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 Editorials | Opinions | April 2007 
Sometimes, Going Outside the Law is Necessary
 Chris Huntemann - wvu.edu
| | Duane "Dog" Chapman and wife Beth |
If the government in Mexico has its way, a trio of bounty hunters from the United States face the risk of spending up to four years in a Mexican prison for going into the country to bring a convicted rapist back to America to face the music.
Fans of the reality television show "Dog The Bounty Hunter" watch the exploits of Duane "Dog" Chapman, an ex-con turned bounty hunter who tracks down fugitives with his wife Beth, son Leland and brother Tim.
In his home state of Hawaii, Chapman and his family do their part to clean up their community by getting drug dealers and other criminals off the streets. The Chapmans have been honored several times in their home state of Hawaii and in Colorado, where Chapman was born and raised.
In June 2003, Chapman, his son and his brother went into Mexico to arrest Andrew Luster, the heir to the Max Factor cosmetics company. Luster was charged and later convicted on 86 charges of drugging and raping three women. He is currently serving a prison sentence of 124 years. Luster skipped his bail and fled to Mexico but was apprehended in Puerto Vallarta by Chapman and his family.
But the Mexican government apparently overlooked the purpose of the Chapmans' efforts and had them arrested by U.S. Marshals on charges of unlawful detention and deprivation of freedom, according to a CNN article.
The fact the Mexican government is charging Chapman, his son and brother with deprivation of freedom is laughable. Deprivation of freedom is what Luster did to those three women when he drugged them and sexually assaulted them. Unlawful detention is what Luster did when he did things to them against their will.
The Mexican government faces more important problems than a couple of bounty hunters apprehending a sexual predator, most notably the severe disadvantages it gives to its own people by not improving the living conditions in the country, which leads to thousands of illegal immigrants in America.
Although Chapman has said he regrets going outside the law to capture Luster, in this case common sense has to prevail over the legal process. The good Chapman and his family did in getting a rapist in jail outweighs protocol and the dangers women in Mexico and other places might have faced if Luster had continued being on the run from the law.
Instead of catering to the whim of their neighbor to the south, members of the United States government should tell the Mexican government they will not help them prosecute one of their own citizens and show them that ensuring the safety of American citizens is more important than having Mexican government officials feed their egos by holding an American bounty hunter in custody.
If Chapman, his son and his brother are forced to go back to Mexico and do time in a Mexican prison, which is rumored to be much worse than an American prison, then they will have been failed by the same legal system they have spent their livelihood serving.
The United States government should look past the stigma that bounty hunters are vigilantes or outlaws and realize that Duane Chapman is a family man who treats everyone with respect and kindness, even the fugitives he captures on his reality show. Chapman and his family deserve to be commended for their actions, not punished. |
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