However, if anybody feels this should go in the Rubber Room, I've no problem that that, and anybody with the ability should feel free to move it there should they feel the need.
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Ok, here's the deal.
In December, 2006, a Tucson woman was driving with a 0.156 blood alcohol level, nearly double the amount which would classify her as legally drunk in Arizona. She's 27 now, so since they didn't give her DOB, let's say she was in her mid-twenties.
She struck and killed a 45-year-old man who was riding his bicycle when she swerved off of the road, struck him with her vehicle, and then continued 800 feet more before stopping.
Ok, so far this is, sadly, pretty standard stuff; alcohol plus motor vehicle equals tragedy, and I don't think anyone here is likely to disagree with that.
Here's what's so terrible in this particular case:
In a recorded phone conversation one week after the bicyclist was killed, an unknown male friend of the driver told her
Bad enough someone should say this to her. She took a human life; you'd think she would be feeling horrible guilt and remorse and this would be the last kind of thing she'd want to hear, right?that an acquaintance believed she should get a medal and a parade because she had "taken out" a "tree hugger, a bicyclist, a Frenchman and a gay guy all in one shot."
Not so.
The callous disregard for human life expressed in her laughter in chilling...and I don't have a much better opinion of her "male friend."Arrington laughed. When the man said he knew it was a terrible thing to say, she responded, "No, it's not."
Remember we're not talking about a teenager; we're talking about someone in their mid-twenties. I could see a teen trying to "laugh away" the guilt--but not a 25-year-old. That's plenty old enough to know exactly what you have done.
The only bright spot, if you can call it that, is that since this call was recorded, the judge, who called it "breathtaking in its inhumanity," used it to help determine her sentence:
Here's the full story.She could have gotten as few as four years behind bars, but Superior Court Judge Michael Cruikshank sentenced her Tuesday to 10½ years -- one year shy of the maximum.
I just cannot imagine someone laughing at having accidentally killed someone. That literally makes my blood run cold.
My only conclusion is that we live in a world where human life is more and more often considered to be of no value--and that makes me fear for the future. It makes me glad I don't have kids.
--James