Freedom Prevention
Why does crime prevention seem to equate to freedom prevention? Someone having taken drugs commits a heinous crime. The drugs are assumed to have caused the behavior. So the drugs become crimes in and of themselves. People get shot therefore we make guns illegal to stop the killing. That these crimes are already illegal is irrelevant because the existing law presumably does not address the so-called ‘cause’. Seeing what we think caused the crime, we now make the cause a crime also.
Two laws for the same behavior, one for the supposed cause and another for the crime, doubles everything, crime, criminals, cost and harm. But now, even without displaying the originally objectionable behavior, people go to jail for ‘causes’ that caused nothing. Making everyone a criminal who indulges in behavior believed to lead to crime makes crime and criminals and prevents nothing. It is a sick combination of bad science and tyranny. It presumes behavior, harm and guilt. Just how much of this crime prevention will Americans tolerate? How much presumption will we permit in our courts and in the streets?
Our Constitution gives us the right to vote for our leaders, not our neighbors or their personal behavior. Freedom and equal rights are the fundamental principles upon which this country was created. This so-called ‘crime prevention’ is a violation of both by those charged with their defense. Those that tell us that we do not have control of our personal behavior but prohibitions do, lie twice. Trust in them is foolish and it reduces us all. Democrats and Republicans both “teach†us that these lies are true because of the immense power it gives them and/or it is what they have been ‘taught’ by those they should not trust.
To justify this stupid and destructive policy our government turns to bad science, fear and a dim view of the species. Physiological studies point out things like endorphins and neurotransmitters associated with some human feelings. We observe the effect of drugs on this chemistry. So far so good, but now we leap to the totally absurd conclusion that drugs control human behavior. Drugs do have their affect but they cannot replace a lifetime of character and personality development. Argument to the contrary is fiction, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde†to be exact. It is not necessary that our justice system know the cause of harmful or dangerous behavior. It is only necessary that we deal with the behavior. Let us leave causality, bad science and ignorance out of crime and crime prevention.
Blaming harmful behavior on freedom of choice makes freedom the ‘cause’ leading to laws that foolishly attempt to prevent choice and freedom.
Rick Wolfe