Image: Julia Poff
Last year, homemade explosives were sent to President Obama and Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas. Court records state that Julia Poff, the one who sent the bombs, was unable to gain support from her ex-husband and blamed Abbott for some reason. She also applied for Social Security benefits but was rejected. Furthermore, she was not fond of Obama based on a court testimony.
Poff sent explosives through mail to Abbot and Obama on October 2nd, 2016. The explosive was dangerous enough to cause burns and death. Thankfully, Greg Abbott opened the package, but there was no explosion due to his opening the package a different way than intended. A salad dressing cap from a bottle and a cigarette box were included in the bomb and helped investigators find Poff. Also, cat hair was found under the address label, allowing the F.B.I. crime lab to link the explosive to Poff.
Julia Poff has six charges, and two of these counts are for transporting explosives with the intent to kill or harm. Currently, Poff is held at the federal detention center in Houston.
This incident shows that politicians do not get much security to protect them. Even though the president receives a large amount of protection, others are not so important to have guards around them 24/7. To me, this event is an indicator of how politicians need more protection in order to ensure their safety. I think that Julia Poff definitely deserves time in prison for trying to kill two important politicians, but I do not think a lifetime sentence should be given to Poff.
This incident shows that politicians do not get much security to protect them. Even though the president receives a large amount of protection, others are not so important to have guards around them 24/7. To me, this event is an indicator of how politicians need more protection in order to ensure their safety. I think that Julia Poff definitely deserves time in prison for trying to kill two important politicians, but I do not think a lifetime sentence should be given to Poff.
Discussion: With these charges, what punishment should Poff get? What do you think of the lack of security politicians receive?
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8 comments:
I think that Poff's actions were wrong and she deserves jail time as she did try to kill two politicians. However, I agree that she does not deserve to have a lifetime sentence. I also think that politicians do need more protection as there are many people who may oppose certain politicians elected and/or policies they address. I think that politicians do have security, however, more would not hurt.
In my opinion, I think Poff deserves life in prison; she tried killing/harming the governor of Texas and the President of the United States! Luckily none of the were injured, but it does show how politicians lack security. In today's political climate, people can hold grudges, and hate a certain politician, which may lead to actions like this one. I personally feel that all politicians need more security, to prevent what could have been an assassination of Greg Abbott.
This is definitely not the first time politicians have been harmed, or almost harmed, by dangerous mail. This reminds me of the anthrax attacks of 2001 in which dangerous anthrax spores were sent to prominent figures. There have definitely been many other such instances. It is extremely worrying how little monitoring goes into what they receive, and almost anyone can reach them if they had their hands on their information. Poff definitely deserves jail time for this attempt to harm or kill people. Politicians themselves must be more careful about filtering out unknown mail. There need to be more precautionary measures in keeping them safe, starting from awareness by the politicians themselves.
I agree with Jason in that I think she deserves life in prison for her intent to kill. Even if the explosive did not detonate correctly, it if did, she would have committed murder. I do not know how much security politicians currently have, and I don't think that their ability to open a package illustrates either the strength of security, or lack thereof. However, in particular, I do think that all who have been presidents of the United States should continue to receive a significant amount of protection.
There is definitely precedent for these charges to result in a lifetime charge (attempted murder by itself too). I believe that these six charges against her should stand and the lifetime sentence should be perfectly justified in this case. These actions sound very personal and certainly do reflect upon the needed protection for public figures. I am certain that Obama does have security and that the governor has the same. However, packages tend to slip around the cracks (simple letters to government). Although extra around-the-clock protection would be ideal, it is also somewhat impossible. I don't know if the budget can entail such massive security per politician and some politicians may not want to be around an entourage of bodyguards daily.
According to the United States Sentencing Commission, there is life imprisonment in all cases dealing with first degree murder offenses, even with premeditated or attempted murder. Thus, in this case, Poff should receive life imprisonment according to law. Furthermore, the lack of security could be improved. Although it does make sense that the President receives more protection over a governor, because the executive branch holds more power, the governor should still receive more protection such as hiring personnel to filter through mail.
I think that though it would be great to have all of the politicians be protected at all times, it is extremely impractical. The amount of money that it would cost to hire security for them is simply too much. I think that governors do receive some security protection already, but that personal mail is just not covered. In regards to Poff, she should get a life sentence. As Allison said, she attempted to commit murder, and it was also premeditated. Furthermore, the attempt was clearly personal.
I think that Poff deserves life in prison because she really wanted to hurt/kill the President and governor. Like David said it seems kind of impossible to have 24/7 protection especially over the small things like the mail. It would be weird if you needed someone to check your mail everyday but more protection in general would be ideal.
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