If I were a member of a community that, admittedly, has a higher propensity to commit crimes, I'd focus on the reasons why this is the case and not reducing the punishment for such offenses! Felony convictions are for very serious offenses. If you have three convictions, do you truly deserve to walk among us?

I don't care what color criminals are if they are repeat offenders they need to be kept in jail to protect good people. China should build private jails so we could send them there with no worry and it would be cheaper than union US prisons.

I can't imagine a more stupid policy than to create a law based on the rules of a game. There are men and women imprisoned in California for life because of shoplifting! Are you kidding me! I hope the legislature grows a pair and rejects this nonsense.

The Mass. bill is NOT like California's 3-strikes law. The Mass. bill is limited to VIOLENT felonies, and does NOT call for automatic life in prison for the third offense. Familiarize yourself with the FACTS: http://3strikeslaw.blogspot.com/ and click the top link: "Melissa's bill overdue: responding to misinformation.

If African American men make up a disproportionate percentage of incarcerated violent felons, doesn't it stand to reason they will return eventually to predominantly African American communities in the same disproportionate numbers? How many violent offenders will return to their hometowns in Wellesley and Weston?

What about a two-strike bill or a one-strike bill? Why let them out at all just to abuse again? Or are you really going to try to tell me they won't offend again...

Why don't the Ministers use their time and money to make a difference for their African-American community: Ask their community to get serious about making a difference. #1. Start making an effort to raise their children (ensure they attend school, ensure they practice birth control if they are going to be sexually active), #2. Have the young men pull their pants up from their knees, #3. Teach their children that education is the road to a future,#4. Check their kids back-packs for guns. #5. Check under the beds, closets, stairwells, everywhere in their homes for loaded guns! #6. Stop the street candles and teddy bear shrines and howling parades. #7. Wake-up and Get Serious. Enough is enough already - how long will this keep going on - or - when will you serious about making an effort to stop crime so then you wouldn't have to worry about the punishment. Make yours a better community. ?

All this activity is being driven by one event. The fact is that crime rates in Massachusetts, like those in the rest of the country, have been going down. We're seeing a visceral reaction to one heinous crime - but that's a poor basis for establishing public policy. It would be wise to see what the evidence says: Do three-strikes laws really reduce recidivism? Do they deter violent crime? By curtailing judicial discretion, how much do they hamper society's ability to rehabilitate those individuals who can benefit from more flexible penalties? (And don't be misled - there are such offenders.) We should guard against a rush to judgment in response to one shocking crime amid a downward trend.