Robber Upset He Didn't Get Life Sentence

[Champ]

YAKIMA, Wash. - Ruben Ramirez, 45, was disappointed when he got an 8 1/2-year sentence for bank robbery.



Ramirez told a teller at the Wells Fargo Bank he had a gun, then sat by the front door and waited for police to arrive Aug. 23. He carried out his plan in order to be assured of a life prison term under the state's "three strikes" law.


He invited the teller to sound the alarm after showing her he didn't have a gun after all, and later said that to police and lawyers.


He also said he was broke, unable to find work and had recently moved to Yakima from California after his wife divorced him. As it turned out, he had been away from California for 17 years.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&ncid=816&e=2&u=/ap/20040507/ap_on_fe_st/unhappy_robber

[MichaelUK]

1. Interesting bit of Scottish Law Trivia

This guy walks into a shop, shouts "I've got a gun in my pocket, this is a hold up". He then waits a few seconds, and then starts laughing and tell them that it was a joke and that he didn't have a gun in his pocket at all (which he didn't).

He was charged with assault and got (I think) a 5 yr sentence.

[ikojo]

2. Jesse Jackson has often said that for some jail is a

step up. Pretty sad that in a country that can give millionaires generous tax breaks, some poor people TRY to get put in prison.

[Deja Q]

4. Agreed. Especially in a craphole economy and when corporate america

insults us. "No american has a god-given right to a job" - Carly Fiorina, CEO, HP corporation. Amongst countless examples of corporate americans economically crucifying Americans.

The powerful continue to rape and pillage and we're getting caught in the crossfire. It's utter (rubbish) to say that it's the total responsibility of the person to be counseled and rehabilitated. Not in a "society" where people look out for themselves and piss on everybody else in the quest for furthering their greed. We are no society of any sort. Even after 9/11 there were numerous "charities" (including REAL ones like the United Way, as I recall) who SWINDLED the population, using 9/11 for theirb benefit, and I'm not talking about worthless commemorative coins made from the steel wreckage. x( America is a sodding JOKE, considering what it has become. America, as being "by, of, and for the people" has been dead for decades. The Constitution was to ensure checks and balances. But, somewhere along the time, it was perverted so you'd only have power if you had money.

[Nikia]

3. There was a girl like that in my school

She didn't like her parents. They weren't abusive or anything, but she didn't like living with them. She preferred living in the juvenile detention center so she'd shoplift with the intention of getting caught.
For adults who are in bad situations, they may prefer to live in prision as well. I think that they need counseling that deals with this issue and how to build a better life on the outside. I think that often counseling and group homes get cut in budget funding. These things need to be increased to prevent crimes by troubled people.