Maybe the legal system is an accomplice

Since I was a kid and learned about cops and robbers, I have always been confused by the way the judicial system works.

I have often wondered why a system put in place to protect the citizens of the United States is nearly impossible for the average citizen to make sense of or understand how it works.

One of the things I don’t understand is how a man — or a woman — can be arrested again and again, sometimes with unlicensed weapons in their possession, and continue to walk the streets.

I call those multitude of arrests their warning shots to the public about what is in their heads. And they fire those warnings again and again and many times, they turn deadly.

I thought about those warning shots when I read about the New York officer who was recently killed by friendly fire when caught in a fusillade of bullets while responding to the scene of a burglary.

While it is understood that police officers can lose their lives defending the public, they shouldn’t lose their lives due to a man they had already arrested at least 11 times and who again was wanted by police in connection with another robbery.

It is the same man they arrested on charges of impersonating an officer and who also allegedly tried to gain access to a judge’s chambers while posing as an intern.

I don’t think he was doing these things with good intentions and, yet, he remained free. That is a complete failure of our judicial system and it happens too often. It makes you wonder how many people are dead because the judicial system couldn’t keep a killer behind bars.

I don’t care what anyone says; something is wrong with a system that keeps allowing the same men to return to the street under the supervision of parole officers who can’t keep up.

But while most people keep their eyes on the criminals and their front-page nefarious acts, I look out the corner of my eye to see why they remain front-page news.

I have long believed that judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys are not held accountable for their roles in keeping criminals on the streets and the public in danger.

But it was John DeCarlo, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven and a former Branford police chief, who brought it back to my attention during a conversation more than a year ago when I reached out to him about another column I was working on.

DeCarlo said while police are closely scrutinized, the actions of judges and prosecutors remain under the radar.

But why is it that no one says anything about the role they play in murder, drug dealing and violent crimes?

Is it the robe? The suit and tie? The title? The gavel?

Everyone else, it seems — victims, suspects and police — are held accountable for their actions taken before, during and after the perpetration of a crime.

But not judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys.

They get to hide the injustice of their mistakes behind what we call justice — and in the name of that justice, the scales are weighted heavily against the public when it comes to protection from violent criminals.

Too many news releases have come across my desk in which a suspect faces a slew of charges only to have the prosecution reduced to a single charge due to a plea deal. A few years behind bars and he is back out on the streets.

How many times must police arrest an ex-felon who is carrying weapons or has committed another serious crime only to see him back on the streets?

How many times must a member of the public be killed, maimed or harmed by a person who should be behind bars, but isn’t — because of a plea deal, or failure to turn over crucial evidence or a wrong ruling?

The definition of an accomplice is a person who helps another person commit a crime — and as far as I am concerned judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys are just as guilty as any other accomplice. To me, they don’t get a break because they work under the guise of law.

I am no legal whiz but handing plea deals to felons with a history of assaults who are caught with a gun doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Long before I became an editor who sifts through daily emails about criminal behavior, I had told friends and coworkers we need an island — like Manhattan in the movie “Escape from New York” — where criminals can live and sustain themselves.

My friends and coworkers laugh, but I am serious because it makes perfect sense to me. Criminals seem to get along just fine with other criminals; it is the law-abiding public they don’t like and it is the lawabiding public — not the judges, prosecutors or defense attorneys —who feel their wrath.

Here in Connecticut and across the nation, the juvenile and adult criminal systems are being revamped. Maybe that should include revamping how judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys dole out punishment.

There are good guys and there are bad guys. And the way it seems right now in the eyes of the law is the good guys put away the bad guys.

But to my eyes, it is a setup that keeps the good guys keeping the bad guys looking bad and the bad guys keeping the good guys looking good.

The only thing missing is the handshake — and that comes with the plea deal.

And when that plea deal is made with criminals caught with a gun, judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys should remember: once fired, bullets don’t turn around.

Accomplices? Maybe the legal system should be charged, too. James Walker is the New Haven Register’s senior editor and a statewide columnist for Hearst Connecticut newspapers. He can be reached at 203-680-9389 or james.walker@hearstmediact.com. Follow him on

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