Members of the news staff of the Chattanooga Times Free Press benefited yesterday by having a lengthy visit from a dozen outstanding members of the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association, Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police and Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference.
Those gentlemen from across Tennessee wanted to explain their reasons for three general areas of legislation they hope will be enacted by the Tennessee General Assembly this year.
One of their desires is to increase staffing for our state prosecutors. They say they need more assistant district attorneys to keep up with the heavy caseload, to protect us from the “bad guys.”
The law enforcement officials also want to strengthen the legal penalty for “aggravated robbery.” The robbers are often repeat offenders. The prosecutors want to prohibit “revolving door” prison releases.
They want aggravated-robbery first offenders to serve at least 74 percent of their sentences, instead of the current 30 percent. But the law officials would like to eliminate prison time for nonviolent first-time property offenders, and apply intensive supervision instead.
The district attorneys and police officials noted that legislators have provided millions of additional dollars for public defenders — and suggest they thus need more public prosecutors.
They also noted that with economic recession unfortunately prevailing, there is an increase in crimes, thus adding to the load of prosecutors.
Naturally, in any newspaper staff discussion with police officials and prosecuting attorneys, the subject of “criminals with guns” came up. While there are very few instances of citizens with legal gun permits being involved in crimes, there obviously are a great many serious crimes involving law violators who endanger the public by engaging in crimes with guns that they possess and use illegally.
The law enforcement officers don’t want to infringe upon our citizens’ “Second Amendment” constitutional right to possess firearms. But they certainly do want to curb the many dangerous and irresponsible criminals who threaten us all.
Everyone should appreciate the conscientious efforts of our police officers and prosecuting attorneys in their challenging efforts to keep us safe.