Disenfranchisement

The Fall 2012 issue of Sentencing Times reports that as of the 2012 elections 5.85 million Americans could not vote because of felony convictions. The Republicans are winning. Unfortunately one can't blame just the Republicans; the Democrats share responsibility. Prohibiting a convicted felon from voting is discrimination of the most blatant kind; we simply don't call it discrimination. Why is it that a convicted felon can not vote? Are folks who have a felony drunk driving conviction, have been caught producing methamphetamine, or selling crack not subject to the same laws, responsibilities, use the same roads, pay the same taxes as those of us who do not have felony convictions? Or, is it simply punishment? In my view it is simply that if a person will not do what he is told to do, he won't be able to vote. There isn't much more to it than this. It is clear why the Republicans don't want these people to vote; they will not support the idea of being tough on crime and usually they are receiving some sort of government support which indicates they are morally deficient. Morally deficient people should not be given assistance; it merely engenders more moral deficiency. Moral deficiency is loosely translated as those who can not support themselves, who require disability payments, food stamps, housing assistance, free medical care, etc. Those who wish all forms of public assistance be terminated to not know what they wish; and besides, not one dollar of public assistance does not eventually end up on the pocket of those who do not receive any. It is the trickle up effect. I have had the notion at various, idle moments that at some point in the life of this country, the land of the free and the home of the brave, that we will all be required to take our turn in jail. It will be a sort of mandatory thing that all will be required to do somewhat like military subscription was at one time for all men. As more and more of us will become felons, the number of people disenfranchised will increase until the powers that be have just the people they want electing them. They will not be Romney's 47%; they will be, rather, those who have spent their lives acquiring wealth and living in gated communities having contact with the rabble only when shopping. There is nothing about this process that is catastrophic or sudden which would draw the attention of those paid to report the news; it is incremental-slow and steady. Every legislative session we create more felons; it is an annual event. There must be a big poster nailed somewhere on the halls of government reminding those elected to do our business that it is time to disenfranchise another group of citizens. Elections have become way too costly; too many people must be convinced to vote for a particular person. The fewer people who can vote, the less it will cost and the less time and effort it will take.

Education Reform Part II

I am reminded of what Carl Sagan said of a person, probably a theologian, that he was educated beyond his intelligence. This idea has stuck with me. Aristotle, and those subsequent, when putting together his manuals had no intention of publishing them in a paperback version allowing the public access. Not only did the general public have no business reading them, they would not have understood them if they had. We seem to have this underlying assumption that mankind has changed in the last two thousand years. Not so. Public schools in American throughout their history have had the job of acculturation not education. An educated high school graduate may be, in some rare instances, a happy by-product. We, as a civilization, meaning the western industrial world, have learned to operate an advanced, complicated society with idiots. Very little thought needs to be given to one's job. McDonalds and Walmart are only two examples. Once a few elementary duties are learned, nothing further is required. The further up the job echelon a person travels, the more duties one must master. No thought is required once those duties are learned. The surest method not to be hired for a position is to be over qualified. The assistant manager of Burger King has no intention of hiring someone more intelligent than him or herself. I have spoken often of the myriad of rules governing our lives. The number of rules, regulations, and laws enacted by our various governments and administrative agencies are numberless. This plethora of rules are enacted for one of two reasons: either those enacting them have the opinion that those for whom they are enacted have no ability to think for themselves or they are of the opinion that those for whom they are enacted should not think for themselves. Television and radio merely reinforce this idea. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, the national news, and the local news all give their audience catastrophic events, accidents, sport scores, or what the weather was today. Radio bombasts either country western music, teenage angst, or ancient rock 'n roll. For a large number of citizens there is nothing upon graduation from high school that requires an education; so when someone tells a kid that they need an education, it is a falsehood. Just do what your are told and you will get along fine. Although, it would be beneficial if they could put a sentence together and speak with some semblance of grammatical correctness.

Education Reform

It is again time for the annual reform of our educational policies to ensure our children are fit to join the adult world. This wringing of hands is an annual event. We self-flagellate over the poor results of our K-12 institutions of learning. Monumental efforts have been made to improve the education received from No Child Left Behind to continuous testing ensuring progress. The usual suspects are the teachers who are now required to be degreed, certified, and developed. No question there are bad teachers, but they are given a bad rap. It is clear from simple observation that many, if not a majority, of parents are themselves uneducated, uneducable, unconcerned giving only lip service to the idea that their children should have an education. These parents can not put together a grammatically correct sentence, have not one iota of reading material in their residence, and view the world as demonstrated by their favorite TV programs. The only discernible effort made by these parents is to schlep their children to various sporting events from the age of three where they complain to other parents that the coach practices favoritism and their kid doesn't get enough playing time or become irate at a referee or umpire who inspires an emotional tantrum. If parents don't care, the kids won't care, and the teachers will not succeed. It isn't the fault of the teachers. One can attend a school program to immediately realize that the parents and extended family of the children performing view the proceedings little differently than sitting in their living rooms, watching TV, and drinking a beer. During warm-day events such as commencements, a rather important event in the life of a youngster, the audience is dressed for the beach. More importantly, there will be a graduation party where the parents may go so far as to remodel their home; set up a collage of photographs showing their new high school graduate from birth to graduation; and invite all and sundry to celebrate their kids accomplishment. The photo array will exhibit the various athletic endeavors of the new graduate and have the usual stern visual display of the boys and the I'm-so-beautiful attempts of the girls. Whether the child can actually put a sentence together is irrelevant. Not one in ten of these newly graduated scholars are capable of having a conversation with an adult nor form an opinion based upon anything other than what they have been given. It is all rather discouraging if you believe that these children are capable of being educated which most are not.

Confessions

Little has changed over the centuries as to proof of a crime committed. The percentage of criminal defendants convicted of the crime charged is most often the result of a confession. I have often wondered why people who have committed crimes, and also those who have not, readily confess their involvement. It shows a distinct lack of character. Some would argue that criminals have poor character and we should expect nothing more than immediate capitulation. Embezzlement is an interesting example. Those who embezzle from their employer will be caught eventually. It is a certainty. Those who might escape notice are those who embezzle a little, and then quit; but this happens only rarely. Most embezzlement begins small, little amounts here and there and then over time increases until it is impossible to cover the theft. Almost without exception the embezzler admits to the crime upon confrontation. Those who use illegal drugs are another example. Time and time again, a person's vehicle will be stopped by law enforcement and upon the question of whether they have anything illegal in their vehicle, the person in the vehicle immediately blurts out that he has drugs either on his person or in the car. Or with a knock on the door of a residence, the same question is asked with the same response. It would almost seem that the person using or having possession of the illegal substances invites criminal charges to be filed. Without this immediate acquiescence many fewer convictions would result. Innumerable times defense counsel is confronted with a defendant who has confessed his sins. There is little help for him. Without the confession, the defendant would normally have some sort of defense to the charge, i.e. "I didn't know it was there.", "It was the other guy's dope.". But no, the response might as well be, "Take me to jail, I did it." I am sure there has been much written on this subject. Possibly forensic psychologists have the answer. More than likely it is a combination of fear, atonement, and stupidity. In the land of atonement, the proliferation of 12 step movements, confessing one's sins and asking forgiveness for past transgressions has become the norm. "Confession is good for the soul" has morphed from a religious practice to a recovery complex. Fear is easy to understand, but misplaced. One has more to fear by confessing than by not confessing and maybe this is where stupidity comes in. Of the three factors recognizable in confessions, stupidity is not correctable. One can not be trained, educated, or induced in any manner, not to be stupid. Without stupidity we criminal defense attorneys might starve so I guess we shouldn't complain of it.

Trash Rips

Trash rip is the phrase used by law enforcement to sneak to the front of your residence in the middle of the night and take the garbage you have set out for pickup the following day. Once they take your garbage, they take it to a place of warmth and comfort, dump it out, and go through the trash for evidence of illegal substances such as marijuana seeds and stems. Marijuana seeds and stems are evidence that marijuana is to be found in the residence from whence the trash derived. The courts uniformly, to my knowledge, declare that a person has no expectation of privacy in the trash that he sets out on the street for collection. I am most certain that if one read enough cases dealing with the fourth amendment and the searching of garbage bags one would find rationalization for this position. Personally I don't expect anyone to take my trash to go through it for any purpose and wouldn't much like it much if someone did take it. My neighbors, strangers, nor law enforcement do not need to know my business. The lack of expectation in privacy to trash is one of these judicial pronouncements without a basis in fact. Numerous such determinations have been made by the courts whereby they simply declare something as fact and we as citizens must conform to that determination. The practice of law enforcement to collect garbage from suspected users of illegal substances is not a secret. Most defendants who are the subject of such searches and then must endure a knock on the door by the ninja squad, usually with a battering ram, should know that neatly disposing of the remainder of their illegal substances or of the paraphernalia used to contain it or to use it is not the thing to do. Most regular drug users who I represent have been the subject of a search warrant or have friends and associates who have. They certainly have an expectation that the evidence of their crime will be disposed of properly in the landfill for none to see or suspect. These people are aware that the use of these substances is illegal, that they may be arrested, thrown in jail, fined, and required to hire lawyers. These people do not throw their used meth pipes into the front yard for the neighborhood kids to find or the guy walking his dog to pick up and call about. They put them in a bag with the other trash, tie the bag, and expect the garbage truck to pick it up and to disappear it the next day. To say that there is no expectation of privacy is simply to declare something contrary to fact. I would argue that the trash sitting in your front yard waiting for pickup is an extension of your residence, which is your castle to be protected from search to the fullest extent possible. It is part of your curtilage which is the area around your house and associated buildings. If you become aware that someone is lurking in your back yard at night or your hear something in your open garage at three in the morning, you call the cops. If you can't sleep and are looking out the window when someone pulls up and throws your garbage bags in the back of a vehicle, you don't call the cops because it is the cops. But if you did call the cops, would that not be evidence that there was an expectation of privacy. I think this a marvelous idea. Call law enforcement if someone takes your trash. You, as home owner, or resident are paying for the collection of your trash. You know who is to be picking it up. You know that the people picking up your trash have neither the inclination or time to be sifting through it. When you send a letter to a person, you have an expectation that the letter will go to that person, not to a third person. Trash is hardly any different. When you set your trash on the curb, you expect it to go to the landfill, not to the police station.

Let Them Vote!

Our governor, Terry Branstad, has magnanimously decreed that it will now be easier for convicted felons to regain their right to vote. One does wonder about this as most convicted felons who would even consider voting are democrats. I'm sure there are many in his party that question the propriety of this demonstration of democratic enthusiasm. All is well though, in that most felons don't vote. They have long ago accepted the fact that voting has no effect whatsoever on their lives and is more trouble than it is worth. The harm done by this act is minimal, if any. The other sop given to the hardliners is the money. In order to be able to vote, these convicted felons will have to pay. It will cost money to vote. From what was reported of the decision by the governor in the paper, which may or may not have any basis in fact, in order for a felon to regain his right to vote, he must have paid his fines, court costs, attorney fees, and restitution or be making regular payments on them. Since 80%, at a minimum, of convicted felons are destitute, not much will be added to the state treasury from this decision by the governor--although it does sound good and will placate those of us who worry constantly about the state budget and high taxes. What this does, in fact, is further restrict the right to vote. The governor proclaims that it will now be easier for a felon to regain his right to vote but at the same time requiring money to do it. The effect is the opposite of the proclaimed which is exactly how we do things in this country. It works since most of us don't think about anything at all and certainly will not spend any time analyzing the governor's proclamation but will take it for what it is stated to be. As we are also creating felons at a rapid pace, the numbers of the public able to vote will continue to diminish. The legislature creates new felons every session. They should quit the quibbling and just make every crime a felony and we can solve the problem of ne'er-do-wells voting once and for all.

Postage Theft

Perusing the federal criminal code for long-buried crimes, I ran across 18 USC 1720 which makes it a crime to reuse a postage stamp. Not only is it a crime, but Congress in its efforts to stamp out crime has provided that a person may be incarcerated for up to one year for reusing a postage stamp. Occasionally one will see a stamped envelope where the stamp was not properly cancelled. Since stamps now cost 45 cents, it is quite natural to think that it might be used a second time, no one knowing the better. Don't do it. You will have committed a criminal act therefore making you, at least in your own mind, a criminal. There are those who believe reusing a postage stamp is perfectly acceptable. If the post office can't properly cancel a stamp, then who are we not to use the thing again. It saves almost one-half of a dollar and is the thrifty sort of thing to do. The United States Post Office is charged with covering its costs. This was a Ronald Reagan enactment. Since the USPS charges for its services they should cover their costs if not actually make a profit. Why this most necessary function of government should be singled out to cover its cost is uncertain. Surely there are other ways the United States government can cover some of its costs. I suggest they rent out some air craft carriers to China or Japan. Russia might even be in the market for some warships. This would be a huge boon to the United States Navy. It would take a lot of stamps to cover the rental of a major warship for a year. When enacting a criminal statute it does not appear to be a relevant factor that the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person committed the crime. With the crime of reusing a used postage stamp, it would appear that the only method of proof would be to have a snitch. It doesn't appear that the United States Post Office has the technology to determine the reuse of postage; if it even exists. If it is clear that no one will ever be prosecuted for reusing a postage stamp, why does Congress make it a crime to do so? This question should be posed to our congressmen and senators. More than likely, no response will be given in that they have way too many important matters to deal with and can't be bothered with postage stamp theft. Enacting crimes is a fun thing to do; it enhances one's view of oneself as a ethical leader. It is one more step in the continuing project of the correction of immoral, public conduct.