Back From Afghanistan, Marine Shoots Carjacker....

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2002-12-23 01:29am

Enlightenment wrote:
Captain Kruger wrote:
Fuck what all these pansy-ass, pseudo-hippie, think-they're-still-in-the-60s liberals have to say, we need to start executing the fuck out of career criminals in America. How do you stop carjacking, gangbanging, etc? Make the fucks terrified to do it!

There's very little, if any, evidence that capital punishment deters criminals. Indeed, deterring petty crime is extremely difficult as most of these thugs simply don't believe they'll get caught. All told, three strikes laws backed by life imprisonment w/o parole (cheaper than execution and far less pleasent for the criminal) is a much better way of dealing with existing street crime problems.

A large part of the reason crime is on the upswing here is because frankly, it pays well and there's little risk involved. If a homeowner tried to stop me from robbing his home he'd end up with just as many legal issues as I would if I got caught, and as a result of this homeowners are quite reluctant in confronting robbers. 10 years ago home invasion robberies were almost unheard of, now they're almost a daily occurence. The perps know that no one's really likely to stop them, and that their chances of being arrested are quite low. Same thing goes for carjackings, muggings, theft, and pretty much anything short of murder. The perps know that the cops and legal system don't have the time and resources to fully investigate anything short of murder and whatever the "hot topic" of the month (drug rings, kiddie porn ring, etc.) happens to be. With nothing to really deter them, it's no wonder that crime's on the upswing.

Since the cops can't be everywhere I believe the best method of detering crime is to give the citizens the means and will to do so. If homeowners could shoot would be robbers on sight with no legal repurcusions, and robbers started getting shot and killed on a regular basis, I'm betting that home invasions would drop nicely. In fact that's exactly what happened in SC a couple years back after the DA declared open season on home invaders after a disturbing surge of home robberies, and instructed the justice system NOT to prosecute homeowners who killed robbers. After the first few perps were killed and the homeowners got off without charges, the perps realized that home invasions would likely get them shot so they quit doing them.

Same thing should go for carjackings, muggings, rape, and kidnapping to name a few. When perps realize that they're likely to end up being shot on the spot they'll be thinking twice about commiting crimes, because now they don't have a good chance at all with getting away with it. Crime is easy right now and it pays pretty well too, that's why there's so many criminals around.

This sounds exactly like the system that Texas has. But this seriously makes everyone tense. People will jump at every bush or creak in the night and probably end up shooting and/or killing a family member going to the washroom, or someone delivering the mail.

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2002-12-23 01:31am

Oh and what of our legal system? I don't think I trust anyone who has the ability to shoot me, because frankly everyone make mistakes and someone innocent might get hurt.

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2002-12-23 01:31am

But that's just my belief. I'm just nervious around guns

Enlightenment · Post by **Enlightenment** » 2002-12-23 02:44am

Most of the the particularly brutal street crimes such as home invasions and carjackings are committed by thugs who have rap sheets with almost as many pages as a small phone book. No one goes out and does a home invasion out of the blue without prior criminal experince. Rather, these 'people' have been noticed more than once by the legal system but simply let go because the legal system as it stands today is intended (in theory) to dish out punishment that fits the crime rather than punishment that fits the criminal.

Dealing with severe street crime is simply a matter of reorienting the legal system towards protecting the public rather than delivering specific punishments for offenses committed. What the legal system needs is an injection of realism: a thug who has been convicted several times isn't going to reform himself and will remain a threat to the public and should,as such be permanently supervised. The same principle applies to habitual sex offenders: no matter what they've done this time, they're will offend again and should be locked up to protect the public.

Adopting draconoian and dangerous measures such as encouraging the public to shoot suspected criminals is very much unnecessary as the basic groundwork already exists for the legal system to deal with violent career criminals before they graduate from shoplifting to agrivated carjacking. All that's necessary is the political will to use the resources that are already at society's disposal.

consequences · Post by **consequences** » 2002-12-23 02:57am

I still like my three strikes rule. One felony, and we remove one of your kidneys for transplant. Two times, and we remove one of your lungs. 3rd crime, we take whatever is left. As an added benefit, they aren't going to run away nearly as fast after that second conviction.