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oh captain my captain
Nov. 11th, 2008 11:54 pmLet's face it - Veteran's Day isn't the most celebratory of holidays. This day is an opportunity for us to remember what people have sacrificed to allow us to live the lives we have and to acknowledge to recognize the incredible suffering that lingers on after the war is over.
Captain Sargent Binkley is my next door neighbor, whom I've written about before. I have known him and his family my whole life. We're close, as in "I can see into your kitchen window from my kitchen window" close. After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, he and his siblings cheerfully babysat me as our parents cleared the broken glass out of our living rooms. I still remember when he stashed the two bikes he bought with his own pocket money for his younger twin siblings in our garage so that they wouldn't discover their Christmas presents early. He was the kind of guy you could always rely upon to do the right thing.
Two years ago, Sargent turned himself in after robbing two pharmacies at gunpoint to feed his addiction to painkillers. This wasn't a junkie committing a crime to get his next fix. Sargent had been suffering from PTSD and chronic pain resulting from a hip fracture for several years after a traumatic injury on an undercover military mission in the Honduras. I Though he was armed, he never used his gun; one of the pharmacists, Dennis Pinheiro, actually wrote to the authorities on Sargent's behalf. You can read more about the details about Sargent's background and the details of the crime here.
You can also watch this Youtube video:
Sargent faces a minimum of 12 years because he was carrying a weapon - one that he never used. The judges have the power to reduce his sentence to 3-5 years if we convince them to take into account Sargen's circumstances.
Want to help?
Sargent's trial in Santa Clara is in 5 days, and his trial in San Mateo in 33 days. Even sending the DAs an e-mail or giving them a call as a concerned citizen could give us a chance to actually have a fair sentencing; there are guidelines on the website as to what to say and/or write. Frankly I've found it discouraging talking to the DAs. They're convinced that not enough people care about taking into account how mental illness warps an individual's decision-making capabilities. Even signing this petition lets them know that you believe otherwise. Passing the word on to your friends makes our case for Sargent even stronger.
This isn't about leniency, or "letting a crook off the hook;" this is about attaining justice for a man who did what he could to seek help but was shoved off into a corner by the system to deal with things on his own until it was too late. I watched his family shuttle from VA hospital to VA hospital trying to find a center that could provide Sargent with the physical and psychological resources he needed, but there's simply too much of a demand within the veterans administration. It's bittersweet to know that he's finally able to live without the painkiller now that prison has finally provided the rehab treatment he had been seeking for so long.
I know that you're all busy, but even signing the guestbook to let Sargent and his family know that you're sympathetic to his cause gives them more hope than you could imagine.
Thank you for your time.
(And I will get back to comments soon - I swear.)
Captain Sargent Binkley is my next door neighbor, whom I've written about before. I have known him and his family my whole life. We're close, as in "I can see into your kitchen window from my kitchen window" close. After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, he and his siblings cheerfully babysat me as our parents cleared the broken glass out of our living rooms. I still remember when he stashed the two bikes he bought with his own pocket money for his younger twin siblings in our garage so that they wouldn't discover their Christmas presents early. He was the kind of guy you could always rely upon to do the right thing.
Two years ago, Sargent turned himself in after robbing two pharmacies at gunpoint to feed his addiction to painkillers. This wasn't a junkie committing a crime to get his next fix. Sargent had been suffering from PTSD and chronic pain resulting from a hip fracture for several years after a traumatic injury on an undercover military mission in the Honduras. I Though he was armed, he never used his gun; one of the pharmacists, Dennis Pinheiro, actually wrote to the authorities on Sargent's behalf. You can read more about the details about Sargent's background and the details of the crime here.
You can also watch this Youtube video:
Sargent faces a minimum of 12 years because he was carrying a weapon - one that he never used. The judges have the power to reduce his sentence to 3-5 years if we convince them to take into account Sargen's circumstances.
Want to help?
Sargent's trial in Santa Clara is in 5 days, and his trial in San Mateo in 33 days. Even sending the DAs an e-mail or giving them a call as a concerned citizen could give us a chance to actually have a fair sentencing; there are guidelines on the website as to what to say and/or write. Frankly I've found it discouraging talking to the DAs. They're convinced that not enough people care about taking into account how mental illness warps an individual's decision-making capabilities. Even signing this petition lets them know that you believe otherwise. Passing the word on to your friends makes our case for Sargent even stronger.
This isn't about leniency, or "letting a crook off the hook;" this is about attaining justice for a man who did what he could to seek help but was shoved off into a corner by the system to deal with things on his own until it was too late. I watched his family shuttle from VA hospital to VA hospital trying to find a center that could provide Sargent with the physical and psychological resources he needed, but there's simply too much of a demand within the veterans administration. It's bittersweet to know that he's finally able to live without the painkiller now that prison has finally provided the rehab treatment he had been seeking for so long.
I know that you're all busy, but even signing the guestbook to let Sargent and his family know that you're sympathetic to his cause gives them more hope than you could imagine.
Thank you for your time.
(And I will get back to comments soon - I swear.)
