Crime And Punishment

T he arrest on Christmas day of a Nigerian man suspected of trying to blow up a commercial airliner en route from Amsterdam to Detroit with nearly 300 people aboard was a stark reminder that the nation can't afford to let down its guard in the struggle against Islamic extremism. The suspect, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, allegedly tried to detonate explosives concealed in his underwear shortly before the plane landed, but the device fizzled and started a fire instead, allowing alert fellow passengers to tackle him and douse the flames.

The novel "Crime and Punishment" is a gripping, modern psychodrama, a masterpiece of tension and suspense. A police detective seeks to solve a brutal double homicide without a shred of evidence — and sets himself the task of touching the conscience and saving the soul of the tormented young killer. It's a riveting story that probes the nature of good and evil and the sometimes blurry distinctions between enemies and allies. Why, then, in the stage adaptation currently running at Center Stage , does there seem to be so little at stake?

The novel "Crime and Punishment" is a gripping, modern psychodrama, a masterpiece of tension and suspense. A police detective seeks to solve a brutal double homicide without a shred of evidence — and sets himself the task of touching the conscience and saving the soul of the tormented young killer. It's a riveting story that probes the nature of good and evil and the sometimes blurry distinctions between enemies and allies. Why, then, in the stage adaptation currently running at Center Stage , does there seem to be so little at stake?

I can't help it, I'm a political rubbernecker. Although there was plenty of electoral action here, I've been watching aghast but unable to avert my eyes from the Republican primary election train wreck next door in Delaware. Surely you, too, have followed the story of the tea party princess who slew the evil establishment dude to become the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate. Christine O'Donnell, a red-jacketed, bespectacled Sarah Palin wannabe, trounced Rep. Mike Castle, a reliable moderate in what used to be a reliably moderate state, in what surely must be a new electoral low: a campaign that apparently revolved around whether Castle needed to put on, as she so daintily phrased it, his man-pants.

PRESIDENT CLINTON wants to build a bridge to the future, while Senator Dole wants to cut our taxes. But neither candidate wants to level with voters about an issue that consistently ranks high on their worry list: crime and punishment.During the next four years, a surge in the number of young people reaching puberty could set the stage for a significant rise in juvenile crime. While the overall murder rate in America dropped 4 percent between 1990 and 1994, the rate of murder committed by youths aged 14 to 17 increased by 22 percent.

Huanying, the poster read in Chinese - "welcome." The hosts served their foreign guests oolong and green teas, while the visitors adhered to custom by presenting gifts of Chinese scrolls, folk tapestries and red cloisonne vases. But the diplomatic gestures and cordial talk at yesterday's meeting in Westminster belied the grim topic under discussion - crime and punishment - as Carroll County officials greeted a group of prison wardens and justice officials from China, a nation long criticized by human rights groups for its handling of suspects and prisoners.

I've been in any number of courtrooms as a reporter, watching the wheels of justice roll over everyone from drug dealers to Sheila Dixon, murderers to Martha Stewart. A trial I sat through last month, though, was not the kind that usually draws media coverage, involving instead the non-spectacular sort of crime — a gun violation in this case — that make up the white noise of the justice system. In fact I was only there because I had to be, having been selected as a juror, rather than because it was particularly newsworthy.

IN the waning days of the gubernatorial race, be prepared to hear a bewildering and contradictory set of claims about the extent and nature of juvenile crime in Maryland and what should be done to prevent and reduce such crime. There is probably no greater political football than teen crime and punishment policy.Politicians seem unable to resist scoring points on this critical and highly emotional topic, yet it is precisely because of the understandably emotional and passionate feelings of the public that politicians of all stripes should treat the issue with care, precision and objectivity.

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky(1821-1881)Russian novelist, journalist and short-story writer, Dostoevsky profoundly influenced 20th century novel-writing with his deep intellectual probing into the inner, dark recesses of human thoughts and feelings; many of his characters have split personalities or divided selves.He is well-known for his novel "Crime and Punishment," and by the time he published his last work, "The Brothers Karamazov," he was considered one of Russia's greatest writers.

Oh, lord, look what they've done to Dostoevsky on network TV. They took "Crime and Punishment" and turned it into a two-hour "Columbo." All that's missing are the rumpled top coat and stub of a cigar. "Wait till I tell the missus about this one.""Crime and Punishment" is brought to you by NBC, the home of 10,000 awful made-for-TV movies about women who are attacked and/or murdered by men they thought they could trust. What in the world, you might well ask, ever made the knuckleheads in Burbank think they could do justice to Dostoevsky's dark and sprawling tale of a young student in 19th-century Russia who thinks he's above the law?

Defendant after shackled defendant rises before the judge, who in the space of mere minutes determines that this one will remain in jail to await trial, or that one will get sprung on bail. Despite the variety of charges that landed them here — assault with hot soup or a shard of glass, stalking by Facebook, the garden-variety disorderly conducts and destructions of property — they soon become a nearly undistinguishable line of sleepy, mostly silent men and women whose cases are not so much heard as processed.

I've been in any number of courtrooms as a reporter, watching the wheels of justice roll over everyone from drug dealers to Sheila Dixon, murderers to Martha Stewart. A trial I sat through last month, though, was not the kind that usually draws media coverage, involving instead the non-spectacular sort of crime — a gun violation in this case — that make up the white noise of the justice system. In fact I was only there because I had to be, having been selected as a juror, rather than because it was particularly newsworthy.

The arrest on Christmas day of a Nigerian man suspected of trying to blow up a commercial airliner en route from Amsterdam to Detroit with nearly 300 people aboard was a stark reminder that the nation can't afford to let down its guard in the struggle against Islamic extremism. The suspect, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, allegedly tried to detonate explosives concealed in his underwear shortly before the plane landed, but the device fizzled and started a fire instead, allowing alert fellow passengers to tackle him and douse the flames.

If one were to grade the Baltimore state's attorney's office on conviction rates and public relations skills, it would get maybe an F. But if one were to grade State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy and her sidekick spokeswoman Margaret T. Burns on the fine art of political stonewalling - that is, the outright refusal to answer inconvenient questions - the grade would have to be an A+. Most of us remember the fuss kicked up by statements Ms. Burns made...

For a moment, Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy looked flummoxed. She had just asked a roomful of middle school students whether they would commit to staying away from crime, from acts that might land them in a courtroom wearing handcuffs and shackles. Only two of the students raised their hands. Then, tentatively, two more. The rest remained immobile. Finally, a girl spoke up. "It might not be your fault," she said. "Like, if someone's fighting with you." That gave Jessamy an opening, during her meeting yesterday with more than two dozen students from Baltimore's Robert Poole Middle School, to explain the wisdom of backing out of "sticky situations" no matter what, of good manners, and of a stable future with an "honorable" job. "If you're looking for trouble, you're going to find it," said Jessamy, who meets regularly with public school students as a way of introducing them to the criminal justice system and to advise them to give it a wide berth.

Huanying, the poster read in Chinese - "welcome." The hosts served their foreign guests oolong and green teas, while the visitors adhered to custom by presenting gifts of Chinese scrolls, folk tapestries and red cloisonne vases. But the diplomatic gestures and cordial talk at yesterday's meeting in Westminster belied the grim topic under discussion - crime and punishment - as Carroll County officials greeted a group of prison wardens and justice officials from China, a nation long criticized by human rights groups for its handling of suspects and prisoners.

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. The only problem with that is, no one knows what the time is in the NHL, which saddled itself with a crime-and-punishment measuring stick during the 1992-93 playoffs and now can't live by it.During the Capitals' postseason series with the New York Islanders two years ago, Capitals center Dale Hunter checked New York Islanders star Pierre Turgeon into the boards from behind after he had scored a goal.Turgeon suffered a separated shoulder when he hit the ice.For that act, Hunter was given the longest suspension in NHL history: 21 games.