New Anti-Gang Bill

My first impression is that this is another reduction in rights and another way to criminlize the population.

On the surface it appears they're 'getting tough on crime'. However, what constitutes a gang and who decides? Let's think about the hate crimes statute and the Patriot Act, for example. They both lead people to believe they're doing their jobs by targeting criminals. In reality, I believe it gives them a "lawful" way to prosecute these statutes against anyone at anytime.

Just seems to me they are getting closer and closer to the communist ways of the old USSR. Maybe I'm wrong, however...
 
Roger that, Tony.

I think that the principle problem is that legislators feel that they need to always be passing new law, otherwise they wouldn't be doint their job (or more importantly, the media won't portray them as doing their job to the voters/contributers). As a result, everytime they or the media notice that we're not actually living in paradise, the immediately propose some law to fix the problem. They never bother to see if there's already a law that should accomplish the exact same thing that their law would (in this particular case, RICO is already being applied to gang activities) or that laws similar to the one they propose actually work (or more importantly, don't make the situation worse). Don't bother them with the facts; they've got a job to do. Remember where Bluto Blutarsky ended up after Animal House. (Wasn't the line something like "this calls for a stupid and futile gesture, and we're just the ones to do it"?)

Ken
 
If the masses would ever figure out that there is no need to pass any new laws then they would start to question the necessaity for the 'law makers' to assemble so often and get paid so much and why there is a need to have career legislatures.
 
TonyD said:
If the masses would ever figure out that there is no need to pass any new laws then they would start to question the necessaity for the 'law makers' to assemble so often and get paid so much and why there is a need to have career legislatures.

Truer words were never spoken. But then, we'd be hoping for way too much.
 
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