Look at the crimes of passion. These are events, usually murders, committed by weak men or women who couldn’t live without the person they offed. Look at shoplifting and look closely, because many well-off people do it. It’s done for attention, not survival. Unfortunately, as a society we look to blame the underdog and while we want to convict them we also seek to give them a life they couldn’t have had outside of the prison system.

I mean, after all, in prison these people are getting three square meals, the opportunity to go to school, therapy, cable television, a job, and all the free prison sex they can stand. Sure, in many cases, it’s with the same sex, which might be a switch, but I’ve heard after awhile it’s all good.

However, I digress; my original statement had to do with the DVD bandit. This is a person who stole about 1,700 DVDs from a library in Flint, Michigan. You have to wonder what would make her steal them from a library first off. Secondly, you need to wonder why she would pawn them. You would think having a garage sale would have made her more money because it was the pawn shop that turned her in and they only gave her a buck a movie. In a garage sale she could have made $2 or $3 a pop, for sure.

It was purely an act of desperation or that’s all I can assume at this point. In this economy, many people feel the need to do things they would not have done before. However, it’s a very greedy mindset. It’s easier to be a crook and a beggar rather than working for a living. The problem is that in our society many people believe that certain jobs are beneath them.

I used to go to school with a guy who could barely read and yet felt Taco Bell was a job that was below his standards. I guess my momma raised me differently. If I was able to put food on the table for my baby by flipping burgers and that was the only work I could get, I’d do it. It beats becoming Chucky’s girlfriend in prison because I was looking for a quick fix to my problems.

In the end, the quick fix doesn’t exist. Criminals get caught, bad deeds get punished, and life goes on as it should. Now if only we could shove the humanitarians who believe in equal rights for prisoners in one of those cells, maybe prison would become harsh enough to show the criminals that they aren’t going to want to go back in, even if it’s for their girlfriend/boyfriend who didn’t make parole this time around.