LAW & ORDER

What an interesting coincidence that a few days after my most recent entry entitled March Madness (Wednesday, March 14th) about the "worth more than gold" tickets to the World Series in St. Louis and the other entry Innocent Until Proven Guilty (Sunday, March 18th) about excessive drinkings, the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured a report about the St. Louis Cardinals, Mr. Tony La Russa being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and another story about World Series tickets confiscated by the St. Louis police being used and put back afterward as evidence.

I don't know how it started, the last six months I became "addicted" to the television show called Law & Order, the original series and the spin-off Special Victims Unit series. I have not yet paid attention to other spin-off series, Criminal Intent and Trial by Jury. Perhaps the reason I enjoy this legal drama program because it took place in New York City, my American hometown. It is unrealistic with the proceeds, then trial preparation to an indictment with the accused often ended with a guilty verdict wrapping up the show in half an hour. The same detectives always found evidences and witnesses (normal people with excellent photographic memory) willing to give descriptions of the would-be criminals. The prosecutors would be the good lawyers seeking justice on behalf of the victims .

According to the newspaper article, about 10 St. Louis City police officers are under investigation for allegedly using about 30 World Series tickets seized from people who attempted to sell tickets for more than face value, used the tickets and then returned the tickets back to the evidence locker. Opinions from the experts of the legal field aruged whether the officers committed a crime of tampering with evidence or just a simple case of human weakness (as a sport fanatic, I understand the temptation) and what the harm since the tickets are still the same condition to be presented as evidence! I will leave the guilty verdict to the judge. I do wonder what made the officers think that no one would ever find out!

The other story about Mr. La Russa 's arrest. When I wrote about people who became drunken fools or those who could not control their intake of alcohol at business functions, I did not know that Mr. La Russa would be helping me proving my points. I also wrote that there are definitely no excuses for anyone to drive while intoxicated. Most of the people who called in to the radio stations or sending comments to the media, wanted to brush this matter off or minimize what could be a fatal mistake. While I agree that Mr. La Russa will move on and the rest of us will stop talking about the incidence, I question what else must be done so that a parent, a child or a loved one will not die the next time a drunken fool chose to get behind the wheel and slam into another vehicle driven by someone's mother, father, son or daughter? Many St. Louisians still recalled the tragic story of a mother/wife/daughter who was killed by a St. Louis Rams player a few years ago when he hit her car after he was already drunk coming from a party.

I understand that it is not my place to decide what the appropriate penalty should be. I will not be the person who cast the stone at Mr. La Russa either. (Jesus said, "Anyone here who has never sinned, let him throw the first stone". John 8:7) However, will Mr. La Russa be able to keep himself from repeating the same mistake? ("Go, and don't sin anymore" John 8:11).

Yes, I know you should not judge a man until you've walked in his boots. Yes, I know "Judge not, that ye be not judged". Since I don't drink and I am NOT planning to learn the art of consuming alcohol, I would safely say that I would not receive the same scrutiny of the same offense or might be walking in Mr. La Russa's boots/shoes.