A thief in Denver stole a car with a 14-month-old baby still inside and drove off. Officers recovered the child and put the suspect in custody. The crime was not a simple auto theft. It was the kidnapping of an infant for the sake of a vehicle.
Anyone who sees a baby in a car seat and still takes the car has already shown they will endanger a life to finish the job. Soft charging or early release only returns that person to the same streets. The correct sentence matches the risk they created: years behind bars, not a slap and a reset.
American children are not collateral in property crime. Law enforcement that treats the recovery of an infant as the first priority is doing what the public actually hired it to do. Keeping the offender off the street afterward is the second half of the job. Anything less advertises that a baby in the back seat is an acceptable variable.
