Enough With Compassion

Cases from across the country call Nutter's re-entry plans into question.

by Michael Washburn

Analysis

Anyone who plans to vote in the mayoral election should ponder the case of Imette St. Guillen. A 24-year-old Venezuelan-American who grew up in Boston, St. Guillen was, coincidentally, pursuing a degree at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York when she unexpectedly learned firsthand about how "compassion" toward felons often affects people in America.

In February 2006, St. Guillen walked into a bar in SoHo where she unwillingly drew the attention of a bouncer and parolee, Darryl Littlejohn, who followed her outside, bound and gagged her and forced her into his van. A few days later, the police found St. Guillen's naked and violated body on the side of a road in Brooklyn. Her devastated family filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the bar owners, citing them for negligence, since they knew about Littlejohn's rap sheet — which included violent crimes — but hired him anyway. Now, New York City has a law on the books that provides for the closure of bars, clubs and other institutions that fail to screen job applicants and keep out criminals and ex-convicts.

So, how does this case relate to Philadelphia? Michael Nutter is flouting the recommendations of public safety advocates and new laws inspired by St. Guillen's murder and cases like it. Under Mayor Nutter, the municipal government will pursue the Philadelphia Re-entry Employment Program, or PREP, which provides a $10,000 tax incentive to businesses that hire formerly imprisoned felons, thereby "providing renewed life chances for those with little or no options," in the words of a Nutter for Mayor press release. Like other liberal policies, this one is a wolf in the sheep's clothing known as "compassion." If elected, Nutter will surely get innocent people killed, but at least his heart will be in the right place.

The danger posed by hiring those with demonstrated proclivities to violence and other pathologies is visible all around us. It is a danger that cuts across professions and institutions. Take a look at a 2006 case in Grapevine, Texas, in which police nailed the manager of a pizza parlor after undercover officers had received a tip that he was using the business as a drug market. Officers arresting the 31-year-old man last September found hundreds of Ecstasy tablets and $1,100, and the subsequent charges suggest that he was supplying drugs to teens. (Spokespersons for the scandalized pizza chain said it was too much work to drug-test all job applicants.)

Last year, a private alternative school in Gresham, Ore., lost its license when a teacher's aide allegedly committed a rape, and a belated background check found out that the aide was a convicted murderer. Also in 2006, a scandal arose at a Denver-area school where a gym teacher allegedly sexually assaulted an 8-year-old boy to whom he gave lessons at the school's rec center. It is hard to say whether people were more outraged over the assault or the fact that the man had faced charges for sexually abusing a child in New Mexico in 1999, but that prior offense did not prevent him from taking charge of kids in the Colorado district.

The Colorado case is similar to one in Chesapeake, Va., in which a 38-year-old man was paid $50 per hour to train kids in softball. When the 16-year-old girl, whom the coach was training, announced she had to go to the bathroom, he followed her and touched her inappropriately. Robert "Bobby" Hoeft had a 2002 conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. "What's wrong with Child Protective Services?" the victim's outraged mother asked The Virginian-Pilot newspaper. "They knew about this for several months. Why haven't they stopped him from coaching?"

These cases and others — listed at backgroundscreeningarticles.blogspot.com — bring home the catastrophe that often ensues for both the victims and the employers when we hand felons a chance to follow their demonstrated proclivities. Education is just one area; it is likely that many of the ex-inmates will gravitate to service-sector jobs in the "New Philadelphia" touted by Nutter's campaign. They will become bus drivers, cabbies, train conductors and truckers. The latter possibility is especially promising, when you consider a Dallas Morning News study last December that found that roughly 25 percent of truckers faulted in fatal crashes from 2000 through 2005 had a prior conviction, or had received deferred adjudication, before the crash. One of the offenders was high on cocaine when he plowed into a line of cars.

But in the context of mayoral candidate Nutter's proposal, it almost seems a luxury to talk about accidents. Many ex-cons become murderers. Under PREP, the kitchen staffs that prepare your food, the school personnel who oversee your children from day to day, the hospital workers who are at your side during life-and-death procedures and even the lower-echelon staff at your office will include employees who have intentionally hurt innocent people. It is likely that criminals involved in data entry will gain access to your Social Security, bank account and credit card numbers, along with other sensitive data.

Employers could hardly be getting more confusing signals. On the one hand, an industry of lawyers, analysts and security services sternly tells them about their duty to employees and to the public, and outlines steps that the bosses can take to make sure that background checks overlook nothing. On the other hand, Nutter's campaign tells consumers and employers of the need to be "compassionate" and try to reintegrate the hardest-luck cases back into society. Never mind that the region is awash with Iraq War veterans who deserve to be rewarded for their heroic service — let's be compassionate to the muggers and child molesters, Nutter's campaign tells us.

The hypocrisy of the liberals has gone a step further, and their "compassion" stands to turn Philadelphia into a hellhole of empowered criminality. The employers lose their business, and you may very well lose your life.

(editorial@citypaper.net)