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07-12-2003, 03:24 AM
A Father is Going to Jail
By Paul Walfield
June 16, 2003
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It may not seem like a long time, after all, it will be for “just” three days.
Be that as it may, Ronald Dixon is being taken away from his children, his home and his employment to be locked up because he acted reasonably, saving his children from a hardened criminal who had broken into his home.
I wrote a story about Mr. Dixon’s state of affairs about six months ago in an article entitled, “What Any Father Would Do.” The article was about Ronald Dixon who was awakened in the middle of the night by the sounds of an intruder in his house. Looking out from his bedroom doorway Dixon saw a man enter his two year old son’s bedroom. There was no time to call the police and wait for help. He needed to act, and he did.
Dixon had legally purchased a handgun in Florida and was in the process of having it registered in New York where he lived. He took the gun and confronted the burglar. When the felon lunged at him Ronald, Dixon shot the man twice, wounding him. The burglar was arrested and taken away by the police, and Ronald Dixon’s family was safe. Then, Ronald Dixon was arrested.
His gun was not registered and Mr. Dixon needed to be punished for possessing an illegal handgun. It didn’t matter that his family was saved by that gun, or that anyone, anywhere would have done the same to protect their children. You see, the District Attorney needed to set an example. But, just what example was actually set by sending a father, a hard worker, a good man to jail? The same jail, Rikers Island that the man who broke into his house is also residing in, and who has a fourteen-page rap sheet and had been arrested nineteen times by the police. How many times do you think he was let go without any jail time for actual crimes?
http://www.aim.org/publications/guest_columns/walfield/2003/jun16.html
By Paul Walfield
June 16, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It may not seem like a long time, after all, it will be for “just” three days.
Be that as it may, Ronald Dixon is being taken away from his children, his home and his employment to be locked up because he acted reasonably, saving his children from a hardened criminal who had broken into his home.
I wrote a story about Mr. Dixon’s state of affairs about six months ago in an article entitled, “What Any Father Would Do.” The article was about Ronald Dixon who was awakened in the middle of the night by the sounds of an intruder in his house. Looking out from his bedroom doorway Dixon saw a man enter his two year old son’s bedroom. There was no time to call the police and wait for help. He needed to act, and he did.
Dixon had legally purchased a handgun in Florida and was in the process of having it registered in New York where he lived. He took the gun and confronted the burglar. When the felon lunged at him Ronald, Dixon shot the man twice, wounding him. The burglar was arrested and taken away by the police, and Ronald Dixon’s family was safe. Then, Ronald Dixon was arrested.
His gun was not registered and Mr. Dixon needed to be punished for possessing an illegal handgun. It didn’t matter that his family was saved by that gun, or that anyone, anywhere would have done the same to protect their children. You see, the District Attorney needed to set an example. But, just what example was actually set by sending a father, a hard worker, a good man to jail? The same jail, Rikers Island that the man who broke into his house is also residing in, and who has a fourteen-page rap sheet and had been arrested nineteen times by the police. How many times do you think he was let go without any jail time for actual crimes?
http://www.aim.org/publications/guest_columns/walfield/2003/jun16.html