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Responsibility #41
(written prior to July 1992)
To the People of the United States of America:
The following article appeared in a newspaper on March 5, 1992: "Leaders of seven major religious faiths in the Los Angeles area declared a 'state of emergency' over gang violence and called for massive action to overcome it. The religious leaders said at a Feb.25 press conference that they would join four Los Angeles community organizations in launching a massive 'Hope in Youth' campaign to stem gang violence. 'The epidemic of gang violence and gang killings has now reached intolerable proportions in Southern California.' said Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles at the press conference."
The declaration of the religious leaders proved prophetic. Nine weeks later the Los Angeles area exploded in anarchy and riots (as did other localities across the nation to much smaller degrees). Without a doubt gangs and crime prone individuals played major roles in the insurrections.
The nation should not wait for driveby and random shootings, attacks on citizens, rapes, riots, arson, looting, etc., as triggers for religious leaders (and belatedly, city, state, and federal governments) to declare the need to take action. Gangs and other organizations that advocate, instigate, and perpetrate activities that are subversive to the life, health, and happiness of the public, should be declared personae non gratae. The courts should not find that their advocacy and actions warrant protection, under the Bill of Rights Amendments.
The proposal, in Responsibility #33, for the establishment of Discipline Assurance Schools may be expected to nip in the bud gang membership in school age children. Denial of the possession and use of guns by gang members, as proposed in Responsibility #38 and #39, will weaken or break the backbone of gangs. Adult gang members when found should be "sentenced" to Adult Discipline Assurance Schools, as proposed for drug users and alcohol abusers (see Responsibility #37 and #38).
As previously stated, crime is epidemic in our land. It is the most vexing of our health hazards. The RESPONSIBILITY measures proposed in these essays will get at the root causes of crime, as they are implemented and bear fruit. Until the fruit is ripe, and with the fruit that is irreconcilably spoiled, what more can we do to immunize America from the health hazard of crime?
A foretaste of the answer to this question was given in Responsibility #37, with regard to drug traffickers. For sufficiently heinous or repeated serious crimes, the criminal should lose his citizenship and be forever banned from reentering American society.
To implement this punishment of the perpetrator and safeguard for our citizens, foreign or domestic enclaves would have to be established, for the exile of criminals at (or after the completion of) their incarceration. The enclave would be governed by military or autocratic law. Residents (the ex-prisoners, joined by their families if so elected) would have to earn their keep, with the limited opportunities available within the enclaves. The only avenue, and hope, for leaving the enclave would be that another country would accept them. Automatic capital punishment would serve as a deterrent against escape and reentry into the USA.
Candidate enclave locations:
1. Isolated, uninhabited islands, deserts, tundra.
2. Decommissioned military bases in foreign countries.
3. Isolated areas in third world lands.
4. Isolated domestic locations.
There are precedents in history, to which we need not draw parallels: France's Devils Island, indentured law breakers sent by Great Britain to the American colonies, colonization of Australia by criminals, Siberia, etc.
This approach, to the riddance of dire or repetitive threats to domestic tranquillity by released or escaped criminals, also might put to bed the eternal controversy on capital punishment. The death sentence could be imposed, but commuted to life imprisonment without parole in exile, to be automatically reinstituted and carried out, if escape and reentry to American society is attempted. The abominable criminal would truly suffer a lifetime of deprivation. Every precaution would be taken to insure that he never again becomes a threat to society. Capital punishment would be carried out, if by his actions he again becomes a threat. The solution will fall short, only in those instances when the victims of the crime are unsatisfied and seek mortal retribution. The only answer there is "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord".
Millions of people in other countries long for the opportunity to live in the USA. There would be more room for them, if we force the expatriation of those who have proven unworthy of citizenship, by severe crimes or by repetitive serious crimes. Perhaps the greatest value would accrue from the deterrence from initial or repetitive crimes.
The deterrence would be even greater, if we strip from the legal process the seemingly endless coddling of criminals. Our legal system must be made to timely complete the trials of those charged with crimes, particularly the more grievous crimes. Also Americans have had enough of the endless appeals system, especially the delay or breakdown of justice due to technicalities. Our goal should be that once a trial has been completed, only clear and sufficient new evidence warrants a retrial or rehearing.
Deterrence would be greatly enhanced by the clear message, that criminals will pay fully for their crimes. The ears of our citizens are more and more open, to those emphasizing VICTIMS' RIGHTS. Affluent criminals, like Michael Milken, should be stripped of their fortunes, to the degree that losses of their victims remain uncompensated. The parole system should be rotated 180 degrees; parole to be the exception rather than the rule. Criminals should expect to have to serve their full sentences. Only when a qualified board has compelling evidence, that an exemplary inmate will serve society better outside than inside prison, should early release or parole be granted.
The establishment of the enclaves would greatly relieve the capacity pressures on our present prison systems. This could then end the excuse for the early release of felons.
Publius IV
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