Reply to Another horrific chicago train attack by a serial violent offender, he set young woman on fire

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]• May 2017: Driving while revoked/suspended (2nd offense).
• April 2018: Soliciting unlawful business.
• June 2018: Criminal trespass to real property.
• July 2018: Battery – make physical contact.
• April 2019: Driving on a revoked license.
• December 2019: Criminal damage to property under $500.
• February 2020: Battery –make physical contact; aggravated battery in a public place.
• April 2020: Aggravated arson / arson knowing a person was present.
• December 2021: Assault – simple; battery – cause bodily harm.
• June 2022: Battery – make physical contact.
• January 2024: Criminal damage to property under $500.[/quote]

Each of this are (or could be depending on the specifics) fairly minor offenses. Battery, for instance, can literally mean just touching someone without their consent, and doing it in a public place makes it aggravated in Illinois. Aggravated arson could mean lighting paper in a wastebasket on fire. Assault doesn't have to even mean physically contacting or injuring a person, and bodily harm can be as minor as a scratch or a small bruise.

Arson is a class 2 felony in Illinois with a base sentence of 3 to 7 years.

However, the article says these are police records. They are not conviction records. We don't know what happened with these cases, and prosecutorial decisions involve many factors, including whether witnesses or victims remain available and if victims are reluctant to remain involved. If these incidents involved random strangers vs people the accused knew makes a difference. I also don't know how things could have worked if the prosecutors had considered pushing for court-ordered psychiatric or drug evaluation or diversion programs. For all we knew, this guy could have had a habit of pouring gasoline on objects in alleys and lighting them on fire but was never caught doing that until he progressed to assaulting a person.

My point being, I guess, that it's easy to blame "liberal judges" on the one hand or access to mental health services but no matter what it still boils down to how the laws are written, how systems are designed, and what the resources are for criminal AND drug related AND mental health programs. Some people honestly do need ongoing significant supervision even when they no longer meet criteria for inpatient services or complete jail sentences. And in many cases there are family members who HAVE tried to find some kind of intervention for a long time--without knowing the details, we don't know if some of those arrests resulted because a relative hoped that this time someone would get the person into an inpatient program but that wasn't the outcome. Sometimes family members will call for arrests hoping that at least while in jail the person has less chance to get themselves into much more serious trouble.

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