Wednesday, August 01, 2012

How Many Years In Jail For Breaking Into 90 Cars?

You probably know where this post is headed.


By the time you've broken into 90 cars, you've pretty well established yourself as an incorrigible criminal, right. I mean, this is not a one-off. So, how many years in jail?


Six? Three? Two?


Correct answer: 1/26th.


 Two weeks. 14 days. 


Or, six hours per car
He had been out of jail just a few days. First nabbed the month before, Chysyk had confessed to breaking into 90 vehicles in six weeks. Nevertheless, a provincial court judge only handed him three weeks in jail, and he got out in two. ... 
... The “revolving door” of the B.C. court system is a frequent sticking point for police, who often complain of seeing petty thieves and drug dealers cycled back onto the street within days, often paying little heed to bail conditions. One of the most notorious, Vancouver’s Tracy Lloyd Caza, has racked up more than 100 convictions since 1977. “He’s like herpes — he just doesn’t go away,” said the granddaughter of Caza’s victims in April.
Seems to me this guy Chysyk paid a decent penalty for the first car he broke into, and then got the next 89 as freebies.


And, being a meth addict, I guess restitution is out of the question. 


With B.C. "aiding and abetting" via drug injection sites, the message to users and would-be users is "it's OK to use drugs - it's OK to be an addict". Until Canada and the US adopt strict zero social-tolerance for recreational drug use, there's no winning the battle. May sound harsh, but I wonder if there's not a place for the lash in the Canadian criminal justice system, like Singapore, where crime is close to zero -- you see, it really is possible to behave, and, at some level, criminal activity is voluntary.


I wonder if the sentence would have been higher if the provincial court judge's car had been one of those broken into?

4 comments:

Patsplace said...

We learn not to touch hot stoves by getting burnt...hmmmm????

BallBounces said...

Pre-comment(*) from Anon1152: Ball, you are way off on your analysis. This guy was just breaking into cars, not stealing them. Where do you get six years in jail for this?! Six months, max.

(*) A new feature from BallBounces. I provide a pre-comment on behalf of a frequent commenter. Then, we get to compare my pre-comment with the actual comment, if/when it comes.

Anon1152 said...

Did I ever respond to this? I've been away so long. In around 2013 I moved to the other side of the world, then back to Canada, then back to the other side of the world. I just found your thesis. I haven't read it. And I haven't written mine.

At first I thought I had gotten more conservative. I am in favour of punishing people. Did I ever mention that I'm not in principle against corporal punishment? I'd rather be whipped 20 times than spend 20 years in jail. And... imprisonment is technically "corporal punishment" since it's applied to "the body". And... I'm not against the death penalty in principle... though I am in practice. Did I become more conservative? Probably not. Looking at this I think 6 years for "just breaking into cars" is a long time for me to be paying for someone's room and board. But I haven't looked at the details. Anyway. I wonder if you left other precomments....

BallBounces said...

Nice to hear from you, Anon1152! Good times!

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"