Letters to the Editor
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The discrepancy in jail sentences for boomers and gen x
Many people here have drawn apt parallels between the investigative methods used by the federal government against radicals in the 60s/70s and post 9/11.
But there is a major disparity in the jail sentences given to the convicted.
In 1972, four young men blew up a building on the campus of the UW-Madison as an anti-war protest. Although they detonated the bomb at time when the building would likely be vacant, they killed a grad a student in his lab. The bombers fled to Canada and were extradited (one is still at large). The longest sentence given to those caught was 23 years, and that person only served seven years in prison.
I find these two cases quite similar in several respects, though the bombing seemed far more likely to destroy and more likely to kill. And, of course, the bomb did kill and the fire did not. It wasn't just property damage; it was manslaughter.
But look at the huge discrepancy between the sentences that young boomers faced and those faced by young people today.