home invasion I posted the following: Keep Dangerous People Locked Up
It seems that the horrific home invasion may have brought some attention to the failures of the current incarceration system–at least the one in Connecticut, my home state. For example, governor Jodi Rell has ordered a “a top-to-bottom assessment of all the procedures and processes involved in charging, sentencing and releasing those convicted of crimes in Connecticut.”
Finally, I just want to reiterate my sympathy for the victims and their family.
Monday, April 21st 2008 at 8:09 pm
For example, governor Jodi Rell has ordered a “a top-to-bottom assessment of all the procedures and processes involved in charging, sentencing and releasing those convicted of crimes in Connecticut.”
It’s amazing how something as tragic as this has to happen or order for the above to happen. It’s like, how many people have to die at an intersection before a stop light is placed there…so backwards and so wrong in so many ways!