{"id":486,"date":"2011-12-24T18:08:11","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T01:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=486"},"modified":"2011-12-24T18:08:11","modified_gmt":"2011-12-25T01:08:11","slug":"plan-to-punish-cautious-thug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=486","title":{"rendered":"Plan to Punish Cautious Thug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/scans\/Editorials_1982\/Editorial_071.jpg\"><img style=\"margin: 12px\" src=\"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/default_thm.jpg\" alt=\"Click to see original image\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Should a person convicted of a felony receive a tougher sentence if he wore a bulletproof vest during commission of the crime&#8217;! A New York Democratic congressman A veteran of 23 years on that city&#8217;s police department thinks so and his interesting proposal ought to receive serious debate. Specifically. Rep. Mario Biaggi&#8217;s bill (H. R. 55591 would impose mandatory minimum penalties of 1 to 10 years for the first offense and 2 to 25 years for a second or subsequent offense e &#8220;in addition to any sentence imposed for the original crime.&#8221; , By coincidence the bill was introduced the same day the FBI arrested Joseph &#8220;Mad Dog&#8221; Sullivan. suspect in at least seven murders who was heavily armed and wearing a bulletproof vest. The congressman cited last year&#8217;s ill-fated Brink&#8217;s robbery in Nyack. N. Y.. to support his contention that the criminal who uses protective body armor poses extra danger for law officers and society. &#8220;lt has been determined,&#8221; he said, &#8220;that a bulletproof vest worn by one of the robbers during the crime stopped a police bullet, allowing the criminal to retum the fire and kill two law enforcement officers before escaping.&#8221; The extent to which law officers themselves use a bulletproof covering varies depending on local regulations and assignments. Although Biaggi&#8217;s bill may be controversial in some respects, it should not be kissed off lightly. For one thing, doesn&#8217;t the wearing of a bulletproof vest imply premeditation by the person involved in a crime? Noting that he had seen criminals act with &#8220;virtual impunity&#8221; the New York lawmaker said: &#8220;We must do everything possible to fight their efforts. not assist them. Our obligation is to protect society, not the criminal.&#8221; He makes some good points.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Should a person convicted of a felony receive a tougher sentence if he wore a bulletproof vest during commission of the crime&#8217;! A New York Democratic congressman A veteran of 23 years on that city&#8217;s police department thinks so and his interesting proposal ought to receive serious debate. Specifically. Rep. Mario Biaggi&#8217;s bill (H. R.&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=486\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Plan to Punish Cautious Thug<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}