People can be broken down into three basic categories. You have wolves, you have sheep and you have the sheep dogs. Each one has their part to play in the world.

Most people go about their daily lives happy to be sheep. Moving to and fro, never aware that there is a dangerous predator out there. A predator that can lie in wait for long periods of time waiting to cause mayhem. The wolf is committed to a life of predation. The hardcore wolf knows know other way. The only thing between the sheep and the wolf is the sheep dog.

The sheep dog’s life is centered around making sure that the sheep don’t have to deal with the wolf. The sheep dog is usually small in numbers but can prove mighty when called upon. They keep a watchful eye over the sheep and stare down the wolves when needed. To maintain the sheep’s sense of safety the sheep dog has to be on their game every day, the wolf only needs to find their moments.

This past week was a case study in how the sheep let at least one sheep dog down and allowed a wolf to run free to commit their particular mayhem. I am speaking, of course, of the senseless murder of Cpl. Cole of the Somerset County Sheriff ’s Department. Cpl. Cole was apparently murdered because we, the sheep, failed him. We all failed to protect one of our protectors.

In case you did not know, the alleged killer of Cpl. Cole was supposed to be in a Massachusetts’ Court House answering charges, the very day of the killing, for driving offenses, drug charges and having two firearms and ammunition in an auto crash earlier this month in the Commonwealth. Judges in Massachusetts repeatedly reduced the bail amounts so that the accused could allegedly skip out and head back to Vacationland.

This is not just a problem of the Bay State. Maine sees their share of criminals who have their bail pared down or their sentences reduced to just a fraction of what they were. In each situation there is a hopeful judge or other participant that knows this is the chance for the defendant to turn it all around. Maybe there is a case for that line of thought, but it may also lead to a tragedy like we saw in Norridgewock.

On a local level we need not look any further than the case of Hyunkook Korsiak, 36, of Harpswell, who was convicted and sentenced to 52 months in prison for theft of firearms from a federally licensed firearms dealer in Brunswick. Despite his rather extensive relationship with the court system, Mr. Korsiak was given about half of the time that he could have been given for the 2017 bust.

The real kicker is, based on the time that he should have been serving on all of his prior criminal enterprises, Korsiak should not have been out of jail at the time of the robbery. He was let out early from prior charges and did not have to serve the whole sentence. Then, after the Brunswick theft, he was further rewarded by getting a reduced sentence on his most current bust.

I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that when it came time to arrest this guy once again that none of our sheep dogs were harmed. Thank God for small miracles.

Maine is a state that has a relatively small crime problem. That being said, we need to do all we can to ensure that when a criminal commits a crime they have to serve their sentence. Letting someone who is dangerous out of jail or putting a career felon back into our communities before their full sentence has been served can only potentially harm the sheep and the sheep dogs we rely upon in our time of need.

We sheep need to provide the same protection to the sheep dog that they provide to us. Once they have brought the wolf to justice we need to make sure that they are made to serve out their sentence and lessen their time in our communities to commit more crimes. If we do this we are all going to be safer.

As a personal note, thank you to all of the men and women who spend their lives watching our backs so that all of us sheep can go on about our lives.

That’s my two cents…

Jonathan Crimmins can be reached at j_ [email protected]