Man gets 2 years in prison for killing cat

[Roon]

A Los Angeles man who killed his girlfriend's cat, telling her to "follow the blood trail to find Tweety," has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Blood was found in the girlfriend's apartment but Tweety was never found.

Prosecutors say the 46-year-old Atkinson killed the black-and-white cat after an argument in October, then he told the woman's daughter he was going to kill her mother.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/14/man-gets-2-years-in-prison-for-killing-cat/

[DS1]

1. Fine with me

Hope it's some hard time.

[flvegan]

2. I hear 2 years in prison seems much longer.

Thank the gawds.

[WinkyDink]

3. But he gets dinner when they kill a pig.

I know, but it still seems an excessive penalty, to me.

[BuelahWitch]

4. He threatened to kill the woman too

He's a danger to society, clearly. Two legged as well as four...

[Pushed To The Left]

7. Excellent point. Don't a lot of serial killers start off with animals?

He didn't just kill a random cat. He killed a woman's pet just to hurt her and then threatened her life. Sounds like somebody we don't need walking the streets.

[BuelahWitch]

24. Yes, that's right

[LostinVA]

6. He's a sociopath and threatened to kill his girlfriend

As far as I'm concerned, he should never see the light of day.

[WinkyDink]

14. OOPS! I didn't read far enough. Well, then, 2 years won't do much!

[AAARRRGGGHHH]

5. Here's hoping they lose the key

in the intervening two years.

[Robeson]

8. Not long enough. He got off easy as far as I'm concerned....

...but I guess it's a start.

[MrScorpio]

9. Of course, what he did was dispicable. But two years is ridiculous

California jails are overcrowded and it's expensive to keep even all the robbers, murderers and rapists inside.

After two years, I bet that this guy will be even more dangerous than what he was when he went in.

People get waaaaay too much time in jail in this country.

[Danger Mouse]

10. He threatened to kill the girlfriend, too.

That, combined with him killing the cat...that doesn't convince you that he shouldn't be on the streets?

[MrScorpio]

12. First off, we keep people in jail way longer than any other country

One third of the world's prison population resides in the US and prisons, especially in California, are pretty much a big business.

It's ridiculous to think that this guy is going to be sitting around on his ass for two years, costing the taxpayers money, filling the private prison corporation's coffers, and the legal system in this country is too addicted to the prison complex to invest in another way for that sick fucker to make restitution.

Plus, after two years of steaming about how to get even, around a bunch of really violent types, I wouldn't be surprised if he worked himself into a mindset to actually make good on his threat.

[LeftyMom]

19. CA prisons aren't privatized.

The CCPOA would never allow it.

[MrScorpio]

20. Although not all prisons are privatized in CA, CCA operates two facilities there

http://www.correctionscorp.com/facilities/?state=CA

They are the largest operator of private prisons in the USA

[LeftyMom]

21. But both are federal pens that are located in CA, not California prisons run by the CCPOA

As I've said before, the CCPOA is the nation's most powerful prison gang. There's no way in hell California will ever have private prisons because they couldn't possibly pay as well as the CDCR.

[MrScorpio]

22. Ah, point taken

Thanks for the explanation

[Danger Mouse]

23. I have no problem with jail time for violent offenders.

But I do agree we keep nonviolent offenders in prison way too long for victimless crimes.
This guy, imho, is a sick bastard.

[Solon]

11. I think that's the wrong way to go about it....

The jails are overcrowded because NON-VIOLENT offenders get thrown in there for years, especially with the 3 strike law. This guy, on the other hand, is a VIOLENT offender, let some pothead go and keep this guy in jail, where he belongs.

[Robeson]

13. I have no problem with this piece of shit serving two years....

...psychopaths are what prisons are for. Now, if you'd like to have a discussion about non-violent criminals serving too long of terms, I'm all ears.

[LostinVA]

15. Killing a companion animal should be a manslaughter charge MINIMUM

And, in some states, they get way more than two years for this.

[DS1]

16. Yeah, you'd think he'd met her online and turned into a possessive turdnozzle

What's up with all that jail time?

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Yes, people get too much jail time, but not in this case. Let out the stoners but keep

the violent people out of society.

[MrScorpio]

18. People have been getting longer and longer sentences in the last decade

And guess what, it's hasn't made any of us any safer.

What it has done is increased recidivism rates and exploded the prison budgets of every state.

I know that everyone in this country has a knee jerk reaction to crime that basically says, lock em up and throw away the key. But knee jerk reactions usually result in more problems down the road:

"Crime was the No. 1 issue," said Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, who was first elected to the Legislature in 1995. "Victims felt like there was no rhyme or reason to sentencing."

Victims' rights groups packed hearings around the country. Legislators listened, voting to extend sentences and erect prisons.

Washington was part of a group of Nevada lawmakers who worked to establish a "mandatory minimum" sentencing system, hitching the state to a national trend. The federal government was offering extra grant money to states that used such "truth in sentencing" laws, and by 1996 most states had one.

Sentences for violent offenders around the country nearly doubled, hitting an average of 88 months, according to one U.S. Department of Justice study.

Ten years later, the costs of tougher sentences continue to mount, while the benefits have remained elusive. State legislatures have a case of "spending fatigue" when it comes to prisons, says Michael Thompson, director of the Justice Center at the nonpartisan Council of State Governments in New York.

"Why aren't we doing any better in terms of recidivism rates?" Thompson asked. "We're spending that much more money, and the same number of people are going back to prison. We should be getting better outcomes."

Clip:

Perhaps no state is being hit by the prison growth crunch more than Nevada, where a perfect storm of rapid growth and higher-than-average crime and incarceration rates have pushed the state's prison population up 60 percent in the past 10 years. Unless lawmakers change some policies, a prison population of about 13,000 is projected to rise above 22,000 within a decade.


http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20070506/ELECTIONS/105060113

A couple of great sources of info about the implications of current sentencing issues are THE SENTENCING PROJECT: http://www.sentencingproject.org/Issues.aspx and here's a link to NOW which shows the trend towards prison privatization in America: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/419/prisons-profits.html

Also, the Pew Center On The States, has a lot good info on what lengthening sentences has resulted in.

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives_detail.aspx?initiativeID=31336

Unless trends change, the cumulative effect of exploding sentences lengths will give us more stories of longer than average sentences and as more dollars are sucked down this black hole I call The World's Biggest Prison State.

[Withywindle]

25. Good.

That's what prisons should be for, to keep those who harm the innocent away from the innocent as long as possible.


I'd be in favor of imprisoning all the malicious animal-killers, and releasing all the harmless potheads to make room for them.