The official blog of the Libertarian Party
July 20, 2006
DC Decides to Punish the Innocent for Recent Crime Wave
There's been a crime wave in Washington, DC lately. Since they've already outlawed self defense in the district, there isn't much that can be done to halt this latest rash of robbery and murder. Instead of catching the bad guys, DC officials are focusing their efforts on further restricting the rights of district residents. From WaPo:
Seeking to combat a surge in violent crime, the D.C. Council approved an emergency bill that would impose a 10 p.m. curfew on youths younger than 18 years old, give police immediate access to some confidential juvenile records and install surveillance cameras in residential neighborhoods for the first time.
Youths will have to be off the streets by the tightened curfew for the next three months unless they are with a parent, on the way home from work, or attending a civic or church outing. Visiting teenagers from Maryland, Virginia and elsewhere will be subject to the same provision. The curfew is two hours earlier than the one in effect since 1999.
Our congress penalized America with the Patriot Act for the actions of terrorists on 9/11. The executive branch continues the assault on the innocent with their continued wiretapping efforts. It seems that DC officials have learned well from their federal masters.
Posted by Stephen Gordon at July 20, 2006 05:05 PM
Reader Comments:
The fact that our federal government's own backyard has the worst crime in the entire nation is understandable. Our federal officials are busy with much more important things, like flag burning, gay marriage, stopping research on 4 celled embryos, and outlawing internet gambling. They just don't have time for such petty matters as this.
The chicken little City Council here in the District is more than happy to cast useless votes like this that do nothing to actually fight crime. The Council would happily trade away its constituents civil liberties, and more of our tax dollars on useless feel good "crime prevention" programs, then to actually reform the DC police department.
It's shameless that it required a declaration of a "Crime Emergency" to give the police chief the flexibility to re-assign officers to high crime areas without a 2 week notice. The MPD shouldn't be able to "collectively bargain" away its responsibility to serve and protect the citizens of the District. The Police Chief, the MPD, the police union, and the City Council should be ashamed for their absolute and total failure to really address any of the DC crime problems.
They wouldn't have the money for this if there were no taxes to pay for it.
The 16th amendment gives them power to collect taxes, not make us into tax collectors.
By forcing that labor onto employers without compensating them for it, they've effectively turned them into slaves, which I believe is prohibited by the 13th amendment.
Of course, knowing our Supreme Court, they would side with the gov't saying that we cannot keep slaves, but the gov't can.
Still, it would not be a waste of time or money to bring the matter before the courts. The publicity would shine a light on our cause while turning public sentiment against the gov't. Or we might win. Which would be good too if more Americans had to physically turn money over to the gov't.
of course, we'd need someone who wasn't anti- income tax to do it, or at the least knew not to "incriminate" himself on that matter.
How about we put ankle bracelets on all residents of D.C? Or better yet, let's just skip the formalities plant a microchip in their arm.
As long as one party is in charge of both the house and the senate they are going to run rampant over the other with whatever their agenda is. With the Reps the agenda is morals and taking away our social freedoms. With Dems it is taking away our money and giving it away to socialist programs. Either way we lose, the best we can do is to create gridlock by giving either the house or senate to the Dems.
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The fact that our federal government's own backyard has the worst crime in the entire nation is understandable. Our federal officials are busy with much more important things, like flag burning, gay marriage, stopping research on 4 celled embryos, and outlawing internet gambling. They just don't have time for such petty matters as this.
Posted by: Jason Peck - KS house 24th district candidate at July 20, 2006 08:34 PM