This Too Will Change When I Am King

A man in New Brunswick was sentenced today for five years in prison for killing two people while driving drunk - a young married couple, whose two children were in the car with them but thankfully survived the crash.

Five years for snuffing out two lives and creating two orphans.

To add even more insult to the horrendous injury, he was actually convicted on two separate counts of whatever the charge is for getting sauced and killing somebody, plus a bunch of lesser charges. However, the judge in his cruelty (or perhaps the legislature in theirs, I really don't care) decreed that the sentences were to be served concurrently.

"Concurrently" is apparently a legal term meaning "anything past the first one's free, so if you're going to do it, do it big."

Presumably the judge has had occasion to address the children of this couple at some point. I wonder which of their parents' lives he explained to them didn't matter? Did this man get to kill their Mom with no penalty whatsoever, or was it Dad's life that was worthless?

Just to make the point absolutely clear, concurrent sentencing is a travesty and needs to be abolished. It rewards criminals for being more successful in their crime, makes a mockery of the justice system, and devalues victims. Unless they happen to be the first, of course.


Enough rambling. Here's an old picture of my computer room. It doesn't look much like this anymore.