Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Update on Alien Apples and Offending Oranges

Rodolfo Godinez has just been arrested in connection with the Newark homicides. He is a legal U.S. resident and there goes the immigration argument in this criminal issue. Again, the problem isn't about the legality of the residency status but the fact that we let violent criminals back on the streets even when we know for sure they are dangerous to the community. Godinez got bail for stabbing two men in a robbery. Then he vanished.

Bail should be for nonviolent offenders. Yes, they have committed a crime and they should be prosecuted for it. But, you are more of an annoyance than a physical danger to the community. However, if you are the kind of guy who has no problem choking, stabbing, or shooting people, I really don't want you walking around on the streets while we decide what to do with you. Let's make sure the public is as safe as possible and then make sure we apply proper justice.

Having said all of this, it is important to look at the some of the kind of folks that sneak into the country. They are clearly not doing all that well in their own. Sometimes it is because economic opportunity is near nonexistent; sometimes it is because they are not the kind of people folks want to hire. In other words, they may be losers and they may be dangerous losers. The governments of their countries will be more than happy to get rid of them.

Many illegal immigrants are nice people trying to survive. But, some are scum who we should be keeping out of the country if we can. We have the right to refuse such folks entry and to track them down if they make their way in. However, moving from a general argument to this one incident is not useful as we can now see that one of the alleged killers is an actual legal resident. Let's focus on the most important aspect of this heinous crime: let's stop bail for violent offenders.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: When Judges have Impaired Judgment

Over in Sheboygan, Wisconsin is another judge (the newpaper did not bother to name him) who needs to find employment in the fast food industry. He gave a couple of brothers bail , David Goetsch, 52, and Thomas Goetsch, 51– they are free on $75,000 cash bonds – who have plead no contest to two counts of felony stalking and three counts of felony threat to injure. These men, who the judge deemed no danger to the community, have spent nearly a year stalking a real estate agent and threatening to kill her. We don’t have to take just her word for it: she has more than fifty handwritten letters as proof. The letters describe her movements and activities, describe her in a crude sexually explicit manner, include pornographic images, and threaten to kill her. The brothers also stalked her sister and sent letters to five of her clients threatening to burn their homes down or kill them if they didn’t get a different real estate agent.

The judge feels these two are not a threat to the community, this woman, her sister, or her clients. I guess his argument would be that they have been threatening her for almost a year and still haven’t killed anyone. Thanks, Judge, I am sure we all feel comforted by that fact. I guess now that the brothers are facing twelve years in prison, they wouldn’t consider adding to their sentences or retaliating against this poor woman for turning them in.

Judges should be so sure of releasing these creeps into the community that they are willing to be charged with aiding and abetting any crime they commit once they are handed their one-more-opportunity-before-jail pass. Unfortunately, our country doesn’t even seem to have any methodology for citizens to get rid of these judges. They seem to stay on the bench no matter how egregious their actions might be. It is time we change this tenure for life problem with our judiciary instead of just shaking our heads about it.


Criminal Profiler Pat Brown