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The government works diligently to develop and grow a class of second class citizens. A recent 60 Minutes article discussed the profusion of jails and prisons throughout the country. As the moderator stated, at the rate of this current expansion, within a few decades every one of our country’s citizens will either be working for the prison system or be a guest in one of it’s facilities. The cost of supporting the penal system, together with related agencies like the probation department, has surpassed the cost of our health and welfare departments in most states. In California it has been the largest state budgetary item for decades.
A look at the make up of our prison population discloses a very high percentage of drug offenders across the land. A large percentage of these offenders’ crimes are not violent in nature, nor are these inmates distributors of drugs. They are the users of these products, and a high percentage of these users are in jail for pot related offences. Another class of “criminals” are those found guilty of alcohol related offences. Of course anyone convicted of driving a lethal weapon (read auto) while under the influence of drugs or alcohol deserves a stiff penalty. However, incarceration doesn’t seem to be much of a deterrent.
I don’t think the citizens of this country are inherently any worse or of a diminished moral character when compared to the citizens in other countries around the globe. If a look at prison statistics were a true reflection of the moral fiber of our people we definitely stand out as the bad boys and girls of the planet. Perhaps we need to redefine what it means to be a criminal in this country. As a result of taking a look at the makeup of our inmate population maybe we could put those resources necessary to support this outmoded model of criminality to much better use. We could put the 50K to 75K per year for jailers into productive endeavors like alternative energy solutions or solving global warming. After all, as the world’s largest contributor to green house gases, we owe it to the world’s future generations to solve real problems with our planet’s resources, not waste them on fruitless pursuits like jailing non violent citizens.
Bob Parmelee, Parmsplace.com
Prosecutors or Persecutors?
Posted by: bob parmelee
Under: Recent Posts
17 Dec 2007
17 Dec 2007
One Response to “Prosecutors or Persecutors?”
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December 20th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Dear BB,
The title of your piece deserves further exploration.
What is prosecution? What is persecution?
Prosecution is stopping people who harm or threaten harm to others, who have no respect for the rights of others. It may involve holding them for a while to reflect on their bad behavior, but mainly to protect the rest of us.
The purpose of incarceration is not deterrence. It is to stop the harm being done. Deterrence depends less on the severity or length of the punishment than the likelihood of being caught and punished.
Persecution is using force against those who have not violated anyone’s rights. It is breaking into people’s houses, stealing their stuff, kidnapping them, holding them for ransom, and even enslaving them, over differences of opinion over what it good or bad for them.
A pot smoker or a meth addict who has done no harm to his fellows should not be taking up space in a jail cell or the time of our justice system. Neither should their fellows who sell them their medicine. Each is benefitting the other, or they would not engage in the transaction.
Neither should the fellow who makes it, unless he does so in a manner dangerous to his neighbors. Meth making a perfect example of the need for licensing rather than bans, in that it would stop pollution that is now uncontrolled.
Persecution goes along with holy war, and holy war is what we have had in our country for about 90 years, since the onset of Prohibition and the accompanying ban on other recreational and painkilling medicines. It has now come to the point where it interferes greatly with prosecution, to the extent that we cite and release thieves and drunk drivers in this county and throughout the state of Oregon.
It has always quietly interfered with prosecution, because when you remove an entire market from the rule of law, you also remove the people within it. More laws make more outlaws. People who engage in the black market try to avoid dealing with police at all. If they report a crime, they are apt to be arrested themselves—especially if their drugs are stolen. Their only choice is to eat the loss or take the law into their own hands—never a good thing for the rule of law.
California’s prison system is sucking so many guards that there aren’t enough to go around. Court calendars are full, and cases take years to come to judgment. Defendants don’t show for trial, knowing that the convicted are held over the merely accused, and they will be released again and again.
This gives us, the persecuted, a unique window of opportunity. We can stop this civil war against us, simply by peaceful non-cooperation with our persecution, digging our heels in every inch of the way, making our persecution expensive and unprofitable.
Never plead guilty. Don’t accept conditional release. Don’t bail out in Oregon; they can steal your bail money to pay your fine. Hold out for release on your own recognizance.
Go to trial, even if you have to defend yourself, and ignore the threatened maximum sentence: It’s only there to scare you into pleading. And you won’t have to serve any long sentence, if you remember that people who don’t eat in captivity can’t be enslaved, or held for longer than a month. They get released and dropped at the door of the hospital. Counties can’t afford hospitalizations.
If you are convicted, refuse to pay the fine. Refuse to cooperate with probation, which would turn your home and life into a jail, and make you pay for the “supervision” to boot.
Dare them to jail you. You will find that they will free you instead. At least that what they did with me. Read the entire entertaining story, “The Cookie Monster Beats the Cops,” at http://www.libertyunbound.com/archives/2007_12/brown-cookie.html.
Live Free and Prosper,
Rycke