Or Terrorists Will Kill You
President Bush and Attorney General Alberto “I Don’t Recall” Gonzalez have recently moved to overturn a Supreme Court decision by demanding mandatory minimum sentences for all federal convictions. They want to do this via legislation (and I don’t even know if that is legally possible without a Constitutional amendment, perhaps a legally savvy reader could clarify that), so I don’t know where in the hell they think they are going to get the votes.
Now look. I’m not a bleeding heart liberal on crime. I do think that we send entirely too many people to prison for entirely stupid reasons (the number one being possession of marijuana. . . and no, I don’t smoke). Our prison system is overtaxed, undermanned, and filled with people that just don’t need to be there. But you know, maybe you disagree with me. Maybe you think we should throw every damn hippie and first conviction punk into jail. Whatever. That’s not at issue here. What I am primarily pissed about is the rationale that was offered.
Gonzalez said that minimum mandatory sentences, “will strengthen our hand in fighting criminals who threaten the safety and security of all Americans.” Now, he didn’t say terrorists (which makes sense, since he doesn’t think they should get real trials anyway). But the use of that phrase “safety and security” is married to their terrorism rhetoric. And minimum mandatory sentences have nothing to do with violent or dangerous criminals. There are no judges out there who are saying, “Well, you stabbed three people, but I think you’re an alright guy, so I’ll let you go.” It just doesn’t work that way. In order for minimum mandatory sentences to really help fight dangerous criminals, you must start with the assumption that judges, currently, are intentionally keeping such criminals out of jail.
Whenever your government starts claiming it knows what is best before something even happens, be worried. Whenever it says that there are no mitigating circumstances allowed, get nervous. And whenever it tells you that it doesn’t care about the details because there’s a category for people like you, start yelling.
