The way to fix problems with American policing begins with dialing back over-criminalization of our statutes.
Crimes should reflect someone having being deprived of a right (life, liberty, property).
Penalties should be proportionate and not never-ending. Criminal records (in many cases) ought to automatically expire as bankruptcies do if a person is out of custody and commits no new offenses.
Many crimes ought to be civil matters. Many felonies ought to be misdemeanors.
And, above all, end the War on Drugs.
I don't disagree with any of these but can you give some examples of over-criminalized statutes?
"Overcriminalization" is the main feeder of large numbers of people in prison and on probation, saddled with criminal records for life (and, often, FELONY criminal records for life).
Some examples are:
^^^Making a 3rd Petty Theft and all subsequent Petty Thefts felonies
^^^Making a third Driving While License Suspended a felony (up from a misdemeanor)
^^^Making it a criminal offense (even a felony) to be delinquent in child support
^^^Hate Crimes (increasing penalties for acts that are already illegal)
^^^Defining persons who participate in a lesser crime (e. g. Purchase of Cocaine) as parties to a
more serious crime (e. g. Felony Murder when one of your partners in the drug buy decides to
jack the drug dealer when you didn't plan it and the deal "goes bad")
^^^Making a felony of possession of small amounts of narcotics
^^^Making a felony of cultivation of marijuana, even when it's clearly for personal use
^^^Felonizing child abuse and neglect, even when child protective services and Dependency Courts
with the authority to remove children is operative. By child abuse and neglect, I am not talking
about extreme physical abuse, egregious neglect, or any sort of improper sexual behavior; I am
talking about improper corporal punishment, leaving a child home for a short time when there is
no caregiver which were once misdemeanors under Florida law and in many states as well. (This
example of overcriminalization involves situations where the Courts ARE involved and DO act in
an affirmative manner to remove children and protect them.
The other acts of overcriminalization generally involve "hitting people in the driver license". Clerks of Court in most states have the ability to suspend driver licenses for unpaid fines and fees, even for non-traffic cases. This should not be, and there should be always be a pathway for people to get their driver license. Having a driver license may be a privilege, and not a right (as many people sanctimoniously point out), but for most Americans, it is a practical necessity.
The issue of fines and fees levied on poor defendants is also another issue.
There have been many lies about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. "Hands up! Don't shoot!" was a lie, and this has been demonstrated. But the complaints of the citizens of Ferguson, MO, of a financially oppressive system of fines and fees aimed at poor defendants (often for misdemeanors) is a very legitimate claim of oppression. Draconian court fees are often imposed, and often fall on poorer defendants (with penalties if they don't pay) because municipalities don't want to raise taxes, or their tax base has been decimated. This part is not acceptable. Going forward, our criminal justice system ought to factor in the reality that (A) poor people always have, and always will commit a higher proportion of criminal offenses, but (B) the financial penalties hit them harder. What is needed is for society to come to grips with the fact that it is not humane to expect people to pay for their own punishment. The cost of punishment should be borne by taxpayers. And politicians need to be honest with people about this. This reform, in Ferguson, MO, and in other locales, is a badly needed reform.
