The Law is an Ass, So Far

    Tragedy has visited Johns Hopkins University twice in the past month.  On the first occasion a male student killed a presumed burglar in his back yard near the campus with a samurai sword.  Then last week a female student was killed by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the street in front of  Uncle Jack's condo building. Both events cast a pall of gloom over the community but the second has also raised a storm of outrage as facts have emerged about the alleged driver, John Meighan, 39, who turned himself in to the police the day after the incident.  According to a report in the Baltimore Sun newspaper:
    Meighan already has 21 motor vehicle convictions on his record, including six for driving while intoxicated and two for driving under the influence. He was free on $100,000 bail before his arrest Saturday, awaiting a December trial on unrelated hit-and-run and DWI allegations from late July. He's also been convicted of escape for leaving an alcohol treatment facility while in custody in 2002.
    On the day of the accident several eyewitnesses reported to the police that Meighan's truck was being driven erratically  and at least one witness identified Meighan as the driver a couple of hours before the fatal accident. There were no witnesses to the accident itself so the authorities have not as yet been able to add manslaughter to the long list of offenses with which Meighan has been charged.
    Meighan is now locked up without bail while awaiting further disposition of his latest and most serious alleged crime.  Needless to say Baltimoreans are aghast and astonished at the failure of the judicial system to protect other drivers from a proven menace like Meighan.  Some observers fear that the lack of an eyewitness at the scene of the accident may allow him to escape serious punishment because the only evidence against him is circumstantial at this point.
    Readers may recall a similar tragedy in Kitty Hawk a few years ago when an oft-convicted drunken driver plowed into a Jeep at an intersection on the Bypass, killing four young women.  If Uncle Jack is not mistaken the driver is serving a life term in prison for that heinous offense.  Will some way be found to keep Meighan from driving again?  Lots of folks around here, including Uncle Jack, will be watching carefully as the wheels of  justice slowly grind through this sad case.  Stay tuned.

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    Sunset over Johns Hopkins Homestead Campus, from Uncle Jack's balcony, October 25

                                                           Ditto

                                                        And again