Punishment should be 100X the crime, even on a 1st strike. Maybe that would make them stop & question if it's worth it.

I agree 100%

This comes up often when discussing rising crime. I get both sides, but I really don’t think enhanced sentences deter crime. For one, criminals already don’t care about prison for the most part, otherwise they wouldn’t risk 5-100 years for whatever crime they commit. There is a lot that goes into sentencing and mandatory minimums also put people in prison way longer than they should be when misapplied.

But I don’t think stronger sentencing would have an impact, except maybe because criminals would be locked up longer, but parole and prison overpopulation are already major issues. It’s a pretty complex issue that has many other issues tangled within it.

what happened to A-hole?

I was a medic in Dallas starting in 1991 and rode the ambulance until 2001. I spent all my time on the ambulance in the South Dallas and Pleasant grove areas. Two of the more "rough areas", at the time (still are today). My first 18 months was on the busiest ambulance in Dallas as well as the state of Texas and 9th busiest in the United States. My first year, 1991, was the deadliest in Dallas history and bodies were everywhere at the county morgue at Parkland. I then spent the next 9 years as just a "fireman" in a station on Hatcher St. (same area). So from 1991- late 2010 I saw day in and day out what life was like in Dallas. But, these were the parts of the city that were notoriously violent. Sadly, 1-2% of the people make those parts of town "rough". Most people are just trying to raise kids and live their lives.

In the early 90's the gang violence was out of control in Dallas and also there was a strong presence of very violent Jamaicans in the Fair Park area of S. Dallas. The Jamaicans controlled a lot of the drug trade and dolled out a lot of violence in the area. It seemed in the early 90's the majority of violence was in South Dallas, Pleasant Grove and parts of Oak Cliff. The difference in now is it's spread all over Dallas. There was a rise in violence all over the city after Katrina and the people who came and never left Dallas. Also a lot of the apartments built in the 70's-90's in Northeast, Northwest and North Dallas are older and a lot are government subsidized. As well as in some of the suburbs. Being a section 8 landlord can be very profitable.

The difference now is the violence is everywhere all around the metroplex today. Almost like the number of people with "violent tendencies" has increased. I suppose with an increase in the general population the number of people with "violent tendencies" has grown as well.

I am not too familiar with the west side and Tarrant County.

Now that Trump is out the media needs something to put on the front page, "if it bleeds, it leads"