Editorial

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time

Phillips mistreatment claims: just a lot of whining?

Ralph 'Bucky' Phillips, who killed a State Trooper this summer while escaping his jail cell, recently wrote a letter to The Buffalo News claiming that he is being mistreated in his cell at the Chemung County Jail.

Due to his 24-hour surveillance, for example, he feels his privacy has been invaded. He is escorted and under guard by men in bulletproof vests when he takes a shower, and even said that he is unable to get a restful sleep because the overnight guards play the television too loud.

Despite his infamy as a 'cop killer,' the man isn't being subjected to physical abuse or torture, he is just unhappy with his petty amenities. It's not a hotel. It's prison. If being watched and having the television on too loud are the only complaints, then Ralph Bucky Phillips should consider himself lucky.

Some of his privileges are curbed, but this isn't abuse or mistreatment. His basic right to go to the jail library has been suspended, but officers are willing to deliver books to his cell. He is not allowed phone calls or contact visitors, which are granted to other inmates. But he still presents the threat of escape and violence, so can these sanctions be justified?

Of course they can. The man broke out of jail and provoked a dangerous manhunt through New York State with the normal resources provided to inmates. The man started with a can opener; he proceeded to kill and wound State Troopers and cause a movement of spiraling terror among New York residents with the seemingly harmless resources granted to him in jail. You can't really blame the jail-keepers with trying to be a little more cautious this time around.

Phillips has said that he has 'never posed a threat nor problem to anyone' while in jail the last few months, and although he has been a model prisoner lately it does not mean that the police can easily forget the past. Don't you think that this precaution is a little warranted, Bucky?

The days of the 'Got Bucky' t-shirts and restaurant 'Bucky burgers' are long gone. Phillips has lost his crown as the authority-fighting folk hero, and despite the hype and terror, now all he has earned is his time in jail.

Defining decision

Iraq plans and timetables begin to pile up

Although a barrage of strategies are beginning to emerge from the high-profile panel responsible for devising plans for the War in Iraq, it will all come down to one simple thing: a decision will need to be made.

No matter how many options are brought to the table, each one will possess its fair share of pros and cons. There's the gradual withdrawal, which is heavily protested by the Bush Administration, the stay-the-course option that will need tactical adjustments, plans to decentralize our role in Iraq and an overabundance of other options still being hammered out. But whether Bush will personally agree on any of these options, he has a defining decision in the near future.

A presidency marked by the lowest approval rating in history, a faltering economy and a questionable approach to foreign relations has just two more years to pick up the pieces of its shattered reputation. Although it is common sense and nearly everyone is thinking it, Bush needs to concentrate on what's at hand. He needs to focus on fixing or setting a plausible solution into the works before he steps down as commander and chief.

The world is watching, Mr. President.