There’s an old saying: “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”
The same can be said about having your name in the newspaper, although that doesn’t really set up as well for the nice rhyming couplet.
Some offenders actually like the notoriety, some just don’t care, but some people don’t like it one bit, and sometimes they call.
Being a reporter, I am no stranger to shoot the messenger syndrome. If I had a dollar for every time someone called me up and threatened to sue me or hurt me or just to vent about how I ruined their life, I would be… well… a hundredaire, anyway.
You don’t ever get completely inured to it. Or, I haven’t. Not yet, at least. On the other hand, you can’t really worry about it; it is an unpleasant occupational hazard.
News reporting is a job I do without malice. As the stoic detective Joe Friday of Dragnet fame used to say, “just the facts, ma’am.” It has happened that we get the facts wrong, in which case we correct and apologize, but that is thankfully pretty rare.
When I take off my reporter hat and put on my columnist hat, though, I am more often than not on the offender’s side. Not to the extent, obviously, that I don’t think they should be arrested if they have committed a crime and appropriately sentenced if convicted, but I believe strongly in justice over vengeance and erring on the side of leniency.
I am an advocate of alternative justice because offenders are almost always also victims of their circumstances and I recognize the primary role addictions play and the horrible toll they exact.
I do not agree with mandatory minimums because exceptions make the rule and mandatory minimums eliminate necessary judicial discretion.
I think marijuana laws are ridiculous and believe the real crime on that issue is people receiving criminal records for pot.
Trafficking is a little different because even when pot becomes legal you won’t be able to sell it without proper authorization. Even so, it is probably something that belongs in the regulatory realm and not the criminal.
In short, I am the classic bleeding heart liberal your mom warned you about when it comes to crime, so it kind of irks me when people threaten me for doing my job, just as it would anyone.
As I have been known to say when I’m told I ruined someone’s life, “wait a second, was it me or you who sold the cocaine to the undercover police officer?”
