The legislature's Judiciary Committee, of which I am a member, is holding a public hearing today - still going on now - on public safety concerns that have arisen from the horrific murders in Cheshire and other serious crimes.
With a great interest in taking action on this issue, the two chairpersons of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Mike Lawlor and Sen. Andrew McDonald, very wisely scheduled a public hearing and put out a request to legislators and state agencies to propose their ideas. Fourteen different items of legislation were proposed.
Even with the great emotion people feel for and against different proposals being offered, the refreshing thing about today's hearing is that there is a lot of common ground about what needs to be done. There are criminal laws that can be strengthened and there is a lot about the way the state does the job of protecting the public from crime that needs to be improved.
There are some disagreements, to be sure, but today's hearing has revealed that those differences are not really so great. I am very optimistic that the Committee will be able to produce strong legislation that can be overwhelmingly approved into law.
With a great interest in taking action on this issue, the two chairpersons of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Mike Lawlor and Sen. Andrew McDonald, very wisely scheduled a public hearing and put out a request to legislators and state agencies to propose their ideas. Fourteen different items of legislation were proposed.
Even with the great emotion people feel for and against different proposals being offered, the refreshing thing about today's hearing is that there is a lot of common ground about what needs to be done. There are criminal laws that can be strengthened and there is a lot about the way the state does the job of protecting the public from crime that needs to be improved.
There are some disagreements, to be sure, but today's hearing has revealed that those differences are not really so great. I am very optimistic that the Committee will be able to produce strong legislation that can be overwhelmingly approved into law.
