Monday, February 12, 2007

Getting Tough on Crime

As you probably know, I am a proponent of the idea that if you want to reduce violent crime (gun related or otherwise), get violent criminals off of the streets. Stop blaming the tools of violence, start blaming the violent criminals.

While tooling around in today's firearm related news stories, I found this article in Utah's Deseret Morning News concerning stiffer penalties for Goblins involved in drive by shootings:

The House on Monday unanimously voted to increase the penalties involved in drive-by shootings, most often associated with gang warfare.

Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, a police officer, proposes that the driver of a car in a drive-by shooting can immediately have his driver's license taken away.
Oh my... that should do the trick.

I take it that the legislature in Utah does not have a clue when it comes to modern street gangs. Here is one hint. If the punishment for committing a crime is less than the punishment that would be meted out by the gang if a member does not commit the crime, then your law will have no effect on crime.

3 comments:

Dave said...

Sounds like a line from a stand-up comedian. Too bad it's reality. North America is getting stupider every year. The inmates are running the asylum.

Anonymous said...

I just saw this and I know this post is oldm but I had to respond. The reason being, is because you are not telling the whole truth, the rest of the partial quote you used for Rep. Wimmer showed a huge increase in the penalites AS WELL as the suspension of the drivers license.
In addition, you just flamed the most pro-gun legislator in the entire state of Utah (Carl Wimmer). If you read this bill, it shows that this bill repealed a bad "gun law" and implemented a great law.
Please get your facts straight, before you write stuff, you just might be hurting one of your own.

Mike Talbot
Utah

John R said...

Mike;

The fact that Rep. Wimmer is pro gun is great, but this bill really does not go far enough to stop gang activity. Gangs of the sort that commit drive by shootings, punish their own members very harshly. Gangs firmly believe in capitol punishment. If someone is shooting out the window of a vehicle, at people, that person is attempting to kill the folks he is shooting at.

I did just take the quotes directly from the paper, and the paper indicated that all the driver would get his license taken away, the shooter would receive various punishments depending on how accurate he was.

These penalties are harsher than what was on the books, but not yet harsh enough. If you want to stop the gangs, you need to get them off of your streets.

The modern street gangs have been maturing over the past 30+ years, and they are very experienced taking over neighborhoods and making them places where even the police fear to enter. Take a look at Los Angeles and the major problems they have and ask yourself if that is what you want for Salt Lake City.