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Dear Editor-
I am constantly hearing how our justice system is failing. I don’t believe this is true, I do believe a lot of recent legislation has been flawed. Is our system flawed or is it the individuals involved? Our laws are becoming increasingly harsh on our law-abiding residents while a pass seems to be handed out to those who chose to live outside the law. I think we have lost sight on who the true victims are.
Rights and responsibilities are attached to one another. When legislation removes responsibility from individuals, the government will remove the rights of all. We are seeing this in many areas within the United States. We also have to look at where society is failing and look at the issues from both sides currently, I don’t think we are.
In my opinion, legislation has to start serving the victims of crime, that has to change immediately if we are to begin moving in the correct direction. Often, I see millions of dollars spent on services and programs for those convicted of crime while little is being done for victims. The real question is who are our victims?
During my career, I have seen numerous times people engage in activities that most folks would steer clear from. When these endeavors end poorly, they want to blame folks around them for the outcome. It’s like watching someone jump from a tall building, when they hit the ground, they make the claim gravity had it out for them, showcasing their injuries as evidence. I have seen many examples of this, the most glaring example is when a young fellow enters a tavern and allows the whiskey to write checks his body can’t cash. This is a lesson I have watched many young people learn. If a drunken subject picks a fight and loses, is he a victim? Lately, It seems we are constantly looking for new ways to make people a victim of their own actions which in some way creates excuses for their behaviors. That thinking has to end as well.
Recidivism is a huge buzz word and when we see it, we hear the system is broken. Questions begin to arise such as, “Why were these folks failed?” We also have to look at this from the other side of the coin, remembering there are two sides. The other side is, why we aren’t asking folks why they failed themselves and society. How long has it been since someone asked that question?
Believe it or not, there are many people who are arrested one time only in their lives. They take a bite of this meal, don’t like the flavor, and decide it isn’t for them. They often stand before our judges, pay for their actions and we never see them again in the criminal justice system. Did the system fail these folks? Or did they take responsibility for their actions and decide not to order up that meal again? That is the way our system should work. I haven’t seen anyone talking about the portion of the criminal justice system which works. I think this should be a part of the conversation. At times it appears we are concentrating on changing the rules for the folks who are failing at following them. If we continue to change the rules, with the new thought process that no one is responsible for their actions, eventually will the system fail everyone equally?
We have sympathy for people who have had a rough go of things and that’s human nature. This often keeps us from properly holding people accountable for their actions. We have seen many times this can compound the problem and often causes the problems to increase. Although many folks have had a rough go, are we also looking at what the victim now faces. Are we asking, what are we doing for them? Eventually the victims will seek retribution, and when they do will they receive the same pass for their behaviors? That in itself is a slippery slope and a fast track to anarchy.
Narcotics are absolutely a driving force for many of our crimes. We have come to a time when we are blaming narcotics, and this is an easy villain to find. Clearly in Mendocino County I can draw clear lines between substance abuse and crime. I recently read an article which indicated supply is driving demand. This is a strange way to see things however I think the author may be correct in these times we are in.
Where does the addiction come from? I am not seeing roving bands of drug dealers holding people down and forcing them to become addicted. To the contrary, people are paying good money for these addictions, and they are getting exactly what they have paid for. So I ask, where does the responsibility for this truly land?
Our government does have some responsibility in this. When we look at this from a high level, we all know, or should know, price and availability will always be a factor in marketing any product including illicit narcotics. This area is where our legislation is failing. We aren’t removing the product or the dealers from our streets. If we did, we would see availability fall and prices rise, thus making it more difficult for people to access and use illicit drugs. Placing barriers in their path won’t fix the root of the problem of drug abuse. Where there is a will, there is also a way and if people want to use drugs they will. The real question is and will remain, how will we change the mind set and stop people from wanting to use drugs.
I have placed a large emphasis on working to serve those incarcerated with opportunities through accountability. You must have accountability taken for actions before opportunities can come. We are leading the horse to water and providing a full trough, however they have to make the decision to drink. When they don’t chose to do so, who is at fault?
We need to see the scales balanced to the point where victims remain the focus and suspects are given opportunities to improve through personal responsibility. No one should be given a pass for bad behaviors no matter what their past is.
Mendocino Sheriff Matt Kendall
“Where does addiction come from?”
This has been repeatedly answered, from childhood stress and adverse childhood conditions. This doesnt have to be outright sexual or physical abuse. This could look like yelling, divorce, alcoholism, a move, a death in the family, bullying. Our law leaders think blaming childhood is an excuse from accountability.
Where us the accountability in keeping the NEXT generation of kids safe from adverse childhoods? How is that we don’t teach managing emotions in school? Why don’t we have scads of counselors in school where EVERY child gets a once a year “how are you”
Phones, alcohol, coffee, junk food, prescriptions and now weed are culturally sanctioned escapes.
People medicate themselves in extremes when their emotions are about to kill them. .
All cultures have ways to get off, but only the sickest ones let their kids figure out how to navigate the world of drug experience alone . And a computer is just a drug too big to swallow.
Alcohol is the most idiotic and accepted of them all. Maybe bars should not have parking lots? Maybe alcohol should be frowned upon instead of glorified. People who grew up with alcoholic parents know that you either become an alcoholic yourself, do another drug cause alcohol scares you, or you become completely codependent.
The fact that our sheriff is scratching his head about addiction to the whole public should tell us everything.
Sheirff, acting as if pointing fingers at our childhoods or institutions is spewing inaccoutability or blaming is exactly why no headway has been made. When an addiction tells you they’re fucked up from childhood, believe them!!
I think what you are saying is true in most cases, but there are plenty of people that are addicted because they just tried drugs and liked the way they felt and get addicted. I see it happen all the time. Some people just like to party and take it too far.
People who tried drugs and like the way it felt; that’s another way of saying emotional pain relief.
your claim is that drugs don’t make people who are emotionally healthy feel extra good?
Taking that point a little further, one might say we live in an entire culture now based on junk food, junk ideas, invasive technologies, deceptive commercial and political propaganda, and glorified violence as the solution to everything. Keeping a clear head can certainly be a challenge. Childhood trauma comes in a variety of forms, yet many manage to stay within the boundaries of reasonable behavior in spite of that. What is the essential difference?
Staying within boundaries can be faked. During covid lockdowns many people within normal boundaries fell hard, suggesting that this could happen to even the most “normal” of us. Not to mention most functioning addicts don’t think they have a problem. The difference is pain. How much pain someone is in will dictate their use of escapism through whatever method.
I really appreciate that we have a Sheriff like Matt Kendall. Re folks getting in trouble, and then wanting to blame those around them; IMhO; Taking Personal Responsibility for our Life Direction, including our Personal Mistakes (and feelings), … along side Asking Higher Quality How Questions about our forward looking options … is kind of a universal challenge. Sad to see so many national political leaders modeling blame and victim stories in
ongoing mudslinging contests; … for Awfulizing News stories about whose at fault. I believe more personal awesome stories are available, as more of us are figuring out how to better promote our Win Wins, and model the same ???
Does Matt Kendal drink, and if so, how is he so emotionally strong as to not let it drown him? See how the questions can be reversed? What do non-addicts have that addicts don’t? Maybe good role models? Family support? Reverse the question? How does one go from cradle to the grave without escaping through mind altering substances at some point?
I don’t drink much maybe 10 beers in a year. Hoisted a few in my youth. Grandparents on both sides had the Irish curse.
You’re correct about good parents role models my mother preached to all 5 kids letting us know we had a genetic predisposition to have an issue with the liquor. All of us have preached to our children as well hoping the message is heard.
You racist twit! Irish curse? Mexicans are the Mendocino addiction problem. Mendo Fever is a testament to their higher than average criminal activity around drug activity!
???
Do people choose to keep using drugs?
Addiction is not about a moral choice or controlling emotions.
“The initial decision to take drugs is typically voluntary. But with continued use, a person’s ability to exert self-control can become seriously impaired. This impairment in self-control is the hallmark of addiction.” READ MORE AT: https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/drug-misuse-addiction
Maybe we need to look deeper at this.
Preventable hospitalizations and ‘deaths of despair’ are associated here in the U.S. in Canada and elsewhere with income inequality
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-hospitalizations-deaths-despair-income-inequality.html
This bigger problem has been growing and ignoring it has now resulted in wrongly associated with individual choice.
For nearly half a century now, inequality in America has been on the rise. The result is an alarming concentration of wealth among the country’s very well-off: The 400 richest Americans own more than the poorest 61 percent—194 million people. Housing is no longer a right but . It has become the new feudalism– income invest opportunity.
A society takes care of it’s citizens based on their values. Money and accumulation of wealth has become more valued than people. Can you pay your bills, own a car, pay for access to internet, cell phone, pay for dental, visions, medical insurance, additional schooling (if it is accessible) as tech changes the job market landscape, can you withstand a financial shock all on your own at min. wage? Can you afford to stay housed when your rent goes up or you are laid off from your job due to no fault of your own? Workers are expendable- no longer an investment or high priority on the budget sheet.
“For those who used to prosper in America, capitalism is no longer delivering.”- read more at: Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, a groundbreaking account of how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America’s working class. Available through your local library.
Lol typical blaming by liberalism for lack of commitment and drive. There are plenty of countries you can move to amd enjoy your loser panacea unicorn land. Soon.
You lost me 2 sentences in. I had zero interest in reading the rest after seeing, what I can only assume, is a willfully ignorant testimony. If you don’t think the justice system, from legislative to judical to enforcement, is broken, then you sir, are part of the problem! There is a lack of faith, trust & confidence in police & the law dogs in courthouses all over this country for a reason. You all succumb to the God complex that comes with the powers you’re entrusted with to protect & serve the community, whose tax dollars pay your salaries, & routinely violate & disregard our civil rights & liberties. Clean your own house 1st & maybe you’ll be better suited to clean up our streets.
Perhaps your views are valid, and you can express your opinion, but why don’t you read it and then opine. He points out where the system works and where it doesn’t.
When the enforcers of law, are themselves lawless, corrupt & have little accountability, we can only expect society to follow suite. It starts at the top. There are dozens of articles on this site alone about the abhorrent behavior of our policing community & lack of transparency & accountability shown by them & our DA’s office. Im aware, as is everyone, of the drug, mental health, crime & countless other issues facing our county & the country on whole. It’s the job of our government to take action on these issues. They’re failing us! And it starts with them upholding the standards they hold us to.
I agree with your views about corruption. I disagree that it’s the government’s job to fix social or cultural issues. I believe that starts at home and in our own communities. And I agree that the government should be held to the same standards.
Your opinion is darn close to the sheriff’s published opinion.
@ “excuses” From where I’m sitting it looks like our views are likely aligned a little more than you think.
perhaps you should have another brief gander at my thoughts.
or not, that’s up to you.
Intresting, but lacking “Big Picture” thought and analysis. You are aware that adult drug dealers in our community seek out and befriend children to get addicted and push their drugs in the junior high schools, high schools, and other setting where children are grouped together. Those children addicted turn 15, 16, 17, 18, and so on and then as addicted adults repeat the cycle of using, fronting, selling, pushing. In your flawed analysis, the adult dealer and the juvenile seller, and the juvenile user are all suspects and there are no victims. There’s other scenarios where children are raised in families with generational addictions, neglect, and abuse, where they are exposed to and provided drugs. Quite a narrow, simple minded, way of thinking that lacks real intellectual analysis.
Marijuana is Mendocino’s cash crop. Is he not aware of this?
Considering most dedicated criminals are high school dropouts, usually because of undiagnosed learning disabilities. It’s this country’s problem with illiteracy that is the heart of the problem. We can build more schools or more prisons. What kind of place do we really want to live???
In my view, if the root problem for crime is known but not addressed, it is up Law Enforcement and the Criminal Justice System to deal with it in a way the protects the general public from harm. There are three legitimate functions of any government but especially ours — protect the citizenry from foreign enemies (national military), protect the citizens from law breakers (Law Enforcement), and adjudicate disputes among people (courts).
Is there an argument that all crime stems from rotten childhoods, as is being made here? Not all but sure some. I have had acquaintances over the years who experienced childhood trauma and are still successful human beings. Hell’s Bells, some have experienced adult trauma (spousal abuse) and overcame it. Personal responsibility is the answer and although hard it is not impossible.
If a person wants to overcome their addiction or whatever, better to find a hard core friend than government help.
Thank you for pointing out that people make choices and that when they make bad choices, they must always be held accountable, but also encouraged to make better choices in the future.