Magic for Mock

News last week that master thief Bobby Mock has the possibility of only serving 10 years in prison has to be disturbing to anyone who had something stolen by him.

You may remember Mock. He was accused of stealing ATMs from several Youngstown businesses last year by backing a truck into them and taking them. He tried to steal an ATM from St. Elizabeth Health Center but couldn't fit it through the door. Not caring who was there (there were people around because a hospital is a 24/7 operation) he managed to get away but two policemen were injured in the process.

When the warrant was cut for the ATM thefts, he held a SWAT team at bay at a Liberty hotel before he was arrested. All this while he was serving as an informant to the police.

In March, he was accused of being the ringleader of a ring of burglars that struck across the Mahoning Valley and would honor requests for special goods by stealing them.

With a lengthy criminal record (on the internet page for the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court it takes up more than one screen) one would think he would be facing at least 20 years in prison, since it seems he is a habitual criminal who can't stop himself from breaking the law.

Yet, plea bargains in both cases are recommending concurrent 10 year sentences. The only thing to be decided is if a probation violation sentence he is serving now for three and a half years also runs concurrent to the pleas, which would be no more than 14 years for all the anxiety and damage, both physical and mental, the man has caused through these breakins.

I know sometimes plea bargains are necessary, but there has to be another way. Although he is not a violent criminal, his actions have hurt probably hundreds of people in the way their lives have been disrupted, and 10 years in prison is too small a price to pay for a man who has shown repeatedly he can not be trusted to be among law abiding citizens. If he was robbing people blind when he was informing for the police -- who you would think would be watching him -- what would he do when he gets out of jail when no one is watching him?