Protecting Liberty And The Poor By Fighting Crime

Today's gem from the splendid Right Democrat:

A no-nonsense Democratic prosecutor, John Morganelli, is running for Pennsylvania Attorney General. USA Political Action Committee prescribes Morganelli's record as follows:

"District Attorney John M. Morganelli is a 4 term, elected District Attorney in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. He is a past president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association. He is known for his 'tough on crime' positions. He has been an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration."

"He has appeared on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight", and Fox News Networks "The O'Reilly Factor" and has testified in Washington on the issue of illegal immigration."

Here is Morganelli's crime and security platform for Pennsylvania:

1. Abolish Parole for Violent Felonies

We have seen that incarcerating violent criminals for longer periods of time works. Violent crime in America is down in direct correlation with increasing prison population. Violent offenders who bring physical harm to others should get long, stiff prison sentences their first time around. One miserable failure is our parole system. The facts are that criminals out on parole represent a significant portion of repeat offenders. The time has come for parole to be abolished in Pennsylvania for any person convicted of a violent felony such as murder, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping and armed robbery. These people should be given long flat sentences which should be served in their entirety.

2. Protect Pennsylvania From Illegal Criminal Aliens

Today there are approximately 20 milion illegal aliens in the US many of whom are engaging in additional criminal activity aside from their illegal entry into the US. The 2000 census estimated that there are between 100,000-200,000 illegal aliens in Pennsylvania up from about 27,000 in 1992. That number is now even higher. There are presently about 800,000 criminal illegal aliens at large in the US who have been ordered deported. Many have criminal records in their country of origin. Illegal aliens come into contact with law enforcement on a daily basis committing violent crime, like rape and murder, drug crime and crimes such as Identity Theft, Tampering With Records, and Passing False Documents. The FBI and the Director of Homeland Security recently warned that the continued influx of thousands of unidentifiable illegal aliens each year is a national security problem .

The following needs to be done:

* Lobby for passage of the CLEAR ACT by the US Congress which will expressly empower state and local police to arrest and detain illegal aliens soley on their illegal immigration status.

* Seek to enter into Memorandums of Understanding now with the Department of Justice to expressly empower state and local law enforcement in Pennsylvania the authority to detain illegal aliens solely on immigration violations.

* Investigate and prosecute under state law employers who repeatedly employ illegal aliens in order to hold them accountable and subject to both criminal and civil sanctions.

* Advocate legislation declaring foreign ID cards used soley by illegal aliens as unacceptable and an unrecognized form of ID.

3. Pass Legislation Creating a Gang Statute that Criminalizes Gang Membership-

ISSUE: Criminal gangs play a large role in the gun violence on our street as they deal drugs, steal cars, commit robberies and use gun violence to engage in their turf wars. Pennsylvania is one of a number of states without a gang statute.

SOLUTION: Pennsylvania needs to be aggressive. We should not pass a law that is weak and ineffective just to say we have one. Pennsylvania law should make it a crime just to be a member of a criminal gang. It must make it clear that gang membership alone will result in stiff jail sentences. This will allow law enforcement to aggressively go after the young thugs who terrorize our communities, and breakup and put out of business a culture of gang worship and membership. We should not wait for the next homicide, robbery or drug deal. It is time to attack the nests of the gangs. With leadership from the attorney general, we can carefully craft a statute that will pass constitutional muster to make gang membership itself illegal. Breaking up criminal street gangs in our cities will strike a major blow to gun violence.

4. Create Gun Trafficking Unit in OAG

This unit would be dedicated to multi-county illegal gun trafficking which would work in conjunction with local police and district attorneys in targeted, high violence areas of Pennsylvania.

5. Implement By Attorney General Regulation Mandatory Reporting of Stolen/Lost Firearms

The attorney general must implement by AG regulation a regulation that requires the reporting of stolen/lost firearms. This would eliminate “cover” for those who illegally sell guns to criminals and then later claim their gun was stolen when it shows up in the commission of a crime.

All good stuff. The main victims of crime are the poor.

Here in the United Kingdom, we need raise the minimum age for jurors at least to 21, and give every defendant an absolute right to be tried by a jury or bench drawn entirely from the AB or C1C2 social group. To restore the pre-1968 committal powers of the magistracy, abolish stipendiary magistrates, repeal Thatcher’s Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and restore the pre-1985 prosecution powers of the Police.

To return to preventative policing based on foot patrols, with budgetary sanctions against recalcitrant Chief Constables who failed to implement this. To insist on Police Forces at least no larger than at present, and subject to local democratic accountability, most obviously though Police Authorities, but if appropriate by means of elected sheriffs.

To make each offence carry a minimum sentence of one third of its maximum sentence, or of 15 years’ imprisonment where that maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

And to reclassify cannabis as a Class A drug, with a crackdown on the possession of drugs, including a mandatory sentence of three months for a second offence, six months for a third offence, one year for a fourth offence, and so on.

Far from being an assualt on liberty, this is the context in which we can and must repeal the Civil Contingencies Act, repeal the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act, and restore the situation whereby a Bill which runs out of parliamentary time is lost at the end of that session.

The context in which we can and must brook no extension of detention without charge, no identity cards, no control orders, no admission of anonymous evidence other than from undercover Police Officers, and no provision for conviction on anonymous evidence alone.

The context in which we can and must repeal existing erosions of trial by jury and of the right to silence, repeal existing reversals of the burden of proof, repeal provision for majority verdicts (which, by definition, provide for conviction even where there is reasonable doubt), and repeal provision for Police confiscation of assets without a conviction.

And the context in which we can and must repeal the Official Secrets Acts.

You know what you have to do.