Two years just isn’t long enough
May 7th, 2009 at 07:14pm
Regardless of what you think of our elected leaders, threatening (or worse) to kill them just isn’t on, as Timothy Ryan Gutierrez just found out:
A Texas man has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill President Barack Obama and blow up the Mall of America in Minneapolis.
Timothy Ryan Gutierrez pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of making threats by e-mail. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors have dropped a charge of threatening to use an explosive.
His attorney says the 21-year-old Gutierrez could face up to a year and a half in prison when he is sentenced July 31.
The total time in jail could add up to about two years if he receives the full sentence as he has been in custody since January, but I just don’t think it’s long enough to act as a proper deterrent.
Like them or loathe them, our elected officials need to be protected from these nutcases in order to maintain some sense of democracy, and to protect the people who have the courage to actually go through with the whole “standing for election and doing the job of running the country” thing. Personally, I’d say this should receive a five year sentence at a minimum.
On another note, I wasn’t aware that “threatening to use an explosive” is a criminal act unto itself. Surely there has to be some malice involved for it to be a criminal offence? Otherwise wouldn’t a lot of our miners be criminals?
I’m too tired to work that one out right now, so if anybody would like to clarify it for me, that would be wonderful.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: General News,Samuel's Editorials
