Website owner:  James Miller

On violent crime in our society




   Violent crime is rampant in this society.  The streets aren't 
   safe.  Gangs of young thugs roam about everywhere. There are a 
   few murders to be reported every night on the evening news.  
   These thugs kill people for the most trivial reasons, sometimes 
   just for the fun of it.  They are not any longer people --- 
   they are animals.  They have lost their humanity.  They are 
   predators who live by a predator mentality.  They think only in 
   terms of on whom they can prey.  They have lost any ability to 
   feel for others or to feel guilt for their actions.  What is 
   the problem?  At least part of it is our legal system.  It is 
   so soft on them.  If they are caught and don't totally escape 
   punishment through some legal technicality they serve perhaps 
   three or four years in prison and are then out on the street 
   again.  The death penalty is rarely used even in states where 
   it is legal.  Why is our society so soft on crime?  In great 
   part it is the mentality of the society.  People have been so 
   brainwashed by liberals, especially liberal theologians and 
   preachers, that they have come to feel sorry for the criminals 
   and don't want to punish them --- they just want to reform 
   them.  In reality these criminal minds can be about as easily 
   reformed as a wolf can be reformed of hunting sheep or a weasel 
   can be reformed of killing chickens --- and the statistics bear 
   this out.  At least 90% go on to commit more crimes after they 
   get out of prison.  But our society never learns.  The people 
   go on in the blind, foolish ways they have been taught by their 
   liberal religious leaders --- emphasizing the rights and 
   humanity of the poor criminal that we should feel so sorry for 
   because he is just a victim of his circumstances.  They give no 
   thought to the rights of the innocent victims of these 
   criminals.  The bias is all on the side of the rights of the 
   criminal.  The sympathy is all for the criminal.  If some 
   groups try to change things and try to get tougher laws and 
   penalties they get voted down by the majority or the American 
   Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) comes in and challenges the 
   tougher laws as being in conflict with our constitution.  It 
   often does seem like our constitution is always on the side 
   of the criminal.  It seems to give him all kinds of rights we 
   can't interfere with. 

   Under these conditions can you say we live in a good land where 
   Justice and Right prevail?  Down through the ages governments 
   in all societies have had to deal with the problem of violent 
   crime and the question of how best to stop it.  Most have 
   chosen severe punishment.  The experience of the ages has given 
   this as the best solution.  And is not the maintenance of law 
   and order in a land and the protection of the good, law-abiding 
   citizens from harm one of the first responsibilities of any 
   government, whether that government is headed by king, dictator 
   or democratically elected leader?  Isn't the maintenance of law 
   and order and safety in the streets the first obligation of 
   every government?  What is our excuse?  Other countries do it.  
   Japan has a very low crime rate --- a tiny fraction of ours.  
   Our problem is the basic philosophies we espouse --- our 
   preoccupation with the grand ideals of personal freedom and 
   personal rights.  We are so enamored with these ideas that we 
   have lost sight of the importance of some other ideas --- like 
   the value of law and order and moral responsibility and duty in 
   a society. 

   So if it is the first duty of government to maintain law and 
   order in the land and it is not doing it isn't the government 
   culpable?  If it says it will reform the criminals instead of 
   punishing them and then turns them back out on the streets 
   unreformed isn't it to be held responsible?  If the streets are 
   full of criminals and law and order is gone, is not that 
   negligence on the part of the government? 

   Me?  I want safety in the streets.  Safety for myself, my wife, 
   those nearest me.  Safety for good, law-abiding people.  I 
   don't care about the bad people.  My solution?  I am in favor 
   of the death penalty.  Used freely.  I think public hanging or 
   public execution by firing squad could have great social value.  
   I think the Islamic fundamentalists have things right on this 
   score.  And for the people you send to prison I would make sure 
   they worked and paid for their keep.  This idea of the taxpayer 
   paying $20,000 or $30,000 per prisoner per year for their keep 
   is ridiculous. 


   Oct 1992




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