50 years to life in prison for $150 theft

[John Scott]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/...in527248.shtml

[South]

Bad as that sound, it's not like anything else was working. He's not a guy who "screwed up and made a mistake. He's a career criminal.

Merritt points out that Andrade has a long list of crimes on his rap sheet: “He's been a thief, he's been a burglar, he's crept into people's homes. He's dealt marijuana in sufficient quantity to get arrested and prosecuted by the federal government twice. He escaped from a federal prison. And after that, he still committed a petty theft in Orange County, and then he came here to steal from our Kmarts.

Still it's a huge sentence. I'm glad I didn't have to call the ball on it. Extreme sentence, but people have the right to sleep at night without fearing being robbed by people who are clearly determined not to be rehibilitated.

[Ferre]

Down here, people like that get a few months in jail and medical treatment, heroine addiction is an illness, bad as it might be, but locking people up for life because of petty thievery caused by an addiction isn't considered as very sivilized in our culture, in fact it's considered to be quite barbaric, suited for extreme dictatorships and the like.

In November 1995, Andrade, a U.S. Army veteran and lifelong heroin addict, says he wanted videotapes as Christmas gifts for his nieces.

Nice way of saying thank you for fighting for his country.

It's very well known that many veterans suffer all kind of emotional problems caused by traumas from being in war situations. The amount of people who end up getting addicted after they have been in war situations is greater than in any other group of people in any society, some countries have a safety net for those people.

[zcoder]

I have alot of friends on MSN, ICQ, AIM, and a host of other forums who are from Amsterdam Netherlands.

Most have told me how high the crime is, and stuff like "last week just down
the block from here I man was murdered". stuff like that.

I found it not so strange that each one of them knew of a recent crime
done near their home. sence they all have told me how they thought
that their countrys laws were to easy on criminals.

So there is not really much I can say about that.
the same problem exists with friends I have from London.
and they are ligher on crimes also.

Zcoder....

[Ferre]

Bollocks. Amsterdam had a total of 16 murders last year, that included crimes out of passion (family and neighbor disputes) In the Netherlands in total, there where 150 murders last year.

http://www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/nederl...907/index.html

All you do is talk rediculous rubbish dude. Your opinions are based on brain spincels, not facts.

[zcoder]

Bollocks, means, bullsh*t, untrue, false, feree tail.
It's the truth, This story was told to me by my MSN friend ashly
who gave details of a man and a women you beat a man to death
with a shovel not far from Henri Viottakade and Minervalaan.
which took place sometime last year.

What you say is supposed to be true, and your answer to others when it fits
you is false??

[Ferre]

Go check the murder (and other crime, for that matter) rates per capita, and compare those of the Netherlands with other countries dude, despite 'soft' crime laws, we are at the bottom of the scale in all crime statistics.

Crime happens everywhere on earth, and some countries have more of it, per capita, than others, The Netherlands are doing pretty well and have very low crime rates when you compare.

[zcoder]

I hope so, couse I have to take a trip in the next up comming month.
comming in on Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

I will be staying for only a few days, just long enough to install my new
nameserver for my data center, I also have one in Gernamy, and this
should widen our scope.

Zcoder....