Jaycee Dugard versus Law Enforcement

I realize that the Jaycee Dugard case is frighteningly sad and bizarre. But at 21.1 million dollars for a single victim compensation when there was not a complete judicial process but a legislative bypass with an almost unanimous vote, I know why the state of California is going, has gone, and will always be broke.

There is a difference between making a claim that the law enforcement system failed Jaycee Dugard and actually proving that it did. This "weak evidence against law enforcement" but high profile case simply opens a flood gate for similar inequitable settlements.

Link to News Story

My expectation of law enforcement is that they perform at best effort for the assets and people they have available. There is an expectation of equal and honest enforcement and services. BUT ... I don't expect perfection. There will always be "should have", "could have", "would have's", and there doesn't appear to be any express violations of law or misconduct on the part of law enforcement from my perspective, and I have dug deep, spending several hours researching this situation.

There will always be crazy, bizarre people among us capable of doing the things that Jaycee's captors performed. The number of times that her kidnapper was incarcerated shows that various police agencies had tried to take care of this individual when he had broken the law. If Jaycee had lived in a tightly monitored police state with informants everywhere, could this sort of thing have happened? Not likely, but then again, I don't think we want to live in a police state. And have there ever been serial killers in Communist countries? Why of course there have been!

Some Russian serial killers:

Andrei Chikatilo

Alexander Pichushkin

 

In the long run, the people who are hurt in THIS situation of the extravagant unjustified  compensation are the tax payers of the state of California. It straps the budget process for services that much more and does nothing to encourage someone to be a law enforcement officer, other than to fight against this sort of fiscal abuse by the legislature. As a society we can't afford this level of compensation to each individual, and therefore it should not be given to any individual. Stop expecting the state to do everything for you, AND watch your children more closely AS WELL AS your neighbors.