Citizens use 45-caliber justice while they wait for SB 54

Last week, when two alleged car thieves were trying to snatch a vehicle in North Pole, a resident of Faultline Avenue took aim and fired.

One of the alleged thieves didn’t make it far with a hole in his leg.

Connor O’Neill of Fairbanks was found by Alaska State Troopers in the hallway of an apartment building and was arrested. Troopers say he has an outstanding warrant in Texas, where Texans have their own version of SB 91.

Maybe the thieves are just not real bright: Don’t they know that everyone in North Pole is armed?

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Rep. Chuck Kopp and Sen. Natasha Von Imhof are inviting their constituents to learn about their rights as a citizen to protect your life and property on Oct. 20, 8:30 pm at Klatt Elementary School’s multipurpose room. The address is 11900 Puma Street, Anchorage.

Staff from the Alaska Department of Law will make a brief presentation and answer questions. This event is a joint meeting of the Bayshore-Klatt and the Old Seward Oceanview Community Councils.

For additional information, please call Kopp’s office at 907-269-0200.

COSTCO DETECTS A TREND, AND RESPONDS

Alaskans know they can get their dipnets at Costco in the summer, their vacuum-pack food storage systems and canning jars a bit later in the season, and their Christmas decorations starting in September. Now, Costco is stocking a new item that can be put under that Christmas tree: LoJacks. Those are the steering wheel locking devices and they are going like hotcakes from Anchorage Costcos.

TAKING ON CRIME

Concern over crime has taken over every dinner party and water cooler conversation in most communities in Alaska.

The smart money says that criminal justice reform will take over Gov. Walker’s fourth special session, which he called for Oct. 23 to try to pass yet another version of his income tax — this one features a new name for it — a payroll tax.

Later, Walker tacked on criminal justice reform — SB 54. It restores penalties for the lesser crimes that criminals are now getting away with under SB 91.

That means the special session might actually accomplish something, in contrast to most of the previous eight special sessions Walker has called since taking office.

Alaska’s crime wave would already be trending downward if only the House Democrat-run Majority had passed SB 54 last session. The Democrats referred the bill to three committees and never held a hearing on it.

SHOULD SB 91 GET THE KNIFE?

The public is not wrong about crime being out of control, but may be wrong about SB 91, the criminal justice reform bill.

Under Gov. Bill Walker crime has skyrocketed. But legislators are hired to be circumspect about lawmaking, not overreact like a herd of lemmings. They might want to consider that SB 91 has some good in it along with the bad, and that throwing it out entirely could do more harm than the present very troubling situation.

In the meantime, Walker’s income tax is dead on arrival.