Political Science

This is an article about a mayor who was convicted for having embezzled the public funds. The mayor by the name of Sheila Dixon is said to have taken forty five thousand dollars and given the money to charity. On top of this, the mayor is said to have a number of counts of outstanding perjury indictments. The mayor is also said to have misappropriated about five hundred dollars on gift cards which were donate to families that are needy in the city when she was the City Council president. (Urbina, 2010)

When she was taken to court, she pleaded guilty to these offences and was sentenced to four year of unsupervised probation. However, she would still receive all her pension which is estimated to be about eighty four thousand dollars an year. In addition to these, she is expected to resign for misappropriation of funds by February this year. On top of this, she is expected to serve five hundred hours of community work, not to receive any money for legal fee while she is in probation and finally she is expected to sell the electronics and some gifts that she bought with the money that is meant for the needy. After she sells these goods, she is expected to donate this money to the Youth Works. This happens to be a nonprofit organization that is known deal with teenagers in the city of Baltimore.  (Urbina, 2010)

Even though this situation did not have any direct impact on the community, it is said to have caused a lot of animosity among different members of the public. Some people thought that the prosecution was wasting a lot of money with a very minor issue. This group though that his money should be used with some other important issues which are there in the local government. Another group of people in the same community thought that the mayor stole from the needy. They thought that this is a serious issue and should be given the attention that it deserves. They thought that necessary and intense measures should be taken against the mayor so that this behavior can be discouraged. (Urbina, 2010)

Considering that she had only used a small portion of money to buy gifts, it can be considered that the punishment was equal to the offence that was committed. The reason is that she will have to refund all the money that she had used in buying those gifts. In addition, she will be in probation for a period of four years. During this period, she will serve the community for a cumulative of five hundred hours. Considering that all is done because someone used forty five thousand dollars to help the needy, I can consider this a good punishment which is not too stiff for the offence and at the same time not too light. However, she should have resigned immediately for using over forty five thousand dollars by donating to charity.  (Urbina, 2010)

First of all, Ms Dixon had committed an offence for using over forty five thousand dollars on her personal gains. The very first thing that I believe should have happened in this case was that she should have first resigned so as to pave way for investigations into the matter. After she is found guilty in which case she is, she should be sentenced to the four years in probation where she should not run for any government office. She should be expected to pay back the money that she had already taken or used on her personal gains. She would also not run for any local government seat again. This would discourage all the people who may be having such behavior.  Alternatively, she should be jailed for the offence that she had caused as that was money that was supposed to help the community. (Urbina, 2010)