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The Law is an Ass
Tonight I turned on my friendly Temporary Vegetating mental device to slow down to be ready for sleep. As Dragonball Z was a repeat I went to Politically Incorrect. I was quite glad to see Penn of Penn and Teller fame on the show. Social anarchist in the proper sense of the word, he was making it hard for Bill Mahar to disagree with him. Heh.
What got me up in arms was the guest Republican. The show always has a Republican and they try to book pretty young female ones as often as they can to show it's not all fat old rich white guys. This lady opined that people in jail on drug charges are there because they broke the law, if people want to change the law they need to vote for people who will try to change the law and the fact that people aren't doing so proves they want these laws on the books.
One of the principles of the US Constitution is that the laws of the land, while they are laws to be obeyed by Man, are also laws that are supposed to serve Man. Laws preventing murder are there to serve the community: they at least try to punish murdering somebody and do provide disincentive for doing so. Hurt somebody else, face jail time. Simple. There's an obvious victim, an obvious perpetrator and there's an obvious hurt.
This law that the cute young Republican gal nigh-worships doesn't punish actions that have a victim. So we lock up people who haven't hurt anybody with other people who have hurt people, ostensibly to "rehabilitate" them and prevent them from committing further crimes. This is supposed to teach people that hurting people is worse than not hurting people how??
As for choice of politicians... when there's a pro-legalization candidate running for office I'm going to consider that plank a point in that politician's favor. Funny how there *wasn't* one in the last Presidential election, or in my Congressional election, or in the Senate election, or the State officials election... should I go on? There might be some pro-legalization assistant dogcatchers somewhere but I haven't heard of them making it successfully to office.
I want representatives who'll try to clear up our prisons by getting rid of a couple million people out of there who don't need to be jailed.
What got me up in arms was the guest Republican. The show always has a Republican and they try to book pretty young female ones as often as they can to show it's not all fat old rich white guys. This lady opined that people in jail on drug charges are there because they broke the law, if people want to change the law they need to vote for people who will try to change the law and the fact that people aren't doing so proves they want these laws on the books.
One of the principles of the US Constitution is that the laws of the land, while they are laws to be obeyed by Man, are also laws that are supposed to serve Man. Laws preventing murder are there to serve the community: they at least try to punish murdering somebody and do provide disincentive for doing so. Hurt somebody else, face jail time. Simple. There's an obvious victim, an obvious perpetrator and there's an obvious hurt.
This law that the cute young Republican gal nigh-worships doesn't punish actions that have a victim. So we lock up people who haven't hurt anybody with other people who have hurt people, ostensibly to "rehabilitate" them and prevent them from committing further crimes. This is supposed to teach people that hurting people is worse than not hurting people how??
As for choice of politicians... when there's a pro-legalization candidate running for office I'm going to consider that plank a point in that politician's favor. Funny how there *wasn't* one in the last Presidential election, or in my Congressional election, or in the Senate election, or the State officials election... should I go on? There might be some pro-legalization assistant dogcatchers somewhere but I haven't heard of them making it successfully to office.
I want representatives who'll try to clear up our prisons by getting rid of a couple million people out of there who don't need to be jailed.
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As for those who commit violent crimes to support their drug habits? Same as for somebody who commits violent crimes for any habit, like booze or gambling - imprisonment, counselling and rehabilitation. Those who don't commit other crimes don't need imprisonment.
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Growing up in large cities can make the War on [some] Drugs look like a very good idea *wave to Tigerlily my fellow Noo Yawkah*, but as I've been reading about stuff I've been realizing that a lot of the energy that makes this problem so vicious is supplied by its illegality. Who shoots someone over cigarette-selling turf, or mugs people to buy beer? Whereas people *did* shoot people and mug people over alcohol in the 1920's.
Of course, not all of the problems with drugs in our society are caused by illegality. But it seems to me, as I watch the uses to which the WOD is put, the way illegality helps jack up prices and therefore make drug profits worth being violent over, and the times when people are jailed instead of being able to get treatment, that making many kinds of drug use controlled but not illegal might help us clear up many of these problems as a society.
(More later maybe. Maybe not.)
A, social theorist.
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