Here’s a good argument against criminalizing simple possession of things:
SOUTH HAVEN ? An assistant high school principal is being investigated after police say he admitted to planting marijuana in a student?s locker.
Police say Pat Conroy told them earlier this month that he placed the marijuana in the male student?s locker at South Haven High School last year because he suspected the student was a drug dealer. Conroy told police he was trying to get the boy expelled.
But the plan failed because a police drug dog didn?t find the contraband during a school search, according to The Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph.
The Van Buren County prosecutor?s office is reviewing the case to see if the assistant principal could be charged with possession of marijuana.
Conroy said he had ?lost his perspective? and had done something ?stupid, arrogant and unethical,? according to a police report. But he stressed to police that he planted evidence only once.
(Via Drudge)
Only once? Does that mean he’ll promise not to do it again?
The problem with laws criminalizing possession of things is that there is no practical way to defend oneself against possession. Possession is the crime. Anyone can break into anyone’s home, and plant drugs, kiddie porn, or anything else, then phone in an anonymous tip.
For that matter, anyone can put things on your hard drive….
The legal system has reached the point that, in the words of at least one law professor, “Criminal law professors traditionally open their classes by announcing to their students that every one of them is a felon.”
That’s a hell of a way to get people to respect the law who in theory are supposed to be doing that.
But, I guess, these days, students learn disrespect for law long before they get to law school…..
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One response to “Possession is nine-tenths of
the lawa gram!”“”Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We _want_ them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against — then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one _makes_ them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can be neither observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
“Watching Dr. Ferris watch him, Rearden saw a sudden twitch of anxiety, the look that precedes panic, as if a clean card had fallen on the table from a deck Dr. Ferris had never seen before.
“What Dr. Ferris was seeing in Rearden’s face was the look of luminous serenity that comes from a sudden answer to an old, dark problem, a look of relaxation and eagerness together; there was a youthful clarity in Rearden’s eyes and the faintest touch of contempt in the line of his mouth. Whatever this meant — and Dr. Ferris could not decipher it — he was certain of one thing: the face had no sign of guilt.
“”There’s a flaw in your system, Dr. Ferris, “Rearden said quietly, almost lightly, “a practical which you will discover when you put me on trial for selling four thousand tons of Rearden Metal to Ken Danagger.””
-Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”