I dont completely trust Rev. Moons Washington Times, but this was making the rounds this weekend:
Montgomery County police said yesterday that they will use tens of thousands of tips from the October sniper hunt to track down those who violate Maryland gun laws.
“Our goal is to reduce illegal firearm possessions and violent crimes,” said Capt. Nancy Demme, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Police Department. She also said the intensive crackdown would begin in the county in a few weeks.
Ill talk a bit more about the nature of bureaucracy; but one problem is that it appears to be a one-way rachet. Given the information to combat a terrorist crisis, the managerial mindset cant help but think of new ways to use the information.
In this case, theyre just gun owners
so I guess its OK.
That last quip about the managerial mindset is spot-on. One situation where the adage “idle hands do the work of the devil” doesn’t hold true.
I saw a similar citation on the Instapundit a few days ago. I posted the following on my own blog Kilroy Was Here (http://kilroy.blogspot.com)
Today on Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds complains about Montgomery County police using tips generated during the DC sniper manhunt to round up those who have violated Maryland’s gun laws. Reynolds is incensed.
“This is sure to produce less cooperation in the future,” states Reynolds “And it explains why so many gun owners don’t trust the authorities: They’ve seen things used as excuses for anti-gun sweeps in the past.”
Wait a second. Isn’t the pro-gun lobby always arguing against new gun laws with the slogan, “Enforce those laws on the books!”? For example, how about this from the NRA website:
For more than a century, NRA has aggressively supported the strict enforcement of laws against violent criminals who misuse firearms and has worked to improve the criminal justice system. As just one example, NRA actively worked to insure that the Career Armed Criminal Act became federal law in 1984.
During the 1990s, NRA worked with state legislatures and governors to increase prison sentences, reduce probation and parole for the most violent criminals and to impose mandatory sentencing guidelines for repeat offenders.
Today, NRA continues to lead the call for expansion of Project Exile, a federal program that throws the book at felons who illegally possess firearms. Measures like these have been credited for violent crime decreasing for nine consecutive years.
Yet, when Maryland police intend to strictly enforce these gun laws by using tips legally gathered in another investigation, gun supporters are suddenly up in arms against these anti-gun sweeps.
From what I can tell, it’s more like anti-crime sweeps.
Kilroy
Of course it’s spot on. Managers are people. Give people information, and they’ll come up with new ways to use it. It’s part of that whole “intelligence” thing.
As for the gun tips, I’m trying to come up with some other example of information submitted to police that may indicate illegal activity where the proper response is to throw that information away, or otherwise ignore it. So far, all I can come up with is situations where the information itself was obtained illegally, or where compliance with the relevant laws is physically impossible. Is that what has happened here?
Kilroy,
Two problems with this:
1) Many of the tips may be erroneous, which leads the police to hassle law-abiding gun owners, which will cause those gun owners to trust the police less.
2) Many gun laws are arbitrary and nonsensical, and enforcing them to the letter will cause end up catching decent, non-criminal gun owners who make some stuipd paperwork error. This will lead to less trust, less cooperation, etc. Much the same argument is being made, correctly, against the SoCal immigrant sweeps.
If the cops use the tips to collar gang-bangers, fine (likewise, if they use immigration laws to collar terrorists, fine). But Glenn’s (and my, and AL’s) assumption, which is justified by history, is that the cops will simply hassle law-abiding people or people who made minor errors, rather than actual thugs and drug dealers who might start shootouts.
> As for the gun tips, I’m trying to come up with some other example of information submitted to police that may indicate illegal activity where the proper response is to throw that information away, or otherwise ignore it.
Actually, almost all such diversions qualify.
Here’s why. You want good leads. Diversions reward people for providing bad leads. Oh, they’re “law-breaking”, but they have nothing to do with the incident that you’re concerned with, and they’re not crimes where anyone is actually hurt.
Me – I don’t think that the criminal system should be used for personal grudge matches. And, if you insist on letting it be used that way, I’m likely to decide that I’m better off without a strong criminal system. (I’m of an age and social position where I can safely make that choice.)