Judges, and sentencings

  About a year, and a few ago, I was walking to meet with a friend. As I was walking, I came across this person with disabilities, who was just standing by Lee, and Annes restaurant keeping to himself. I had gone to Tim Hortons, met up with my friend, and we went to the stairs at Mommy’s Laundry Mat, where my friend could sit, and have a smoke with his coffee. As we were there, I had noticed that the person with disabilities was still standing by the corner minding his own business. Next thing I know, there are four young adults standing there, and one of them was taunting this guy. Eventually this guy walked down by my friend, and myself, he had known my friend, asked him for a smoke, and he no sooner lit it up, turned around only to have an elbow slammed into his face, that sent him about two feet up into the air, causing him to land on his face. The person had received a broken nose, and had both of his hearing aids broken. He was flown down south due to the incident, and returned a few days later. 
  On the day, that the guilty person was to appear in court, he was heard walking up the stairs laughing about the incident, until he noticed the arresting officer, my friend, and myself,(both witnesses), sitting there. His laughter silenced, and he walked in, and plead guilty. he was to return for sentencing.
  I went into the court house today, to inquire about the sentencing, only to learn that the young adult,who is about 21 years old, was given  six months house arrest, for his crime. Now if anyone had saw what had took place that night, they would be as furious as I am to learn that this punk had received a slap on the wrist for his crimes. It is unfortunate that this person was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and even more unfortunate that the assailent received such a light sentence. Is our judge sending the message that assaulting people twice our age, or people with disabilities is acceptable? What will it be like for this person in five years time as far as breathing goes, for his nose is now slanted to one side of his face. Disability had replaced the hearing aids, however why didn’t they get involved, since they take care of him?
  On top of all of this while in the court house this morning, I had noticed that the young adults file was about three inches thick, like holy crap, what has this guy done as far as crime goes, and what was the judge thinking when the sentence was handed out. Obviously this guy has had many dealings with the law, why was he not sentenced to jail time, as opposed to house arrest.
  Does our judge have any compassion for the less fortunate, or could the judge care less. I bet if the assailent was to do this to the judge, the sentence would be much stiffer. Maybe the judge should be re-assesed, or replaced.

The judge was probably in Kamloops from what I understand.

Being that I was there when he went into plead guilty, and according to a good source, the judge here, was very lenient on this coward.

Do judges give lighter sentences when people plead guilty?

As a rule, yes.
We also don’t know if this is a first offense, which would be a factor.
And we aren’t considering if spending $50,000 to incarcerate them instead of ‘house arrest’ is beneficial to them, or to us.

I don’t have enough legal training to be a lawyer, let alone out-judge a Judge.

Uhm herbie, did I not state that his file was three inches thick, and YES he is well known to the RCMP, for his agressive behavior, and NO, this was not his first offence. How about I do  to you, what he did to this guy on disability, and see if you like the verdict of house arrest. think about the long term effects that the assaulted will have to deal with, and the extra costs associated with it

Ok, maybe harsh, however when a 20 year old assaults a 45+ year old, smashing his face, light sentences are not acceptable, especially when the assaulted is on disability

why didn’t you take matter’s into your own hand’s then, you shoulda smacked the punk around, they obviously weren’t that tough if they did that to a disabled guy, i’m sure you would’ve had a better chance then the disabled guy face 2 face, to many people are to scared to step in and possibly become the victim, and these are the same people that badmouth the cops that step up everyday.4 on 2 is better then 4 on 1 disabled guy.

Two wrong’s don’t make a right, and I am a family man with  children, my place is at home, not in jail. I did time years ago for merely smacking a person a couple of years younger than myself, so why would I do it again, and leave my family to wait for me? Further more, the cops did get him that night, hence how I know that this person had a record, and the judge should have looked a little more at the case. I was informed of his day in court, and was present, however I as a witness, was not informed as to his sentence date. Unfortunately about 7 out of 10 people in Canada who go to jail become repeat offenders, I would like to think that my one time was more than enough for me, and I personally plan to remain in the 3 percent , and not ever return to any jail

Yeah, that would be a great idea - then the kid that assaulted the man with a disability wouldn’t have been brought before a judge at all, but the witness that saw it and attacked the kid would probably get a decent sentence - for attacking the kid.  Now I know this isn’t the way the law is SUPPOSED to go, and it doesn’t always go that way, but what would the point of one person possibly going to jail for trying to help someone out - then the kid that assaulted the guy to begin with is back out on the streets to hurt someone else.  There’s a reason vigilante bullshit doesn’t work.

Now–I’m in favour of people rotting in jail for their crimes, but there’s overwhelming pressure right now from the Liberals and the Left to keep our incarceration rate down–and there’s some argument for that.

That’s what’s called a GUT RESPONSE.
You could try, but I’m not disabled. I think if I was a Judge and someone was before me on a simple scrap between two guys, I’d nail both parties for court costs and tell them to fuck off.
Beating a guy in a wheelchair, yeah that deserves a punishment. You’re just arguing the degree.
But you’re also arguing with someone who already said he doesn’t know law. I can only go by my personal observations that Crown Attorneys, Judges, Defense Lawyers are the epitome of “the right-wing view of public servants” who do dick shit except go back to Court over and over and over again for the simplest case so that they get paid as much as possible, and appear to be overworked so they never have to worry about job security.

Herbie, I am not a violent person, and would like apologize for my harshness in my previous post, however I do hope that my point was heard

Good on you for learning your lesson. But as you say, even jail doesn’t work for 7 out of 10. But I guess it gets them off the street for a bit anyway. Here’s hoping you remain in the 30%. (Think your math off there a bit.)

Correct you are Bosco, 30% would be the right figure, and it has been 10 years + now , I think that I will remain a free man.