If you (1) like ice cream (2) don’t like spending money and (3) have a Facebook account, go.

Patrick Tracy Burris compiled a rap sheet a mile long in five states (Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia) before murdering 5 innocent people in a sixth (SC), and finally committing suicide-by-cop in the state that enabled all five killings by allowing him out on parole. State Law Enforcement Division Reggie Lloyd waved a copy of his criminal record in a press conference saying “Look at this. This is like 25 pages. At some point the criminal justice system is going to need to explain why this suspect was out on the street.” No kidding, particularly given that the principal offense he was serving time for was being an habitual felon. If being an “habitual” anything doesn’t disqualify one from parole, what on earth does? And why do we never hear from the people on the parole board in cases like this? Shouldn’t journalists be on them like white on rice, asking them what on earth they were thinking then, and why they still consider themselves fit to serve on parole boards now?

Meanwhile, during that same week, in some small California town you’ve never heard of, a 63-year old peach farmer was found alive and well by his wife when she returned home after running some errands. Four days following that non-incident, an 83-year-old woman in the same community invited her 50-year-old daughter over for tea. The two had a friendly chat, during which no one broke in, tied them up, shot them to death or disturbed them in any way. And the day after that, some middle aged man and his 15-year-old daughter worked at their family business, which they closed down for the day at the usual time without incident to re-open the next day. All because California’s answer to Patrick Tracy Burris is rotting in prison, courtesy of the much-maligned Three Strikes Law. We need that same law in the Tarheel State yesterday. And we owe our neighbors to the south a huge apology for the murders of five innocent people that we could and should have prevented.