Some people don't believe me when I tell them that a black man in Los Angeles has just been sentenced to 25 years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread.
I don't have a lot to say about something like this. Some things, like gun control, are quite debatable, though I still think the debate is one-sided, in terms of logic. But putting a homeless man in jail for 25 years for stealing a loaf of bread is beyond all logic and sanity and reasonableness. It will cost the State of California at least $1 million to keep this "threat" to society locked up. From a strictly economic point of view, how many of California's politicians would have been willing to chip in $2.50 to buy the man a loaf of bread and save the taxpayer a million bucks?
How many of the legislators who voted for the "three strikes and you're out" law go around pontificating about the decline of moral values in our society? What is a "moral" value? Locking up an indigent man because our society cares so damn little about the poor that we tolerate extreme poverty in our midst while squandering billions of dollars on new military toys for men who award themselves medals every time they fart in the direction of the enemy?
Only two states (California is one, I don't know the other) apply the "three strikes and you're out" law to non-violent crimes. Tom Hayden is trying to change the law in California but they say he doesn't have the 2/3 votes he needs to do it.
If I were a cop in California and I was called in to arrest somebody for stealing a loaf of bread, I'd pay the shopkeeper the two bucks myself and turn the guy loose.
Copyright © 1999 Bill Van Dyk All rights reserved.
