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The ACLU is at it again. This time, the patrons and owners of a local barber shop have complained about the Field Interview Cards that police fill out when they stop people. At question is the point that officers not only gather name and where people live and where they are supposedly going, but identifying characteristics – teeth, tattoos, other physical characteristics and do so, the ACLU claims, without reasonable cause.

According to the ACLU, “That’s not appropriate. The police don’t have the right to do that.”

Fine Mr. and Ms. ACLU. When your home or car is broken into and you carefully describe the perpetrator, we’ll just have to let the police start from scratch. They’ll never know that exactly that person was seen on a silver mountain bike a block from your home 30 minutes before you were robbed.

Or maybe it’ll be worse than that. One of your loved ones is hit by a flying bullet, through no fault of their own. Witnesses in the area give the police a good description, but alas, the shooter has fled. Nevermind that a Field Interview Card would have been filled out ten minutes earlier on exactly the vehicle and gun-wielding driver just down the street. Police would have had the information to link that person to the crime on your doorstep. But – now they can’t because you listened to some people in a barber shop and didn’t even bother to try and reason out why such information just might be helpful.

Do you really want to tie the police department’s hands in the name of “fairness”? Come on! Where’s the fairness to me, plain old quiet citizen who wants the police to have all the information they can get at their fingertips every time a crime is committed? When do you come ask ME if I think my rights are being violated? When can I call your office and complain about YOUR tactics?

I want my rights upheld too! I want the right to full and complete police protection. I don’t care if they know what color underwear I’m wearing since I don’t commit crimes. I don’t even associate with those who commit crimes. I don’t frequent locations where crimes are planned or committed. I want the police in my face, asking what I’ve seen, who I’ve seen and where I’ve seen them. Somebody better start giving them that kind of information, without the ACLU looking over their shoulder taking notes, or our crime problem will continue to be rampant. Or worse yet, vigilantism will begin to take to the streets.

Which is worse – a bit of information that any idiot can note about you like your blatantly displayed tats (but perhaps wouldn’t necessarily write down and therefore would forget when it’s needed), or a group of gun-totin’ untrained citizens profiling and gunning down people they think look like criminals?

I’ll take the NOPD, and their FIC’s, any day. Oh – and I’m in the book my dear ACLU. Any time you want to know whether I think my rights are on the line, just call. I’ll let you know. Right after I let you know that I think you are a sham organization of buffoons who get their jollies from getting puffed up in front of news cameras over invented issues. 

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We should invite Victor Lopez to move to New Orleans. We should pay for his relocation and find him a job and a house. Victor Lopez is the kind of person this city needs.

In Fresno, California, a man dragged a small girl into a pick-up truck just minutes after patrol units tried to locate him based on reports of a man exposing himself to young girls. She had been playing with two other friends. Why he chose her, we don’t know. But he did.

An Amber Alert was issued immediately and Victor Lopez, a grape picker, saw the alert. Moments later he saw an identical pick-up truck, but saw no child in it. He decided to follow the truck anyway. Soon, he saw the child’s head pop up and he called police, keeping them alerted to his location.

Afraid that the perpetrator would flee when police closed in, Lopez blocked in the man’s vehicle and yelled “I know that’s not your child. Let her go.” He kept yelling that while maneuvering to keep the man from leaving. The man finally pushed the child from the truck and fled. Lopez let him flee and turned his attention to the girl.

Lopez stayed with the little girl and kept assuring her that people who could really help her were on their way. He told police the direction the perpetrator had fled and made sure the little girl was safe. The child had been sexually assaulted, but she was alive.

Why did this man, a grape picker, decide this was his fight? “I just felt like I was doing my part,” Lopez said. “I just felt like everybody should step up in their own communities and when something like this happens, come together and try to do your part to help out.”

I want this man in my city! He has the right attitude and the right thinking. He’s already where we are trying to get most of the citizens of this city to be. He didn’t worry about trusting the police. He didn’t think twice about it being “someone else’s problem.” He saw a way to help and he did.

Victor Lopez says he’s not a hero. He says he’s just someone who cares. Do you think we could convince him to come care about New Orleans?

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As crime has risen, there have been cries to bring back the National Guard so that New Orleans has the strength of force evident just after Katrina. In some ways, Superintendant Serpas is giving granting that wish by having NOPD lieutenants and sergeants undergo leadership training in an award-winning program used by the National Guard.

The result should be the knowledge and decision tactics employed by the National Guard leadership without the Hummers and heavy arms clacking through the streets. Frankly, those young’uns with what appeared to be very large, very deadly guns, and goggles, and helmets, and stompin’ boots, and who knows what hanging from their belts, made me very nervous.

Seriously, the result of this move should be a new degree of accountability in the police department. Serpas, knowing what training his lieutenants and sergeants have been through, will be able to hold them to a higher level of accountability. Those same lieutenants and sergeants, after using what they’ve learned to guide those below them, will be able to hold the patrol units and other officers to a higher degree of accountability. Do you see where this is going?

Those who have called for the National Guard to return won’t be happy. They want the firepower and the presence. The firepower was too deadly, and the presence would be lessened now by the increased population in the city. Those guys patrolled the least populated areas of New Orleans when they were here. They would find it a different ballgame in those same areas today, and I’m quite sure their marching orders would be different.

What we need to resurrect from that time is the organization and precision of thinking that came with their presence. Serpas’ partnership with the National Guard in this leadership training should provide that to the NOPD. I think it’s a conscious, smart move that is neither a band-aid nor a stop-gap tactic. It isn’t meant to immediately quell crime. But it is meant to provide long-term improvement in our police force.  

Serpas’ recent partnership with local clergy with the Cops, Clergy and Community Coalition is a band-aid. Granted, if it works, it could grow into a skin graft that is sorely needed. Unfortunately, the clergy are working as slippery a slope as the police in getting community cooperation for police investigations. After all, I doubt seriously that those committing the crimes run breathlessly into church on Sunday to atone. And those who surround and know the serious perpetrators, while they may be wonderful, God-fearing people, are also fearful of the more human ramifications of talking about those they know. What the alliance may provide, if the clergy truly follow through, is another element in the city that trusts and talks positively in a public setting about the work of the NOPD. And that can’t hurt.

I’ll admit I had my reservations about Serpas. But the more I see of his actions, the fewer are my reservations. It appears we have been given a Superintendant who thinks then actually acts rather than one who acts without ever thinking. 

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Jeremy Galmon, age 2 years, will be laid to rest today. He was a victim of senseless criminal activity. But to look at the websites and releases from news media, you’d think that the most dire thing being discussed in the city today is the Saints recent lackluster wins.

Jeremy Galman got 2 years to discover the world. Unfortunately, most of New Orleans is more focused right now on how many weeks the Saints will be without Reggie Bush. Weeks. Only weeks until he can return to a game that has become such big business that it overshadows the years Jeremy will miss and that his family will grieve.

Can we truly expect youth in the city to take messages meant to deter crime seriously when every media outlet in the city devotes more time to Saints coverage than to the ramifications of illegal activity? Who are we asking the youth to look up to? People who care enough about a young life senselessly cut short, or people who are paid exorbitant amounts to feed a business venture cloaked loosely in the term “sport?”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big Saints fan. I cried shamelessly with each win during the last part of last season. But bile rises in my throat when I think of a young child, thinking of things no more serious than Clifford the Big Red Dog being no longer with us because of a grudge, or an imagined slight, or a debt, or drugs. And I weep now because the city is being led to mourn a more dynamic team rather than this child. 

I don’t think I’m being too harsh. Count the words dedicated to Jeremy today, then count the ones dedicated to the Saints game yesterday. It seems a little lopsided to me when one will continue next week, and one will never get a chance to continue.

Rest with the angels, Jeremy. 

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A two-year old. Not even old enough to balance a gun or knife in his hand. Certainly not old enough to fully understand the breadth and depth of evil that was slinking into his life.

Several years ago, another two-year old was killed, allegedly at his father’s hand, over money. Not a money transaction with the child, but with the mother. Restitution became the child’s life. For what did Jerremy Galmon take a bullet? Because someone in one car had “dishonored” someone spotted in another car? Because someone was “cheating” in a relationship? Because drug money, ill-begotten and illegal to begin with, was not enough or not given fast enough?

It wasn’t race that took Jerremy down before he could truly live. It was a lack of human decency for others. Simple Human Decency. Nothing expensive. Nothing foreign. Nothing that takes a lot of education, or culture, or even time.

In New Orleans, it has become a commodity that is as rare as a black pearl. And because the people of New Orleans have lost it, Jerremy lies dead.

Are you willing to get it back? This is OUR city. It is a city of beauty, and history, and grace. It used to be a city of hospitality, not only to tourists, but to each other as well. THAT city didn’t leave because of changing demographics, or bad education, or flawed politicians. That city left because its citizens forgot how to act that way and to expect others to act that way.

Maybe Katrina caused part of it. Losing everything will make you want to get everything, and hold it, and get more, just in case. So people here developed a “me first” attitude. That wouldn’t be half bad if after the “me first” was taken care of, we looked at each other. But we don’t. We just keep piling the chips on our shoulders and staying to ourselves and washing away our guilt with stupid rationalizations.

I don’t want another child to die. I don’t want anyone to die. I want those who are incapable of having human decency locked up before that happens. But in order to do that, first we have to be able to tell who they are. If I looked at you as you drove, or shopped, or walked the streets of New Orleans, would I be able to tell that you cared about others?

Would you look me in the eye? Would you smile? Or would you push your way ahead of me to be one person closer to the cashier, or nose your car dangerously between mine and the car ahead to be one car closer to the exit?

The lack of human decency is evident in much more than a crime rate, a murder statistic. It’s evident in the way we just walk past each other, head down, shouldering our way past.  And frankly, you just don’t see much decency anymore at all – not in this city at least.

Seems to me it’s something worth working on. After all, if the thugs are the only ones without it, we’ll spot them pretty easily, won’t we? 

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Chief Riley, I think ye protesteth too loudly and from the only soapbox that will still allow your footprints to darken its door, WBOK.

“There's a revolution going on, and we are missing it,” he (Chief Warren Riley) said.

We're not missing it, Chief. The citizens of the city are creating it!

If and when you and Nagin decide to come out of your bunny holes and look around, you'll see that this city has decided it will no longer stand for corruption, lack of ethics, lack of integrity and scamming of the citizens. We really don't care whether you are black, white, brown, orange, green or rainbow. We're looking at performance first. And your performance has been abysmal!

I take great offense at your comments, Sir. You sound as though the citizens of the city are stupid, being led by the nose by others toward a political future we don't want. We have learned. We have begun to think for ourselves. We know what we want – and you and Nagin represent the absolute antithesis of it.

Most of the citizens of this city are sick and tired of everything from where a grocery is placed to the naming of a street to how city departments are run revolving around race. And we have been spending more time showing it and less time listening to those who have made race a way of life.

Even more importantly, we have realized it will take creativity and knowledge – not drama and glitz – to turn this city around. Many have tried to advise you and the mayor. Both of you have turned your back on advice (for instance the Brown report) and moved forward with your own tired agendas. With what results? None! We have a city that is mired in the molasses of corruption and a police department filled with hard-working well-meaning officers who appear to be counting the days until your departure. What a legacy for you and Nagin to leave behind!

Why don't you take your fight off the airwaves and face the true critics of your leadership, the people or more importantly, your own employees? You haven't faced the public at any point as the city rides the roller coaster of daily crime. My guess is the foot soldiers of your department, the patrol units, rarely see your face. And when they do, I would assume they are told how to act and what to say (and not say) or risk termination.

The days of grandiose and bloated comments such as you chose to let loose on WBOK are over. You carry no weight. Had those same comments been made in a public city hall forum you would have been shouted down. You chose your venue well, albeit still with an agenda. You chose the most conservatively racist radio station this side of the Mississippi to air your unproven comments. You chose a venue that daily utilizes gutter thug commentary to keep their listeners separate from the mainstream. That alone speaks volumes.

So you think you have had the “ultimate challenge”? Chief Riley, that is yet to come for the citizens of this city. The ultimate challenge is going to be to remove the fingerprints of your administration from our police ranks so our city can intelligently, equitably and reliably fight crime in this city.

I wish you would have joined politics. Then you would have had to face the public and we could have asked you some of the hard questions about why your lackluster leadership qualities should be valued. I would have loved to hear your answers. And what you spouted on WBOK, those were not answers, Sir. Those were words thrown out by a man who knows he's barely keeping his chin above the waves.

I'll just keep making sure those waves slosh higher as we approach May if you don't mind. I'm part of that revolution.

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It really doesn't take much to go from happy and fully challenged in a great career to unemployed and concerned about keeping a roof over your head.

Last night, as the temps dipped, I listened to the scanner and heard units 6522 and 6525 rounding up homeless by the van-load and transporting them to missions and shelters. God be with those guys! Unfortunately, each time I heard them head for a shelter with a group, I prayed I wouldn't be in that number any time in the near future.

On December 9, I was laid off. Due to a needed business reorganization caused by the economy and shifting markets in my employer's industry, head count was reduced. I was in the reduction. Sure, I got a severance package, but it won't last long with a mortgage, tax bill due, homeowner's and flood insurance payments coming up, utilities, medical bills (and the cost of Cobra), food, etc. Sure, I can downsize, but most credible landlords want employed tenants.

I am a learning and development strategist and developer. My career has spanned over 15 years in adult learning, instructional design, facilitation, learning program management, learning strategy, needs analysis and organizational effectiveness. For the last six years, I was privileged to have “the dream job” – I worked from home for a large global professional services firm managing national initiatives. That ride ended on December 9. It was rather daunting to discover that all of that and a weekly phone call with get me $284 per week in unemployment. And if you accept even a menial job it is deducted from your unemployment unless it is paid “under the table”. (My integrity and ethics make me shudder at that phrase.)

The niche that my career fits into is not routinely available in New Orleans. This city does not support the corporate structures and home offices that utilize learning and people development professionals. Hence, I'm facing leaving my beloved city to find employment. My job hunt is nationwide. That's a whole different set of stress factors – selling my home without knowing where I'm going being the biggest one. (I keep envisioning signing the closing papers, with my car packed with what it will hold and my 4 pets, and sleeping in rest stops on America's interstates as I drive from city to city seeking employment.)

How many of our city's homeless started out like me, gainfully employed and viewed as a productive citizen? We probably don't even have an accurate count of the true homeless. I would bet there are scads of others out there who, in really inclement weather, can still prevail on a friend or relative for a sofa or floor space to sleep indoors, but who can't permanently move-in. So in good weather they wander.

Or how many in our city are moving daily from sofa to sofa, friend to friend because they're still searching for work, have given up searching, or are employed in a job that doesn't pay enough to meet bills like rent?

Sure, I have savings. Look at your budget and figure out how long your savings will last (even on Ramen noodles, no cable, no luxuries of any kind). I even have separate retirement savings. But hey – I'm 57 – if I run through all of that now and find a lower paying job for the next nine to 12 years, I'm going to have a pretty dire retirement if I live long enough. I don't live a high-falutin' lifestyle. My car is paid for (a 2004 Hyundai); I don't buy clothes; I don't have electronic gadgets like Wii's or X-boxes; my furniture came primarily from Rooms To Go in bits and pieces.

For those of you who say that those on the streets are our mentally ill, incapable of caring for themselves, think before you say that. Were they always that way? Let me tell you – face months of unemployment with the standard bills of an employed lifestyle and you quickly also face depression, anxiety and panic attacks, anti-social behavior, exclusion from activities (which leads to deeper depression and more anxiety) and eventually what many would term “mental illness”.

So – anyone who is currently employed, do whatever you have to to stay that way. For anyone else in my situation, I hear ya, buddy. For anyone who can employ anyone like me – CONTACT ME.

And when you see a homeless person, or hear 6522 and 6525 mercifully pulling them out of the weather, dig down inside and consider what it would take for you to be in their shoes. With very few exceptions, I'd say not much.

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We have NORAD planes flying through the skies over New Orleans in exercises meant to keep our country safe from terrorists.

But we have no one within the city that can step up and protect us from terrorists and extortionists appointed and hired into essential city positions.

Yesterday , Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton  announced that as a result of the City Council’s refusal to renew an appropriation, the public defender’s office would stop accepting murder and rape cases.

This announcement is tantamount to terrorism and extortion. The Public Defender office defends many kinds of cases. If there is a need to reduce the workload due to reduced funding, then the logical decision should be to stop accepting cases where the public is not placed in direct jeopardy if the offender is released due to lack of representation.

However, Mr. Bunton chooses to hold the citizens of the city hostage until he gets his way with cash. I hope he and his family have a safe room in their dwelling. If he goes through with this decision, we should all create “panic rooms”. A rampant criminal population has just been given license to maintain and even escalate their heinous behavior because chances are they won’t even reach the courtroom.

Maybe we should hold Mr. Bunton hostage. Work with your department to find a less dangerous solution to your funding problem or face immediate termination with loss of any retirement benefits and face possible prosecution for extortion.

What makes this even more like salt to a wound is that Mayor Nagin had just stated that the “citizens would suffer” if the council did not act appropriately on his budget proposal. How closely is Mr. Bunton associated with Mr. Nagin? I don’t want to start any rumors, but could Mr. Bunton have been coached by the Mayor in the tactics to use? After all, Nagin himself used the same tactics to get the garbage contracts ratified.

May I suggest that the public defender office stop representing repeat drunk drivers? Let them either find the money for an attorney or be required to place an expensive piece of machinery in their vehicle to monitor their alcohol level in order to be released due to lack of representation.

May I suggest that the public defender office stop representing first time drug offenders? Let the city institute an automatic 100 hours of community service for any first time drug offender in lieu of a trial. Even if they are innocent of the charges, it won’t hurt them to serve some community service time in a city sorely in need of it.

May I suggest the public defender office stop representing deadbeat dads who don’t pay child support? Statistics show that even after being ordered by a court to pay back support, most do not. Why waste our public defender’s time representing a defendant who has no intention of abiding by a court decision?

May I suggest that those who work in the public defender’s office search their consciences and decide if they can actually work for a department that will allow the most heinous criminals to be released over a funding dispute? If the answer is a resounding yes, then they should be the next ones looking for defense counsel for aiding and abetting a criminal.

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There is one huge frustration for patrol units that we have not touched on and it has nothing to do with police administration or criminals. It has to do with those who place calls to 911 or the police directly.

If you are going to place a call to the police, have the decency to leave your name and number. If the operator doesn’t ask for it, insist that they take it down.  Even just a first name helps narrow the field when police are searching for a location or an incident. It doesn’t mean they are going to come find you in particular, although in many cases it would further their investigation if they could.

When you initially call give as much information on the situation as possible: exact location, what is happening (fight, robbery in progress, suspicious person and what they’re doing, drug sale ongoing and how), race, sex and age of anyone involved, how many are involved, whether weapons have been seen, clothing description even if it’s only color blurs, distinctive clothing (hats, logos, etc), colors of vehicles and makes and models if you can tell or size of vehicle (SUV, small, 4-door sedan, etc), license plates or partial license plates if available, landmarks and surroundings (next to the abandoned grocery, across from the school, behind the iron fence, etc), direction those involved fled (toward Japonica, ran across Robert E Lee toward the lake, etc), whether they fled on foot or in a vehicle.  

If you are afraid of retaliation because of being seen talking to police, ask the operator to place in the comments that you will only speak by phone and give a valid, working phone number. They will honor that but it at least gives them a way to gather more information or verify information.

If, due to high priority call volume, it is taking an inordinate amount of time for police to respond and you have to leave the location you gave to the operator, please call back and inform them of that. Tell them when you will return or tell them you will call back at a later time for service. Don’t place other citizens in a hazardous position because a patrol unit is tied up responding to your location when you won’t even be there any longer.

If you are in a life or death emergency and dial 911, try to keep the phone close to you and leave the line open. Operators do indicate in the comments that are given to patrol units what they hear in the background on open-line 911 calls: struggle heard in the background; person calling for help; person heard threatening someone else. It helps the police prioritize the call. The patrol units know there are 911 calls, and then there are 911 calls. Some are the result of misdials, children playing on the phone or pranks. But others are the result of someone who had just enough time to hit the digits and throw the phone down. If your phone has a speakerphone feature, hit 911 then that feature. It helps the responding units know what they are walking into.

If you have called the police because of a situation that is dangerous or frightening and can stay on the phone, ask the operator to stay on the line with you until units respond. Keep talking with the operator, giving updates to the situation if possible. Those updates are relayed to units as they respond. Again, it tells the police what they are responding to and how to respond so that there is a better chance for a good outcome.  

If you are calling from a cell phone, even if you only have moments, give as exact a location as you can. Cell phones do NOT triangulate to provide police your position. They are not linked in the 911 system to any location. Start the call with your location in case you lose coverage or the system drops the call: 2100 block of Canal Street heading toward the cemeteries, I’ve had my purse snatched.

Once you have called the police, watch for them to arrive. When the units drive slowly through the area, step out and flag them down, or if you’re still on the phone with the operator and afraid to step into the open, say you see the units and give further instructions on how to find you or describe specifically what they should be looking for.

Police response is only as good as the information they have to work with. If you listen to the scanners, you hear their frustration when a call is dispatched that is obviously a dangerous or hazardous situation for someone and dispatch adds “No complainant, no callback”. They know that they only have one, very quick shot at giving a good response.

Police units respond daily to calls of suspicious persons, possible crimes in progress, gunfire, cars driving erratically or dangerously and can do nothing more than drive through the area because they don’t have enough information to truly search or investigate, and no way to get further information.  

If you want good police service, give them good information. Don’t place them at an immediate disadvantage by giving them limited information. You are their eyes and ears until they reach a scene, and you can be the difference between a good outcome and a bad one.

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Yesterday, the criminal justice system took its shot at pleading with the City Council to maintain its levels of funding. A system that is flawed asking for money without providing ways to remove the flaws. The bedrock of the fight against crime whining for its money while not offering ways to improve itself. I would be very selective in providing funding.

A good for instance is the criminal district court. Not only do they want their full 2009 allotment, but they are asking for $150,00 additional for jury expenses and $376,000 to pay for “mental health court”. Judge Julian Parker pointed out that the “criminal element isn’t going to downsize”. No, Judge Parker, they’re not. Hence your job security. How about policing yourselves? There are some dockets that are run very efficiently. There are others on the other hand that serve as drive-bys for justice, or worse yet, logjams. The Mental Health court would be a great idea if New Orleans had the mental health resources to put some bite into the services mandated. But we’re not even keeping our heads above water serving those who voluntarily commit themselves or apply for rehabilitation.

When a defendant doesn’t show in court, judges need to use the full strength of the law to make examples of them. Rescind bond. Don’t renew it when they are hauled into court because they were picked up on a fugitive warrant! They’ve proven they’re unworthy of bond. And WORK with the electronic monitoring system. Demand that as a judge you're notified at the first instance of an infraction, then ACT! Immediately request an arrest warrant, notify law enforcement of your action and then throw the book at the criminal when they are picked up! Stop coddling the criminals!

Cannizzaro isn’t asking for more money, just the same money. It’s true that his department seems to have stepped up the efficiency level several notches, but there’s still room for improvement. The public defenders, while I admit they are overworked, need some good training in time management so that they appear in court when they should. If you read the court dockets, it’s evident that many continuances are caused by public defenders who request them due to not being prepared, or just don’t show on time in the courtroom. And often they have no clue where their client is since they haven't been able to contact them for pre-trial meetings. What about letting someone know about that before the court date?

As for Gusman, clean your house out! Central Lockup is a huge time-waster for police, and the criminal element knows how to play it. A trip to CLU with a prisoner can take up to four hours for a patrol unit. Often there is a long line of prisoners waiting for processing because they are being processed ONE AT A TIME. A criminal who knows the system waits until processing is underway then suddenly feigns an illness, injury, addictive response that allows the ill-trained prison personnel to reject them, causing the patrol unit to then take a trip to University Hospital with the criminal only to be told nothing is wrong with them. And it’s back for another two to four hour wait at CLU. Police your processes, Gusman, then we might give you some money. We won't even discuss recent escapes. They only prove the point that your processes are in dire need of analysis.

Gusman, like Riley and the Brown Report, says he has corrected issues brought up in a U.S. Department of Justice report but offers no specific proof. Again, Gusman needs to provide some proof of accountability and efforts at process improvement to justify budget consideration.

Yesterday’s group was the backbone of the crime issue. We talk about the revolving door and expect it. Let’s stop expecting it. Take the time to comment to your council person as well as the council representatives at large on what you expect from the criminal justice system. Ask them to find a way to fund with accountability checks. Give them some reasons to look closer at where the money goes, reasonable reasons not opinions.

This is the year that the money can talk. We have a shortage of it. Those who get it really need to up their game to justify getting it. We have the right to request accountability before delivering the cash. And let’s hope the council uses its powers to investigate and monitor spending once the money is budgeted. Just as we all have to stretch our bucks, the criminal justice system not only needs to stretch what it gets, but prove there’s a return on the money spent.

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