Zonie63
Posts: 2826
Joined: 4/25/2011
From: The Old Pueblo
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
Your first proposal - to decriminalise marijuana - is an excellent idea. It will free a lot of resources up for dealing with nasty crimes of violence
Decriminalising marijuana will remove lots of youths from criminal environments, which can only be a good thing. One of the reasons why laws are broken so regularly is that existing criminal penalties for possession and use of grass bring the Law into disrepute. So this will help turn that situation around.
TheHeretic was correct in his distinction between decriminalization and legalization, so I will slightly amend my terminology. But either way, I think it would be a helpful start.
Another way to free up police resources and prison space would be to keep as many non-violent cases out of the criminal justice system as humanly possible. If all the non-violent inmates were paroled tomorrow, how much prison space could that free up? (Finding complete, accurate, and updated statistics on this question were a bit elusive in a cursory search, although my sense is that a large chunk of the prison budgets could be drastically reduced.)
Part of the problem also has to do with the culture of the legal profession and various "by-the-book" types who have this anal retentive, obsessive need to process every single piddly little violation through the court system. (That's part of the reason why cops spend so much of their work time filling out paperwork, mainly because of anal-retentive lawyers and judges who demand it.)
quote:
The suggestion of instilling values into these kids is also good. But where will this happen? Obviously it isn't happening at the moment in the places where it should happen - at home and in school.
This is where it can get a bit tricky. Where are they getting their values from right now? If it's not at home or at school, then where? They're getting it from the streets, as well as from the media, specifically the entertainment media. Television, radio, and film, and especially the recording and video gaming industries, have made their mark on popular culture and influenced more than just the current generation of youth. They influenced my generation as well.
This is where I can see that there might be some cross purposes in terms of constitutional adherence. There are those who attack or restrictively interpret the Second Amendment, yet still feel that the First Amendment is sacrosanct, whereas there are others who might believe just the opposite. But I can also see that words and ideas can be just as dangerous as any gun, so this is an area we might need to look at.
I'm not saying that the laws or the Constitution should be changed, but perhaps there might be ways to encourage the entertainment media to voluntarily clean up their act and not turn the youth of America into amoral nihilists and sociopathic criminals. All these pompous, self-important celebrities who think they want to inject their views into politics and try to pass themselves as having a "social conscience," they need to start by cleaning up their own backyard.
Beyond that, in order to truly instill values in America's youth and in society overall, those in the upper echelon will need to lead by example and practice what they preach. If young people look at their nation's leaders and see nothing but thieves and criminals, then why would anyone expect them to act any differently? If one believes that Corporate America is nothing but a bunch of corrupt thieves and villains - and living luxurious, comfortable lifestyles from their ill-gotten booty - then how can one instill values in such a society? If you grow up thinking that the deck is already stacked against you and that the only way to get ahead is to be just as ruthless and amoral as your "role models" and "leaders" in society, then what kind of values and moral codes are being instilled?
I think that parents and teachers have to exert their influence early in life. Once kids reach their teen years, they start to realize the hierarchy of the society in which they live - and they'll quickly see that their teachers and parents are on much lower rungs on society's ladder. If the parents just park the kid in front of the TV and leave them there until they're 12, then that will have its own consequences.
The schools and teachers might also play a role, but their hands are tied somewhat by local politics. Parents may not want the schools to instill values, since they may not agree with the values espoused by the schools. So then they have to sit down and figure out which "values" they agree upon, which invariably turns into a watered down mush of vague platitudes and slogans which the kids will make fun of and cynically sneer at. The schools face an uphill battle in trying to teach or instill any values. Teachers are not very well-respected in this country, and the kids can sense this.
So, the problem has to be approached from multiple angles. I'm somewhat pessimistic that the "sacred cows" in Hollywood and Wall Street will ever clean up their act voluntarily, even if we try to appeal to their sense of good citizenship. At the very least, we have to clean out the garbage at the top before we can expect to clean out the garbage at the bottom.
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