I know. I didn't get it either.
Maybe that's why city officials held an absolution rite in a virtual star-chamber proceeding last week. They figured we wouldn't get it.
The official version of what happened just ahead of rush hour Friday afternoon is that the local courts, at the urging of the state Supreme Court, wrote off 19,400 cases to reduce a backlog of unserved fugitive warrants. The cases all involve what the system sees as minor crimes committed at least 12 years ago.
In short, it was decreed by judicial fiat that your eight-track thief is now a former fugitive, a status he achieved without apprehension.
We may have some apprehension about this. So, I asked District Attorney Seth Williams to explain.
He said these periodic purges of the least-wanted list are needed to unclog the arteries of a system that can't afford to pursue every minor crook.
"We really don't have the resources," Williams said. "I'm talking about making tough choices in a dwindling economy.
"The status quo is not acceptable. But I inherited a broken system and my job is to come up with new ways to make sure we have fewer fugitives going forward."
Williams said he has instituted a felony unit within the D.A.'s office to keep better track of pending fugitive warrants. He said he has moved more felony preliminary hearings to the Criminal Justice Center, where victims are less likely to be confronted by perpetrators and their supporters.
That was good news. But how, I asked him, does not going after people that police weren't going after anyway help unclog the system?
"I hear you," Williams said, conceding the point. "But the state Supreme Court urged us to do it. I've got to be a team player on this."
