Stop and Frisk

 

 

 

"Would I like to be frisked? No. Would the cops find that I carry a gun? Yes - with legal, (heavy on legal) permit!"

Now I am not a constitutional scholar, so I am on some thin ice here. That being said, I have followed the news about the continuing court battle with New York's Stop and Frisk law. It is a classic example of our freedoms as guaranteed by the Constitution, running headlong into public safety. To me the arguments are somewhat similar to the freedoms we have had to give up under the Patriot Act to stay safe from terrorists.

The Stop and Frisk law is being challenged as it violates the Fourth Amendment (unreasonable search and seizure) and the Fourteenth Amendment (we are citizens and shall be treated as such). Sounds like a "no-brainer", right? The courts should throw this law out as soon as yesterday. However, the statistics speak for themselves. When New York had this law in practice, gun crimes went down. Not just a tick, but substantially.

Now we come to Chicago. As controversial as this law is, many are calling for the Chicago police to use the same tactics as the New York police did. Why? The good people in Chicago are at their wits end. Oh, there are plenty of gun laws that should prevent the bad guys from carrying guns. However, for a multitude of reasons (including PC), many of those laws are not being enforced. A blind eye and deaf ear are now in practice where parts of the city are turned into nothing more than shooting galleries. Hundreds of young people are being murdered or wounded. The Chicago police have become both hapless and helpless in stopping this mayhem.

Closer to home, we have none of the numbers that New York and Chicago have. But we do have some numbers. As with many summers, violence goes up when the temperature goes up. Last night we had a triple shooting. Over the Fourth of July weekend we had a double murder. Our police chief is up on the Northside begging people not to settle their disagreements with guns. I have a better one chief - how many of these guns are legal? I dare say not many. Minneapolis, like many other large cities have numerous gun laws on the books. It is just a matter of enforcing them.

My solution to gun violence has not changed over the years. It is a no tolerance policy. You get caught with a gun with no permit - one year in jail. You get caught doing a non-violent crime with a gun - five years in prison. You shoot or rape someone using a gun - 25 years in prison. You kill someone (other than self defense) with a gun - life with no parole. In other words, made the punishment so bad, many should think twice before offending. Those that choose to keep offending will go "bye-bye" for a long time, or forever.

Until we start to enforce our current gun laws (and we don't need any more), we are stuck with extra-constitutional activities like Stop and Frisk. I am not happy about it, but we need to do something. There are many cities where areas of town become more dangerous than a combat zone. Is this the America we want? I don't. Bad people doing bad things need bad outcomes. Plain and simple as that.