Laws, law enforcement and a crux approach to crime.

I was reading forums on the Internet. One person said she was going to throw away the census and not fill it out. It was her form of non-violent protest. Many of the responses she received stated that she shouldn’t do that because it was a crime. That was their argument. Profound, huh?

There seems to be two polar points of popular opinion when it comes to laws: 1) if something is illegal it must be bad and as such committing that crime makes you deserving of punishment; or 2) some laws are stupid and a free thinking person should understandably participate in peaceful disobedience when necessary (the intelligent do so in stealth).

Many of those in group one actually self-righteously profess to have never broken a law in their lives. I’m confident that if we pulled out the law books and followed them around we could find them breaking a law – most likely in ignorance. Can they confirm they’ve never gone 1 mph over the speed limit? Never? Not if they are human and drive. Check out some of the stupid laws at www.idiotlaws.com. Did you know it is illegal to dance between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. in Des Moines, Iowa? It’s illegal in Louisiana to intentionally make a written or oral statement known to be false. (I actually like that one.) Soooo, I’d say group one have broken that law.

We need to get rid of all stupid laws which would probably be the majority of laws. Basically, if it is not a law against something that hurts someone else then it should go. And we all know that the speed limits are artificially low except in bad weather or unusual situations (like driving a loaded U-Haul pulling a car on a trailer down a curvy mountain pass). There are wide open highways with virtually nothing around that have speed limits of 40 or 50 mph. Honestly if that’s your safe limit you are woefully inept and should not be driving at all. It’s just a way to “legally” yet unethically get money for government. And cops wonder why many people don’t like them.

Someone once said to me “Cops will only come after you if you are doing something wrong.” Another citizen of Oz I suspect. My experience has consistently been this: when I desperately need a cop’s help I can’t get one. When I’m trying to get to work or a child to the doctor that’s when they show up. Can’t they go after people who have actually hurt someone? Can’t they look for missing children and stolen cars? My husband’s new car was stolen two weeks after he bought it. We called the police (repeatedly). They said they couldn’t find his car and they were doing all they could. A YEAR LATER he got a notice from the POLICE IMPOUND LOT that he owed storage fees for having his stolen car there for a year. I could go on ad nauseam. I could tell you about death threats that weren’t taken seriously and cops who caused traffic accidents they later lied about leaving wounded people no legal recourse, and the cop who hit two sisters crossing the street trying to get on a school bus and killed both and NOTHING HAPPENED TO HIM. Any other person would have been destroyed. These are not anomalies. The least they could do is not hurt people or “legally” plunder people trying to get to work because they have some sort of traffic ticket quota. Where is justice? Where the fuck is Robin Hood?

Cops should be required to have at least two years of training. (Don’t believe the “rigorous training” stories you read on the Internet. I’ve interviewed police officers and asked how much training they were required to have: some as little as six weeks with the maximum being six months.) As it stands, they have more responsibility than most other professions yet they have less training. Although it is said they are screened for mental health almost every one I’ve met had a chip on their shoulder the size of the Luxor and seemed a bit… off. Basically, the public story paints a wholesome picture while the reality is more like what you would find under a rock.

Only violent people (including those who abuse animals) should be put in prison. They should also be separated by crimes committed. Non-violent crimes should be punished in other ways. (For example a thief should have to pay back at least twice what he stole via garnished wages to the victim, not the government. If he doesn’t have a job the government can find him one even if it is picking up trash.) Murderers should be isolated from everyone including other prisoners. If there is DNA evidence or they have confessed to murder they should be quickly executed. Televise it on the execution station. There are murderers who have confessed to multiple murders with lawyers taking them through multiple appeals taking years and wasting enormous amounts of money that victims and potential victims pay for. It’s insane.

When there is strong evidence (DNA plus) rapists should be castrated. Yea, I know, “it’s not a sexual crime.” However you don’t let a murderer keep a gun so a rapist shouldn’t keep his penis and testicles. It would also make them less violent. Rapists should be imprisoned only with other rapists.

Child molesters should never be free. They should never have access to another child.

Women who kill abusive husbands should receive counseling and no punishment – not even a slap on the wrist (as long as there is clear evidence that the husband was abusive.) If they were protected in the first place the point would be moot.

Prisoners should have zero luxuries: no television, no Internet, no porn, no meat, no drinks other than water, no music, no movies, no cigarettes. Of course, each one should work. Touching each other should be forbidden and earn a broken hand. I don’t think prisoners should be abused a la the chain gang but I also don’t think they should be allowed to abuse each other or access to any new victims.

Prisons would be far less crowded if we’d drop the pretense of a war on drugs. The whole war on drugs mantra is nonsense. Marijuana should be legal. Drug use should be legal. It’s really ridiculous when we are inundated with ads for prescription and OTC drugs to simultaneously have the “just say no” bullshit motto to illegal drugs. For the most part, drug use is destructive and stupid but you can’t make self-destructive behavior a legal issue otherwise we’d have to arrest couch potatoes and junk food eaters. The war on drugs has just created more and intensified violence. As long as there is a market, there will be drug use. It’s a no-brainer. Punishing an addict does no good whatsoever.

And while I’m on a soap box about the law somebody please give me a pie-chart on why lawyers deserve $200-$1000+/hr. Why is it that only the wealthy can afford a lawyer? We should turn the tables on them: “Oh, you’re a lawyer. Well haircuts for lawyers start at $100.” Don’t tell me they charge more because they have so much education or the cases are difficult or they have experience. Many people spend a lot of money and time in higher education, have difficult work, and/or lots of experience and don’t get away with charging that much. Legal websites are a good thing, yes indeed.