Real criminals deserve to get real punishments
Adam Moncure
Issue date: 1/19/04 Section: Opinion
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At the same time if we are to increase punishments we need to make sure laws are reasonable and deserve to be respected. How can we expect criminals to obey a law that makes no sense or is overly restricted. Speed limits are a great example, just about everyone speeds, not becuase they like to break the law ,but becuase speed limits are unreasonably restrictive. This is just one of many examples of laws that if changed to be more reasonable would improve sociatal respect for the law.
Instead of just sending back illegal workers, what if we adopted an approach that reflected Singapore's? What if instead of just deporting them, we took their savings and threw them in prison for awhile? It would basically defeat the purpose of coming illegally to America if when they left they were no better of than they began. The incentive to break the law would be diminished. The result would be few criminals. What if we again followed Singapore's example and executed drug traffickers? Would as many people traffic in drugs if they faced a death sentence? At the very least changes like this would reduce the number of repeat offenders. When we get tough on criminals we will finally start to make progress in the war on crime. Until then we will continue to spend billions on law enforcement with minimal returns.
Instead of just sending back illegal workers, what if we adopted an approach that reflected Singapore's? What if instead of just deporting them, we took their savings and threw them in prison for awhile? It would basically defeat the purpose of coming illegally to America if when they left they were no better of than they began. The incentive to break the law would be diminished. The result would be few criminals. What if we again followed Singapore's example and executed drug traffickers? Would as many people traffic in drugs if they faced a death sentence? At the very least changes like this would reduce the number of repeat offenders. When we get tough on criminals we will finally start to make progress in the war on crime. Until then we will continue to spend billions on law enforcement with minimal returns.