The System Will Not Protect You from a Violent Stalker

From Mississippi we get a story about the futility of expecting The System™ to protect you. 22-year-old found beaten to death on Mississippi Coast

We can argue about whether the authorities can protect you, or if they are simply not able to do so, another time. This story is about The System™ refusing to act in a manner that promotes safety.

Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn, from the Nashville area, felt that it was unfair that Bricen Rivers, 23, couldn't post the bail that had been set in his assault of Lauren Johansen, so she reduced the bail, and he was free. He failed to report to the GPS monitoring company for a GPS tracker. (Which is a stupid way of doing things to begin with.)

Rivers was apparently released from jail on Monday, as that is when Lance Johansen, Lauren's father, received a text message from the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office. By Tuesday Lauren Johansen was missing; on Wednesday they found her body.

Nothing will happen to Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn, because judges cannot be held accountable for the bone-headed, bleeding-heart decisions they hand down. I doubt she will even have a sleepless night, because she will convince herself, that she couldn't know what would happen. But she could have known, should have known, and this decision qualifies as bone headed if any does.

“I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told the judge that if they let him out, he was going to kill her,” Lance Johansen told WLOX. “He had assaulted her — this was probably the fifth or sixth time where they would get into a fight and he would beat her."

But keeping violent offenders in jail is unfair. How fair was Judge Blackburn's decision to Lauren Johansen and her family?

At 22, she could easily get a handgun, some ammo, and some training. But a 22-year-old college student in 2024 America would not dream of doing anything so violent, even to protect herself. Violence is bad. Wait for the police. Depend on the State. None of that works, or has any connection with reality, but that is the indoctrination.

Now having a gun, and being armed in her own defense may not have saved Lauren Johansen, there are no guarantees in this life except for death and next winter's snow. Relying on The System™ didn't work out too well, however. The judges in this country no longer believe that keeping violent offenders in jail is justified by anything. The police don't have a duty to protect you, and they don't have he manpower to accomplish that even if the courts said they did have duty to protect you. You are quite literally on your own.

This seems like an appropriate place to post The Graham Combat Killhouse Rules: