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Cabbie beaten in the Back Bay; four arrested
By adamg on Tue, 12/23/2014 - 7:43am
The Herald reports on an incident around 1:20 a.m. on Sunday at Boylston and Berkeley streets, in which four alleged goons got into an argument with their cab driver at Boylston and Berkeley streets that ended with them pulling him from the cab, beating him and leaving him lying on the ground.
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Comments
wow
Released without bail? Are you serious? It should be a felony to assault a cab driver you've hired! Any word on the driver?
The cabbie better hope these
The cabbie better hope these four guys aren't former BC football players.
It seems to me....
... that Boston has (on average) the very worst trial court-level judges of any place I've ever lived.
Not you, Michael
Sigh.
The 4 have not been convicted of anything. The judge released them on their own recognizance. Basically, the judge is convinced that they are not ongoing threats to society as a whole (assuming the facts, this was not random, but rather the result of an argument. I am not saying that it is okay to stomp someone, even one on one let alone four on one, but rather that this was not random) and that he is convinced that they will attend court on dates required and not flee the jurisdiction. If they miss court or get accused of some other incident, things would (or at least should) change.
Now, if/when they are convicted/plead guilty and get the same sentence the football players got, your point will be valid. You've lived down South. Do we really want to go that route?
Sorry...
.... I find release on "personal recognizance" to be an inadequate substitute for bail in cases involviong violent behavior. And this practice appears far more common here than anywhere else I've lived. (Sentencing also often seems ludicrous, but that is another -- albeit presumably related -- story).
Same as bail, really
Say these guys are found/plead guilty and (hopefully) sentenced to jail time. They would still get their bail back. You only lose your bail money when you default. Some people are allowed to post their real property (houses) as surety. The point of granting bail is that there is no purpose to be served by keeping the accused locked up, but there has to be something to make sure they show up in court for trial.
Now, when people awaiting trial for violent crime are arrested for crimes, that would seem to indicate that they should probably await trial in a more confined space.
The sentencing thing is something that sometimes amazes me, too, even though I did once passionately note that being locked up for 18 months is a much bigger thing than some think it is.
Bail imposes _some_ cost_....
... (even if you put up cash and get it back -- if you need a bail bond, that actually imposes a non-refundable cost) -- personal recognizance does not.
Being imprisoned, even for a month, is non-trivial (but possibly not adequate) and probably there are far better ways to deal with many offenses other than prison/jail. But a mere suspended sentence as the +only+ "punishment" (not even token community service or restitution -- or wearing a sandwich-board stating "I've been a vilent SOB"). Not a "consequence" that gives the public confidence in our justice system.
No bail bondsmen in MA
I did find the rules governing bail. Not quite what I was looking for, but still there is this gem-
The link links on to the state law, which spells out when bail would be required and when no bail would be allowed.
But It's Not Limited to Bail
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/10/30/for_d...
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/09/top-court-throws-chelsea-dis...
The 4 have not been convicted of anything, and there's a good chance they never will be. The trial court really is full of judges who either don't know what they're doing or don't want to follow the law.
First offense
it isn't unusual. Isn't that unusual for those with multiple previous offenses.
Assaults in their various forms (from a legal standpoint) are very common, and MA has a high rate of assaults, but other crimes like homicides, are pretty low compared to other places. I think many sometimes concentrate too much much on things like murder rates, and don't realize (of care) about things such as assaults, where people even get seriously injured, but don't die.