Who poses the greater danger to society?

Two local stories caught my eye over the past week or so.

The first concerned an individual named Jerry Bogart.

Mr. Bogart is in trouble again after “leading a sheriff’s deputy on a high speed chase the day after Christmas.”

That, in itself, would be bad enough since high speed chases can lead to some innocent individuals being hurt or killed as a result of a really stupid decision.

What makes things worse, however, is that this isn’t Mr. Bogart’s first brush with the law — or even his first “high speed chase.”

According to the story, “He’s spent years locked behind bars, often committing new crimes within a couple of months of being freed. Bogart has eight felony and 25 misdemeanor convictions.” Further, Mr. Bogart is now “out of jail and scheduled to answer to the charge (felony eluding) next month in Snohomish County Superior Court.”

The story goes on to say that if convicted, he’s facing more time behind bars.

Gosh, one might be inclined to say, let’s sure hope so.

The other story was about Camille Spink. She was recently sentenced to seven years in prison for killing Sheena Blair and Martin Ramirez and seriously injuring Luis Reyna and Marco Ortiz in a wrong-way crash she caused while driving under the influence of alcohol.

A blood test taken later on the day of the accident showed that her blood-alcohol level “was more than double the legal limit.” Too, Ms. Spink admitted to having smoked marijuana earlier that day.

Given all of the above, the last place Ms. Spink should have been that day was behind the wheel of a car and, last November, she pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault. The only question that remained to be settled was the amount of time she’d end up spending behind bars.

That’s now been decided.

Here the thing, though:

If you were to ask me which of the two poses the most danger to society, I’d answer that one in a heartbeat.

Jerry Bogart.

Yes, Ms. Spink killed two and injured two others, but she had no prior criminal history. She was a mother who was going to graduate from college after receiving a degree in criminal justice. She wanted to help others.

Did she do something stupid? You bet she did. Did she grievously damage several families including her own? Undoubtedly. Did she deserve to be punished? Absolutely, and severely so.

If there’s one rule that should be branded into every individual’s brain, it’s that we’re accountable for our actions. When we make an asinine decision and others get hurt, we get to pay for it.

Ms. Spink is going to jail and, even though seven years seems awfully light for the damage she’s caused, she’s at least accepted responsibility for her actions.

The individual who worries me, though, is Jerry Bogart.

He worries me because his actions aren’t a mistake nor are they stand-alone incidents. He’s a repeat offender and his actions are part of a pattern that tell me either that he can’t or won’t control himself — a situation that doesn’t make me comfortable.

Granted, some repeat offenders subdue their demons and do turn their lives around. Unfortunately, as we far too often see, sooner or later others take their acts on the road again and, eventually, some innocent ends up either injured or dead.

Over the course of 62-plus years, I’ve come to understand that tragedy can strike any family at any time. The problem I see is that, sometimes, it seems as if we — as a society — go out of our way to put the cause of some of these tragedies squarely in our own paths. In other words, we ignore what’s in front of us and send such individuals on their way yet again.

Mr. Bogart worries me and I pray that our legal system shares that same worry.

So far, we’ve been lucky, but there comes a time when enough is enough and, were he to be jailed for, let’s say, longer than Ms. Spink, I can honestly say that it wouldn’t bother me one whit.

Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to larrysim@comcast.net.