{"id":802791,"date":"2020-01-06T11:43:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T18:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=376900"},"modified":"2020-01-06T11:43:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T18:43:58","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-judge-made-right-call-to-protect-first-responders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/letter-to-the-editor-judge-made-right-call-to-protect-first-responders\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the editor: Judge made right call to protect first responders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/LettersWebCard-SDN1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Full disclosure: I know Judge Mark Thompson from many years of mountain bike racing in Summit County. That doesn\u2019t affect our response in any way. Letter writer Jan Goodwin (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/opinion\/letter-to-the-editor-13-year-prison-sentence-will-solve-nothing\/\">13-year prison sentence will solve nothing<\/a>\u201d) misses the point that Nathan Finnegan consciously chose to put himself into a \u201cblackout state\u201d by consuming too much alcohol. It doesn\u2019t work for a person to get drunk or doped out, then commit a heinous crime and claim, \u201cI don\u2019t remember anything.\u201d Assaulting a law enforcement officer in the performance of their duty is an act that deserves the harshest of penalties. However, the guilty party must also be given the opportunity to get counseling and clean up his act with good behavior, which should allow for early release from prison.<\/p>\n<p>There has to be a clear message here to our community: This kind of behavior can\u2019t be tolerated, and slaps on the wrist don\u2019t get it done. It\u2019s a different ballgame when first responders are assaulted when they are trying diligently to protect, serve or otherwise render aid to an injured or incapacitated person.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, Finnegan should be treated for his disease, but there has to be consequences for actions that he took as a direct result of his grossly irresponsible decisions regarding alcohol (or drugs).<\/p>\n<p>We want our law enforcement, EMS and fire department personnel to know that this community has their back and are grateful for them putting their lives on the line for us. Thompson made the right call here. If people get the message that such offenses will be dealt with severely, then maybe the next person out there might think before acting in such a manner. As an aside, the people of Breckenridge can\u2019t vote a Summit County judge in or out of office.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/opinion\/letter-to-the-editor-judge-made-right-call-to-protect-first-responders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Full disclosure: I know Judge Mark Thompson from many years of mountain bike racing in Summit County. That doesn\u2019t affect our response in any way. Letter writer Jan Goodwin (\u201c13-year prison sentence will solve nothing\u201d) misses the point that Nathan Finnegan consciously chose to put himself into a \u201cblackout state\u201d by consuming too much alcohol. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-29 08:29:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}