Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2006 10:55:29 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>,
   WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Giant step backwards in time
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

At 7/6/2006 10:37 AM, Madeleine Yeh wrote:
>     Yes; but people might be arrested for loitering or
>public drunkness or littering when before these actions
>would be ignored.

Then it sounds like a good thing...enforcing laws should be done in all
cases, without exception.  That way people will realize that some of the
laws need to be repealed.  Putting bad laws on the books and leaving it up
to the "discretion" of the police on whom to enforce them is a Bad
Idea.  Not enforcing good laws is equally poor practice.  Passing more laws
than you set up police (and courts) to enforce is a bad idea too.

>  Also what happens if the Sheriff can
>add them to the labor pool while they are waiting for
>trial?  Or if the cases are delayed.

Then, unless he only picks on "out of towners", the sheriff is likely to
lose the next election.  If he only picks on a particular class of local
citizen, to keep the vote (and election funding) losses to a minimum, those
folks may just move to another place...leaving the town a bit economically
unbalanced.

Or perhaps someone will just take a more direct path to a solution and kill
him.

The federal government has used "convict labor" for a long time.  They call
it "rehab training" I think.  Learn a trade in prison so you have a way to
make a living legally when you get out.  The desk I sat at when I worked
for the federal court system was made by convict labor in a federal
prison.  Very nice wooden desk...though they didn't bother to sand the
parts you couldn't see...like the bottom of the drawers (bump your legs
against them and you could get splinters).

-- Mike B.
--
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.