November 30, 2006--Let's do a hypothetical.

Suppose that you were a bank robber and you had just robbed a bank of, oh say, $25,000. Shortly after your robbery, the police caught you.

Do you think that the judge would tell you that you only had six more robberies to go before they would send you to prison?

That isn't very likely, is it?

So, if we can agree on that, how in the world can we allow a thug to steal a $25,000 car and not do anything of substance about it?

How would you take it if the lawmakers told you that since costs have risen so dramatically for incarceration, that they have determined that they are going to allow criminals to rob six banks before they finally put him or her in jail?

I'm sure you would scream to high heaven about this travesty and you would be absolutely right.

So how come we sit by and let this car theft tragedy go without a whimper?

I'll wager it is because that you like me didn't realize this was the situation. Maybe we complained to each other that sentencing was really light for a crime but that was the end of it, it certainly was for me, but not anymore.

Isn't it time to get to our representatives and tell them we want a change made to this mess?

Look, Yakima is number 10 in the entire nation--the entire nation, folks-- in car thefts.

That equates to about three a week! Many by the same thieves since they don't go to jail for the first six!

Isn't it time to make national news because we, rather than excuse car theft, are in the top ten in punishment in the nation?

If we can't afford to incarcerate car thieves, what say we bite the bullet, open the idle jail and start sentencing car crooks on the very first try.

Number 10, can you believe it?