When you take an unfair law and use it to force people to choose between doing what they want and breaking the law, there are always going to be people who choose to break the unfair law.
I think we would quickly realize that the states themselves are also quite tyrannical, I know mine is.
I just don't like any law that tries to dictate morality. Like the prohibition law I used as an example.
First drinking is legal, then its not, and people's lives are ruined by sending them to prison, then 13 years later, its legal again.
Whats wrong with that picture?! And now its the same thing with drugs, except they haven't become legal again...yet.
Plus I don't like laws that make me live, to what I call the "lowest common denominator".
An example of this is a guy thats drunk, and he gets a cherry bomb and then lights it and then holds it in his hand until it blows up and takes some fingers with it.
So then to protect this idiot, they pass laws to ban fireworks, just because this guy is a few bricks short of a full load.
Why the hell should =I= have to suffer because of stupid people???
And then we have the question of where to cut it off.
Which leads to helmet laws, car seats, seat belts, cigarette bans, etc...all the way to banning trans fats to cook food. So where does it stop?
This why I joined the Libertarian Party. We need to get the feds out of 'everyday' regulation. I probably don't agree with everything in the platform, but then I doubt many people agree with everything in their party platform. But for me they are the closest to what I agree with.
As for the states being tyrannical, I doubt many have the edge on Illinois. We have Chicago you know, with the poster boy for political corruption, Mayor Daley.
Heres a good example:
Chicago Aldermen Request Police Complaint List
By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: October 26, 2007
CHICAGO, Oct. 25 — With the Chicago Police Department mired in accusations of misconduct, a majority of aldermen took the unusual step on Thursday of asking a federal judge for access to the names of officers who were the subjects of the most complaints.
Mayor Richard M. Daley, who opposes releasing the information, accused the elected officials of grandstanding and disloyalty to the police force.
“Kick ’em when they’re down, kick ’em, keep kicking ’em,” Mr. Daley told the aldermen this week. “Go home. See your name in the press.”
At issue is a list of hundreds of names of officers who have been subjects of multiple complaints by the public on abuses, including brutality and false arrests.
The city has taken steps to make sure that the list and other information related to possible police misconduct remain confidential.
But the aldermen, who have oversight of the department, insist that they have a right to it.
“If people are going to begin to trust the Police Department again, we need to eliminate rogue officers from the force,” Alderman Ricardo Muñoz said. “The way to do that begins with transparency.”
The federal district judge who received the aldermen’s petition, Joan Humphrey Lefkow, turned it down on Thursday, saying she did not have jurisdiction to release the names.
At an earlier point in the case, Judge Lefkow had ordered the documents made public.
The city sought an emergency stay that was granted and is appealing the ruling. Now the City Council is considering suing the city for the information.
The disagreement arises after accusations of abuse and corruption began in the spring.
Much to the embarrassment of a city that is polishing its image in hope of being the host for the Olympic Games in 2016, the pummeling of a small woman on the Northwest Side of Chicago was broadcast globally on YouTube and other Web sites.
Two civil juries have recently awarded multimillion-dollar settlements to men who said the police had abused them. The department will pay $4 million to one, Coprez Coffie, who testified that he was sodomized with a screwdriver. A jury awarded the other man, Timothy Finwall, $2 million for being framed and falsely arrested.
Jon Loevy, whose law firm represented the men, said the Police Department had shown no interest in dealing with the problem, noting that internal reviews had found no wrongdoing or need for disciplinary action in either case.
“That’s been the problem here, the police officers who are inclined toward abuses are permitted to act with impunity,” said Mr. Loevy, who is also involved with the effort to release the list of officers’ names. “In Chicago, unlike in other towns, it’s gotten out of control.”
Interim Police Superintendent Dana V. Starks and other prominent Chicagoans acknowledged this week that the accusations were eroding confidence in the department.
“Suspicion is running very high as to who you can trust, as far as officers,” said James W. Wagner, a former official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who is president of the Chicago Crime Commission, an 88-year-old organization of business leaders.
For years, relations between the police and many low-income and minority neighborhoods have been tense.
“The truth is that black and brown people have, on an ongoing basis, been the victims of bad conduct by police officers,” said Alderwoman Toni Preckwinkle, who is among those seeking the list of officers’ names. “What’s helpful or troubling now is that a number of recent incidents have involved white people. And now it’s news.”
A spokeswoman for the Police Department, Monique Bond, said it would be unfair to assume that every complaint represented violations of public trust.
Ms. Bond said the department would be willing to meet with the Council to explain the list.
“The safety concerns, as well as retaliations, baseless lawsuits and destroying the reputation and career of decent, hard-working officers cannot be ignored,” Ms. Bond said.
The department has taken steps toward reform. It announced this month that it would disband an elite unit that has come under state and federal investigations.
Officers in the unit, known as S.O.S., or the Special Operations Section, had heightened responsibilities and freedom to pursue drug- and gang-related crimes. Investigators now say the squad was home to a rogue crew of officers, one of whom has been charged with plotting to murder a fellow officer.
In July, the City Council voted to overhaul the department’s office responsible for investigating abuses.
The department has been looking for a new superintendent since Philip J. Cline, a longtime officer, resigned in April amid an outcry over the lack of swift discipline against officers accused of involvement in two beatings captured on videotape.
Experts and politicians said that a vast majority of the force was honorable, but that the unpunished wrongdoings of a small percentage of officers had created incalculable harm.
Craig Futterman, a clinical law professor at the University of Chicago, said a study of abuse complaints over the last five years showed that the odds were 2 in 1,000 that an officer charged with abuse would be disciplined.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/us/26chicago.html
