Florida puts bad guys with guns away for a long time. That’s why they have the lowest firearm violent crime rate EVER.
Illinois?
Well, especially in counties with left-leaning State’s Attorneys, soft-on-crime is the watchword of the day.
Take Jensen McNeal, pictured above.
He was arrested in 2014 for having a loaded handgun in his vehicle with him. Not only that, it was a stolen gun that someone had tried to grind off the serial number.
The local State’s Attorney, notoriously anti-gun Democrat Julia Reitz, after allowing Mr. McNeal to delay the trial for months and months, totally over a year, dismissed the Class 3 felony of possessing a gun with a defaced serial number. She dismissed the Class 2 felony of possessing a stolen gun. And she pled the Class 4 felony of (in essence) carrying a gun without a license (Aggravated Unlawful Use of Weapons).
The judge sentenced him to the maximum of 3 years in prison, with credit for a whopping two days served in county jail.
Six months and a few days later, he was out, prowling the streets of Champaign County once more.
Fast forward to late last night: Mr. McNeal was spotted at The Canopy Club – where some half-assed hip hop “artist” was playing – carrying a gun. Cops got called and guess what they found in the car he was sitting in when they arrived?
If you guessed a .45 auto, you would be right.
In Florida, that original case in 2014 would have had Mr. McNeal serving as a guest of the Florida Department of Corrections for a number of years, without parole, plea bargains or probation.
In Illinois, prison sentences are like dog-years in reverse. Get sentenced to three years, get out in a few months.
We should just be thankful Mr. McNeal hadn’t shot anyone. At least we haven’t solved any cases involving him – yet. He certainly wasn’t enroute to church carrying that unlawfully possessed gun as a felon.
And you wonder why our streets aren’t as safe as Florida’s.
I bet an eye exam on this guy, you look into its’ eyes and see the back of his skull.
I looked at this guy and thought, “stoned”.
This guy will be in and out of prison all his life… until he gets himself killed.
Can’t be tough on the criminal element and their friends and families… that makes up most of the liberal voting block! A sad day when your elected representatives belong to the criminals 🙁
This plea bargain scheme is totally out of control in Illinois and needs to stop. As a law abiding citizen I’ve never been in a states attorneys office but often wondered if they have a room with lights and bells and ask you ” do you want the deal behind door #1 or door #2?” Why on earth is this clown reitz still in office?
Just read in the news-gazette that you can now rob banks in Champaign county and if caught, receive probation compliments of the “wheeler dealer” reitz. John does sound like your catch and release or what?
Hold on John!
There are old guns out there with defaced serial number from wear and mistakes in re-finishing.
There are gun collectors that lost their collections and their freedom over these older firearms were the serial numbers are rubbed off!
Be damned careful about wishing for laws to be enforced when they can catch an innocent.
Plus is this UN-GODLY, PI$$-WHOLE state its a so-called crime to be caught with a firearm or ammunition without one of those stupid arse FOID cards.
We need to fit the crime to an actual event or action and not some BS paper violation! There must be a criminal intent. The clown in your example maybe a bad guy worthy of jail time, but the laws are selectively enforced as a way to disarm innocent people.
This is why I am against all this damn compromise and concessions by gun groups.
I want to add John, I remember the builder squads in Illinois 15 years ago. We don’t want anyone getting caught up in some serial number BULL $HIT!!!!!!! because some moron SA wants to send a message to gun owners.
The more i think about this case, the more it upsets me.
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