Kill A 6 Year Old, Get Thirty Days in Jail

Now here is a judge who is getting tough on crime.

The driver of an SUV that struck and killed a 6-year-old girl just 12 days after her family moved to Clarkston from Nepal will spend a month in jail for his crime.

The judge's name is Alvin Wong and he sits on the Georgia State Court in Dekalb county. The other part of this story, among many, is how under Georgia law vehicular homicide can either be treated as a felony or a misdemeanor. Gregory Armwood, the murderer in this case, was only charged with misdemeanor vehicular homicide.

According to state records, Armwood has had a number of traffic offenses since 1992, including DUI, running stop signs and red lights and causing accidents and speeding by as much as 33 mph over the posted speed limit. His most recent conviction was in DeKalb County on Sept. 9, 2003, for driving 75 mph in a 55 mph zone.

Least you think this was some sort of really horrible accident the facts of the case are he passed a city bus which was stopped to discharged passengers on the left hand side in a no passing zone just past a police officer who was writing a citation to another driver for speeding. Even the presence of a law enforcement officer was not enough to prevent him from breaking several more laws.

The Mongers relocated to the United States under a government program that provides a haven for people from countries where they are persecuted, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The Monger family was displaced from their home in Bhutan due to ethnic cleansing. Even though they had never lived in Nepal, they were of Nepalese descent and therefore made to leave Bhutan along with thousands of other families. Once in Nepal, the family lived in a hut in a refugee camp for 10 years. In the camp there were neither schools nor jobs. Refugees were not allowed to work. They depended on relief organizations for food. Suk Maya was born in this camp. Her family brought her to the United States for a new beginning, a new life. Unfortunately, that new beginning had only just begun when she was killed by what appears to have been an impatient driver.

Amazing. The guy isn't even a professional athlete and all he gets is a slap on the wrist for taking another human life because he was in a hurry. Hell with good behavior he probably won't even miss most of the BCS bowl games.

I know folks come to this blog for different reasons, and harping about this may seem trivial in face of the big national issues but dadgummit sometimes you just got to get things off your chest and for me this is one of them. Hug your kids and pray that if something like this happens to someone you know they don't wind up in the courtroom of somebody like Alvin Wong.