In our country, innocent until proven guilty is sacred.

In other places of the world, the burdens of proof are reversed and sometimes even erased.

Because of that it’s hard for us to criticize the process, which has, so far, protected Arthur Rivers.

Nevertheless there comes a point at which the need to protect the public must take precedence.

Rivers is currently facing nine separate charges, including two shootings and a murder.

After being arrested and charged with the October murder of Bruce Gray, Judge Nathaniel Walker set his bond at $150,000.

Hopefully the bond amount is substantial enough to keep Rivers off the streets of Selma while he waits for his court dates.

Of course Rivers, like any other citizen charged with a crime, maintains his presumption of innocence on all nine charges.

But in the real world that is a lot of presuming.

It would be nice to be able to sit back and give Rivers every benefit of the doubt.

He is still just charged with these crimes and it is possible that he is innocent of all charges.

However, Rivers has passed the point where the risk to the community is too great to allow him to continue to be on the loose while awaiting trial.

Should we blame the judges for providing Rivers his rights under the law?

The facts as we know them are that the law was followed.

However, we may need to look at laws that allow alleged criminals to be arrested time and again for serious offenses while awaiting trial.

If Rivers is innocent, he is truly one of the unluckiest young men in the world. If he is guilty, the court system is responsible for keeping

him behind bars.

Selma can’t afford to lose any more lives to violent crime while we wait for the court system to determine a repeat offender’s innocence or guilt.