"I was too drunk, your honour"

In a moment of –no doubt—shining judicial clarity, Judge Claude Millette concluded that the former boxer was just too inebriated at the time of the incident to comprehend the consequences of his action. The 42-year-old was still condemned to five months in prison for related charges in the incident, i.e. brandishing a baseball bat, and remains in prison for having broken the conditions of his parole (regarding a different offense).

I understand that alcoholism is a disease. I get that. And like any disease, I encourage treatment. But how does that constitute a defense? How does one get off from doing time for a crime, simply because he was too drunk to recognize that he was committing it?

What if, instead of the genius idea of brandishing a baseball bat and threatening $39 out of some poor shmuck working the night shift at a corner store, he had decided to get behind the wheels of a car and consequently mowed down a couple of innocent people? Would the "too drunk to comprehend" defense had worked then?How does our justice system allow for drunkenness as a defense, when a robbery takes place, and yet the same defense does not apply for drunk driving? Because, after all, we all know that when you're drunk you have enough presence of mind to know you shouldn't drive, right?

I've said this before and I'll say it again: there is serious lack of accountability in our society. If we have a problem, it becomes our instant redemption, our instant saving grace, our instant exoneration and alibi. "I was drunk, your honour. I didn't know what I was doing." "I was abused as a child, I didn't receive enough love, I have an addictive personality, I have no power over my anger, I wasn't allowed to have sugar as a child, etc" It's become too easy. There seems to be an excuse for every type of irresponsible, selfish, self-absorbed behaviour out there.

We ALL have issues. We ALL could have been raised a little better, been loved a little more. I have yet to meet a completely functional family. So what? We all do the best that we can. But we shouldn't walk around with the supposed wrongs committed against us, like a cross around our neck, an albatross weighing us down for the rest of our lives.

After the verdict, Island resident and radio DJ, Gilles Proulx, came to his defense (like he needed another one…) and said that Alex Hilton was "misunderstood" and "needed a goal to attach himself to, so he could stay on the straight and narrow". Don't we all! Considering the breaks that Alex has already had, what he needs now is to prove that he deserves, at least, one of them.