One of our great failings as a society is that the more we fight and spend money on
"the war on crime", the worse it gets. It's time to re-evaluate our basic
premises. All crimes can be reduced:
1. Eliminate non-coercive, victimless morals
crimes and bureaucratic laws with their accompanying corruption and black markets.
2. To reduce economic frustration, allow naturally equal economic and labor
opportunities. 3. Encourage more interesting and varied education
choices so our youth are freethinkers, and interested in learning. 4. Stop
government deceit, coercion, theft, counterfeiting and killing.
It doesn't take massive government programs;
these changes greatly reduce budgets, especially prisons. As we get closer to domestic
peace, more crime reduction possibilities will become clear. Private, competitive security
and insurance companies have more interest in serving you. It's the company's
responsibility to find the culprit and collect damages. Criminals don't owe a debt to
"society", they owe it to their victims. Financial restitution establishes
the fact that these are crimes against individuals, not against governments which have
lost credibility.
Morals "crimes":
(recreational drugs, gambling, prostitution, usury, drinking, pornography,
polygamy, etc)
Libertarians know from centuries-old experience that laws and force are not workable tools
to encourage "morals". Our system has needlessly created a black market
underworld that spawns violent crimes. Greater profits are possible which finance more
lawlessness, corruption
and organized crime. Overcrowded courts and prisons breed frustration, alienation and hate
that is fed back into society.
Court protection is
denied to participants in these activities, which makes them vulnerable to pimps, fraud,
corruption and protection rackets--at the mercy of street jungle law. We are repeating all
the mistakes of alcohol prohibition, but we learn from history that we don't learn from
history.
Spinoza in 17th century
Holland observed, "He who regulates everything by laws, is more likely to arouse
vices, than reform them." Or as the ancient Chinese tao observed, "The more
laws, the more violators."
Victimless Crime is a confusing term. Yes, there are victims in black
market activities such as drugs, prostitution and gambling. But the violent crimes
associated with these forbidden activities are the RESULT of the lack of protection from
society: the lawlessness.
These laws take
protective services and resources away from the true crimes of theft and assault. Police
morale is weakened because valuable community support is withheld from these "armed
moralists" --the policeman use to be our friend. But now we expect them to operate
from an unworkable premise: "Government can solve the problem." It can't;
government is the problem... the cure is worse than the disease.
When libertarians talk
about the decriminalization of these "morals crimes", they mean no government
involvement at all: no licenses, taxes, regulations, vice squads, bureaucrats forms or
standards. But just because libertarians advocate allowing an activity (gambling, sky
diving, spiritual
drugs, goldfish swallowing, prostitution, etc) doesn't necessarily mean they advocate
participation.
Which argument is more
effective? Don't stand on mountain tops during electrical storms because 1) it's illegal
or 2) it might kill you. All drugs (nicotine, marijuana, caffeine, alcohol, prescriptions,
cocaine, ad nauseam ) are subject to abuse. Black markets add the danger of impure
quality, erratic potency and lack of valid information. Education and communication are
the answer, not reefer madness.
Prostitution: Those who find it degrading don't have to participate.
Perverted thugs from vice squads create resentment, backlash and chaos. To get hookers off
the streets and improve safety, prostitution should be legalized.
Gambling: It's hypocrisy for governments to run lotteries, then outlaw
private gambling. This kind of unenforceable laws make criminals of all of us. The real
irony is that taxes and politics are the greatest casino, and a poor bet.
Youth crime: How can we expect them to accept personal responsibility
when adults and communities have relinquished so much of their lives to state and federal
paternalism? Excessive, unenforceable laws create disrespect for society's rules and
police at a time youth are forming important opinions and choices. Also, boring socialist,
compulsory government schools
are like prisons, with similar results.
Youth are more
perceptive than we give them credit for. They easily see through our two-faced,
hypocritical pontificating. Recreational drug laws have created a forbidden fruit
situation that needlessly romanticizes semi-dangerous substances. Restricting, licensing
and taxing drug sales,
similar to alcohol, would produce the same results: underage users would simply get an
adult to buy, or produce their own. When grass is legal, it will be growing abundantly
like the weed it is. Self responsibility is the answer, just like booze.
Guns: Libertarians strongly support gun ownership as a defense against
crime and tyranny. Gun control can become gun confiscation, which leaves a population
defenseless against tyranny of all kinds. Governments are the major gun owners and
exporters--doctor, heal thyself!
Prisons punish taxpayers as well as criminals, and are graduate schools
for crime. It's human nature in prison to discuss mistakes and improvements on techniques;
this is one reason we have so many repeaters. Do we really want prostitutes, gamblers and
drug users in society? Better to have our friends and neighbors with us, than breeding
resentment, rage and crowding in prisons.
Private prisons: As a libertarian ex-con, I strongly disagree with the
concept of private prisons in the current world-wide political climate. Would we advocate
privatizing Hitler's concentration camps or gas chambers because they could be more
cost-effective? No, of course not. Should we have private contractors for the odious
functions of the DEA, IRS, or INS? Should the internment camps for Japanese-Americans
during W.W.II or various world tyrants' jails be businesses? Just because government is
involved in something doesn't necessarily mean these are areas for private enterprise.
Security, arbitration,
restitution and rehabilitation for the real crimes of theft and assault are appropriate
services for private creativity and compassion. But given the current international
diarrhea of laws and tyranny, we don't need more efficient prisons to oppress people,
provide
slave labor, or a world-wide business lobby interested in keeping prisoners.
Capital punishment: Any time governments take a human life--by execution,
war or harassment--it's an indication of our failure as a harmonious world community, and
we are all diminished by the loss. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, killing takes its toll
on all of us.
Crime summary: We won't solve problems until we strike at the root. We
don't want to be a society of alcoholism, depression, drug abuse, violence and suicide.
There is a basic foundation to our personal and social crises of confidence: Big
Government at all levels is massive force, coercion and interference in our lives. It robs
us of our sense of responsibility for ourselves and each other. The idea that bloated
bureaucracy is life suppressing and depressing is not new. Here are a couple of radicals
from the past:
Tom Jefferson 1776
"The king has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent Swarms of
Officers to harass our People, and EAT OUT THEIR SUBSTANCE.''
Jesus Matthew 23:4
"The authorities increase the size of their texts of laws. They pile up
BACK BREAKING BURDENS and lay them on other men's shoulders."