In my opinion, Matt Mowery does a first-class job (Hawkins who?) covering the Detroit Tigers for this newspaper. Here's hoping he doesn't mind too much that I'm going to heavily reference a small article he recently wrote about the outcome of Miguel Cabrera's alcohol related legal problems in Florida.
It seems Cabrera pled no-contest to DUI, which isn't an admission of guilt, but is treated the same for sentencing purposes, while the prosecution agreed to dismiss charges of resisting arrest and having an open intoxicant in the vehicle.
The sentence? No jail time. A couple grand in fines and/or court costs, a year of probation and 50 hours community service. His driver's license will be suspended for 6 months. All nice and tidy, case closed, and it sounds fair enough, right?
Hardly. Let's take a closer look. Cabrera might be able to get out of his probation if he meets the other conditions of his sentence. By the way, he can pay off his community service at $10 an hour.
The end result? Basically no punishment whatsoever. It's a joke. Cabrera made $20 million last year playing baseball. For the purposes of this argument, let's say, after taxes, he netted $15 million. Take home. Does anybody in their right mind think a $2000 fine is going to faze this guy? The pair of shoes he wore into court probably cost more than that. In HIS world, that's chump change. High priced legal-eagles to represent him? Would it surprise anybody if the Tigers were picking up the tab for those services?
Getting rid of 50 hours of community service at $10 an hour? My math says that's $500. So either Cabrera can go back to Florida and spend 50 hours cleaning up trash on the sides of roads, helping out in a soup kitchen, mowing lawns at churches, or perhaps even giving inspirational speeches to kids. Or he can throw 5 C-notes down and forget about the whole thing. What's the next rung below chump change? Decisions, decisions. Gee, I wonder what he will do?
And here's the kicker. He will have fulfilled all his sentence requirements, so his probation will likely be cancelled and he'll get his driver's license back. After almost a year of working it's way through the court system, the end result appears to amount to nothing. So what was the point? The arresting officers in Fort Pierce might as well have asked him for his autograph, swiped his booze, and chauffeured him to wherever he wanted to go.
Consider an "average" citizen in Fort Pierce, or anywhere else, for that matter, getting busted for the same crime(s). Let's assume that guy is making $20,000 a year. Let's even assume he would receive the same sentence that Cabrera did. While it's chump change to Cabrera, a $2000 fine would hurt that guy. That doesn't seem fair.
There's a better way.
Depending on the severity of the crime(s), make the fine a percentage of what they earn -- off the top. Gross income. That way rich people can't have their CPAs figuring out a way to write it off. Let's further say a certain crime was worth 5%. In Cabrera's case, that would have equated to a million bucks. Cough it up. The guy that's making $20,000 would pay a thousand bucks. The clerk/cashier is right down the hall.
That way they would both theoretically suffer the same amount of financial hurt for the same crime. Yes, I understand Joe Citizen would miss his thousand more than Cabrera would miss his million, but you have to start someplace, because the current system is somewhere between rigged and ridiculous.
But what if that citizen was amongst the millions that don't even HAVE jobs? He could be fined a million, a billion, or whatever, but he can't give what he doesn't have, and currently has no way of earning.
THAT is where community service should come into play. If nothing else, the man's got time on his hands. The alternative is to throw him in jail, house him, feed him, all at taxpayer expense, and take away any opportunity he might have had to get a job in the first place. How much sense does THAT make?
One more suggestion. When sentencing rich guys like Cabrera to community service -- forget about 50 hours they can buy out of for the price of a cheap night out. Give them, say, 2000, with the same $10 an hour opt-out clause.
If I could send a message to Cabrera, it would be this ----
Hey Miguel, you have a choice. Do you want to play baseball next year in major league parks, fly on private charters, stay in 5-star motels, and be adored by millions of your fans -- or do you want to spend it putting in 40 hour weeks at a soup kitchen in Florida?
I know you don't like it, but think of it this way, amigo. At $10 an hour, you just created another $20,000 job for a guy that needs one. You're doing your small part to help with the unemployment problem in the country that has made you rich.
Be very thankful you never had the pleasure of meeting a young lady named Kimberly Small. She's a judge, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to get to know her in an official capacity. Trust me on that one.
Say hi to Hugo for me.
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