It's hard to explain, but it seems that crimes just aren't punished anymore in Ocean City. No, I'm not talking about the drunk-in-public nonsense, but actual crimes.
The man who shot himself in the leg on the Ocean City beach with an illegal gun and then hid it in the sand? Charges dropped. The man who illegally fired a rifle in the air on Baltimore Avenue? Suspended sentence. The man who smacked a police horse? Probation. The tourist who got drunk, got behind the wheel, and crashed into an occupied Ocean City police vehicle? A two-day jail sentence that the judge chose to suspend. And yet, Ocean City township officials successfully lobbied the Maryland legislature to give them the authority to raise speeding ticket fines to a maximum of $1,000. Makes you start to see where the township's priorities are ...
Last December, an Ocean City police officer was investigating a single-vehicle collision. Since it was cold and snowy, the officer had the driver sit in his cruiser while they waited for a tow truck to show up. To make sure that drivers saw the cruiser on the side of the road, the police officer turned on the vehicle's emergency lights. It wasn't good enough.
Out of nowhere, a 1997 Chevrolet Blazer slammed into the police cruiser, causing serious damage to both vehicles. Police identified the driver as 33-year-old Berlin resident Denver Alan Shoemaker. It did not take long for the officer to recognize that Shoemaker was under the influence. He was arrested on the spot and charged with a number of crimes, including driving while impaired, driving under the influence, and negligent driving.
After a long wait, Shoemaker finally got his court date in April. He pled guilty to driving under the influence and negligent driving. The judge sentenced him to two days behind bars, but the jail time was suspended.
The incident happened on a snowy December evening, when there was next to nobody on the road (except for the police officer and the other crashed car's driver). But it isn't hard to see how dangerous this would have been if it happened during Ocean City's busy tourist season.
Shoemaker got drunk and got behind the wheel of the car. He crashed into a police car. While both the officer and the other motorist in the vehicle did not seek medical treatment for their injuries, this crash could have been catastrophic.
This sentence just doesn't make sense. Shoemaker's crime was far-and-away worse than many of the high-profile arrests last year, yet he got a tiny fraction of the punishment.
Last year, a bridesmaid got in a fight on the boardwalk with the bride-to-be and gave her a bloody nose. She got a 10-day jail sentence.
Juan Espinoza-Cortez, 23, was arrested in Ocean City last year for exposing himself in public, urinating on a cop car, and destroying police property in the jail. He got a 90-day jail sentence for that.
Kyle Smith was arrested last year for defecating in the street and throwing his feces at pedestrian passersby. He was sentenced to five months in the slammer.
But a drunk driver who crashed into an occupied police vehicle? A suspended sentence of two days.
Ocean City is supposedly fighting to maintain its family-friendly image. But they'll be fighting an uphill battle if they let drunk drivers like Shoemaker continue to get off the hook.
What do you think? Do you think OC is getting soft on crime? Tell us in the comments below!
