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akuma587 on 31 March 2009
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Words Of Wisdom said:
akuma587 said:

How many police officers and sheriff's deputies are involved in investigating and solving crimes involving illegal drugs? And arresting and transporting and interrogating and jailing the suspects?

How many prosecutors and their staffs spend time prosecuting drug cases? How many defense lawyers spend their time defending drug suspects?

How many hours of courtroom time are devoted to drug trials? How many judges, bailiffs, courtroom security officers, stenographers, etc., spend their time on drug trials?

How many prison cells are filled with drug offenders? And how many corrections officers does it take to guard them? How much food do these convicts consume?

And when they get out, how many parole and probation officers does it take to supervise their release? And how many ex-offenders turn right around and do it again?

You know, if we just stopped enforcing the law all together we'd get rid of all this time and and money?

But that's a stupid idea, just like his.

Actually there is a massive movement in the states right now to decriminalize offenses because their law enforcement and prison budgets have gotten out of control, not to mention every other cost associated with things like this.  Just because you stop enforcing some laws doesn't mean you decrease the effect of the law.  This is power the government has to take away people's freedom.  They shouldn't abuse it and throw people in jail for meaningless offenses.

The U.S. has 5% of the world's population.  But we have 25% of the world's prison population.  Its absurd.  We throw people in jail for driving with an invalid driver's license when that should at most be a hefty fine.  Over 30% of the cases prosecuted in Washington are for suspended driver's licenses.  Would you rather police officers and prosecutors be worrying about people breaking into homes and committing other violent crimes or using a substantial amount of their time and financial resources to worry about people with an invalid driver's license?

We shouldn't throw people in jail unless they are a clear danger to society.  Why should we give the government so much power?  Isn't that against what conservatives stand for as well?  Giving government too much power?

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson