Man granted clemency by Gov. Huckabee suspected of killing 4 cops in Washington

[pbrower2a]

Those four cops deserve far more sympathy than does Mike Huckabee.

It's almost impossible to predict what offender will offend again if released on parole or due to some executive clemency. The quadruple killing, so seemingly senseless, should demonstrate the obvious about jailbirds; many of them are consummate liars, people who can present themselves as more innocent than you or I.

I am reminded of a story involving Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. One day he went to visit one of the jails of his kingdom and asked inmates.  All but one claimed to be innocent -- to have been framed, to have been convicted on lies, or to have been victims of false identification. One confessed to his crimes and stated that he more than anyone else deserved to rot in prison and stated that he couldn't fully trust himself to avoid a reversion to crime -- and that if he were ever let loose the police would have to watch every move that he made.

Frederick the Great pardoned that convict -- the one with much doubt about his own character and no claim to innocence. So far as is known the one who admitted to his own violence and was pardoned disappeared into the mists of history.   

[pbrower2a]

Those four cops deserve far more sympathy than does Mike Huckabee.

I don't like cops, but they certainly do deserve more sympathy than a guy who lets rapists and murderers run free.

Of course it is even worse than the Willie Horton scandal that sabotaged Mike Dukakis: Willie Horton was only "furloughed" -- not released completely from legal supervision. Willie Horton was supposed to go back to a Massachusetts prison; Maurice Clemmons was simply a gigantic mistake. Unless one has severe questions about the guilt of a person one does not free a convicted criminal.

I have mixed feelings about cops; the power that a cop wields attracts the worst sort of people to wield such power. I can't imagine a more satisfying career (short of gangster or a financial fraud) for a sociopath.

[pbrower2a]

Republicans are going soft on crime and coddling minorities in a vain attempt to court the minority vote.

Not quite. They have been soft on corporate crime (including tax fraud) when Dubya was President. Since Obama became President, the Feds have gone after Bernie Madoff and the Mexican drug cartels... this seems to be a bad time in which to be a criminal.