Tedisco Wants Wealthy Inmates to Pay Their Own Way
Monday, July 20, 2009
Jim Tedisco, the New York State assembleyman whose premature decision to bolt Albany for a Congressional position he would never win drew the ire of left-leaning commentators, has recently introduced a bill designed to charge wealthy criminals for their state-provided room and board. The so-called "Madoff Bill" proposes a "sliding scale [to] determine how much convicts would have to pay, based on their assets," with those on the lower end of the spectrum (those folks with net worths below forty grand) paying nothing while the Martha Stewarts and Michael Vicks of the world would be responsible for their respective tabs in their entirety.
I wonder how penologists will take the suggestion.
While human trafficking may be (at least technically) illegal in countries such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rico, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Holland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Macedonia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the its own United States, the State of Mississippi still, technically, allows the buying and selling of human babies for fun and profit!
Ambulance controllers overheard a private conversation between the crew members in which they supposedly made disparaging remarks about the victim's untidy home, allegedly failed to attempt to resuscitate him, and then apparently decided to claim he was already dead when they arrived. [Full story]
"Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate 'Neighborhood Safety Zones.' At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn't live there, work there or have 'legitimate reason' to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by The Examiner show."
"Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home."
"The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States."
"The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices."
"The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that "infringes" on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies."
"Anyone found with infringing content in their possession would be open to a fine...They may also have their device confiscated or destroyed, according to the four-page document."
What Public Funds Could Do When Spent on Non-Military Stuff
Monday, May 26, 2008
In what may be another byproduct of the money pit that is the war in Iraq, the nation's wildlife refuges have fallen into disrepair. Responding to the proliferation of illegal drug farms and prostitution rings within America's understaffed and underfunded refuges, Evan Hirshe, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association and chairman of the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE), recently told Congress that "[w]ithout adequate funding, we are jeopardizing some of the world's most spectacular wildlife and wild lands" and recommended an eighty million dollar funding increase for the 2009 fiscal year.
Such an increase would bring public funding of our nation's wildlife refuges to $514 million, a figure that is still well below the $765 million CARE estimates is the minimal adequate amount to maintain the one hundred million acres of land under the protection of the National Wildlife Refuge System. As a result of budget-related staff cuts, the system only cannot afford to pay staff more than 180 of the 845 law enforcement officials needed to ensure the safety of the refuges' many visitors.
With more than forty million visitors a year, the nation's wildlife refuges bring in an estimated $1.7 billion to the American economy and provide well over 25,000 jobs.
"A former Los Angeles police officer who participated in home invasion robberies staged to look like police raids was sentenced Monday to 102 years in prison."
"William Ferguson, 35, was convicted of participating in more than 40 phony raids from early 1999 to June 2001 at homes in working-class neighborhoods while he worked at the department's scandal-ridden Rampart Division."
Japan's Mainichi Daily News reports that the parents of a junior high school student in Chiba have joined their son in filing a lawsuit for ten million yen "for emotional distress after a teacher announced him as the most disliked person in his class" according to a survey the elementary school teacher passed out to the class.
"Among those arrested were 75 students, some of them working toward criminal justice or homeland security degrees. One criminal justice major was charged with possession of guns and cocaine, authorities said."
"Authorities say they infiltrated seven campus fraternities and found that in some, most of the students were aware of drug dealing by fraternity brothers."
"One student allegedly dealing cocaine was a month short of obtaining a master's degree in Homeland Security and worked with campus police as a student community service officer." [Full story]
Is it bad that I am wholly unsurprised by the idea of cops-to-be breaking laws and frat brothers selling drugs?
Portland Police Tell Citizens to "Do As We Say, Not As We Do"
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The Portland Mercury's Matt Davis reports that "[a] citizen who watched a cop illegally park, then walk into a Chinese restaurant to wait for his food, has issued the officer a series of citizen-initiated parking violations." Apparently, Chad Stensgaard
walked into the restaurant wearing his police uniform, but did not make any arrests or citations. Instead, he turned his attention to the basketball game on television, according to [Eric] Bryant. When Bryant asked Stensgaard about his vehicle, Stensgaard allegedly acknowledged being in a no-parking zone but asked Bryant, "If someone broke into your house, would you rather have the police be able to park in front of your house or have to park three blocks away and walk there?"
Bryant, an Oregonian lawyer, maintains that "[c]itizens should be concerned that he used his status as an officer of the law as justification for breaking the law" despite the police department's insistence that certain laws don't really pertain to officers of the law.
Brian Martinek, the assistant Police Chief of the Portland Police Department, maintains that "from what I know, um, I think the officer did what he was supposed to do" by parking in a clearly-marked no parking zone. In an interview with KGW-TV's Dave Northfield (available via CNN), a visibly amused Martinek dismisses the suit, claiming that "[h]e did look around for a parking spot."
Smirking, the Assistant Chief of Police continues, "I think asking an officer to spend a, uh, uh, uh, inordinate amount of time trying to find a, uh, 'legal' parking space, um, that may be a long ways away from where they're going is, is (sic) unreasonable." Viewers might find the finger quotes the scoffing Chief places around the word "legal" amusing, in the most ironic of senses.
Britain Raises Minimum Age to Purchase Ketchup, Eggs
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
In a move that will likely spoil breakfast for many of the country's youth, the Norfolk Police Department has urged supermarkets to prohibit the "sales of eggs and tomato ketchup to young people in a bid to cut anti-social behaviour." Although "squirting ketchup [is] not a criminal act," Sergeant Andy Brown informs us, "it could be possible to bring charges of criminal damage if paintwork [is] damaged on homes or vehicles."
In one of many recent articles appearing in the wake of last week's declassification of former Justice Department lawyer John C. Woo's 2003 memorandum discussing the legality of various torture techniques, the Washington Post's Dan Eggen reveals several of the "unsavory topics" appearing in Woo's report. Although "[n]o maiming is known to have occurred in U. S. interrogations" of terror suspects detained by government authorities, Eggen writes, "federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes by military interrogators are trumped by the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief" during wartime.
In other words, the president could authorize "slitting an ear, nose or lip or disabling a tongue or limb" if he or she felt it was in the best interest of the country. Furthermore, according to Woo's memorandum, unless such tactics result in "death, organ failure or serious impairment of bodily functions," they will not be regarded as torture. Thus, although several "courts have declared [such] tactics to be inhumane" and "the relative illegality of a wide variety of interrogation tactics" cannot be denied, they do not qualify as torture. Consequently, while "they [are] illegal under a provision of the Geneva Conventions," the Bush administration regards such provisions as without "relevance to unlawful combatants in custody."
"Ultimate fighting was once the sole domain of burly men who beat each other bloody in anything-goes brawls on pay-per-view TV.
But the sport often derided as 'human cockfighting' is branching out.
The bare-knuckle fights are now attracting competitors as young as 6 whose parents treat the sport as casually as wrestling, Little League or soccer."
and:
"Tommy Bloomer, father of two of the 'Garage Boys,' doesn't understand the fuss.
'We're not training them for dog fighting,' said Bloomer, a 34-year-old construction contractor.
'As a parent, I'd much rather have my kids here learning how to defend themselves and getting positive reinforcement than out on the streets.'"
and:
"Missouri appears to be the only state in the nation that explicitly allows the youth fights. In many states, it is a misdemeanor for children to participate. A few states have no regulations."
and:
"'It looks violent until you realize this teaches discipline. One of the first rules they learn is that this is not for aggressive behavior outside (the ring),' said Larry Swinehart, a Joplin police officer and father of two boys and the lone girl in the garage group."
From The Guardian: "Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain's most senior police forensics expert." [Full story]
Well, England did produce 1984 and Brave New World...
FromReuters: "The thickest, oldest and toughest sea ice around the North Pole is melting, a bad sign for the future of the Arctic ice cap, NASA satellite data showed on Tuesday." [Full story]
More evidence of global warming to share with your doubting friends, if you're so inclined.
From The Washington Post: "The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will rule on the government's standards for policing the public airwaves for the first time since the court agreed 30 years ago that a midday radio broadcast of comedian George Carlin's 'seven dirty words' monologue was indecent." [Full story]
In an era when parental vetting of television programming has become more and more common, when the V-chip and the ratings guides have become the norm, it seems to me that the Supreme Court should loosen the restrictions it places on the language broadcasters may use on air. There has always been the concern that children may be exposed to various words and images their parents deem "inappropriate" and, I suspect, any softening of the FCC's regulations will likely draw criticism from some of the more socially conservative demographics traditionally concerned with such content but, really, it is high time to lighten up. If parents don't want their children exposed to a particular type of content, it is their responsibility to weed it out. After all, no one has to buy a television.
"At first sight they look like an ordinary couple, strolling through the park with their child and their dog. But when the two adults hug each other their physical similarities are unmistakable. They have the same pronounced nose, the same blue-green eyes, and the same thin lips. Patrick S. and Susan K. are brother and sister. They are an incestuous couple."
Dietmar Hipp asks "[m]ust consensual sex between close relatives be punished?"
This story raises an interesting question for liberty-minded people: if no one is hurt by such a situation (as seems to be the case with the couple in question), should the government have the right to decide the fate of two apparently happy people, regardless of how repugnant such a scenario may strike most folks?
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