This happens all the time. Our rulers in Washington D.C. see a wrong & decide to right that wrong. To do this they pass, what seems to be, a simple piece of legislation. Immediately that simple law begins to be expanded until it becomes a large Legislative Octopus with very long tentacles & becomes impossible to stop.
Want an example?...
When the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973, the concern was that iconic species such as the bald eagle would become extinct. The main threats were from shooting, poisoning and trapping.
I repeat... Shooting, Poisoning & Trapping needed to be addressed. Before we knew what was happening the law was reworked to address harassment, harming, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing, collecting or attempting to engage in any such conduct.
The lawyers started licking their chops. Then the expansion was expanded to include the “taking” of habitat that harbors—or could harbor—endangered species.
Shoes started dropping all over the Good Ole USofA. One of the shoes landed on a North Carolina landowner who was arrested and threatened with fines and jail time for cutting down old-growth pine trees on his property because the trees could potentially provide habitat for endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers.
Imagine your confusion if you were sitting in jail wondering why you had been incarcerated because you had committed a crime of, “Could Potentially”.
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Did you just think to yourself that I had not made my case? Please forgive me & allow me to try again.
Children Shooting Children in school just begs our rulers to take action. I’m not going to argue with trying to address this issue but here is what Congress did...
They passed the Zero-Tolerance Approach to address this awful phenomenon as part of the 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act. I’m still not arguing but before we could turn around the law was expanded to Other Weapons ... then to Drug Contraband ... then to Ordinary Violations of School Rules, Disrespect & Skipping Class. It eventually became an across the board response to disciplinary problems.”
Over the past 19 years, prompted by changing police tactics and a zero-tolerance attitude toward small crimes, the FBI estimates authorities have made more than a quarter of a billion arrests. Nearly one out of every three American adults is on file in the FBI’s master criminal database. All too many of these “criminals” made their way into the FBI’s Database as students...
- A small pocketknife got a student charged with weapons possession.
- A 12-year-old seventh-grader was arrested & charged with disturbing the peace on school property after a minor hallway altercation.
- A student got a misdemeanor ticket for wearing too much perfume.
- A teen was charged with theft after sharing the chicken nuggets from a classmate’s meal—the classmate was on lunch assistance and sharing it meant the teen had violated the law.
- A student conducted a science experiment before the authorization of her teacher & when it went awry she received a felony weapons charge.
- Talking back or disrupting class has resulted in charges of disorderly conduct.
- Fights in school have lead to assault and battery charges &/or suspensions.
- I already blogged about the 7 year old who chewed his breakfast pastry into the form of a gun. This little terrible person was suspended from school for 2 days... http://forii.blogspot.com/2014/05/this-cant-be-true-or-can-it.html
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Back in my High School years Farther Heiter would have been shocked if someone had mentioned the possibility of a Criminal Record for a fist fight in his school yard.
He loved fist fights because they gave him the opportunity to get out the Boxing Gloves instead of calling the police. If someone had run to the phone booth & called the police, here is what they would have witnessed when they arrived & they would have loved the happening...
- Father Heiter first stepped between the combatants & told bystanders to hold the two angry youths apart.
- He ran (yes he actually ran), with a big smile on his face (yes he actually had a big smile on his face), to get his boxing gloves.
- The students not doing any holding apart automatically formed a square “ring”.
- The good father returned, had the combatants put the gloves on & we all were treated to a schoolyard brawl.
- When he thought enough was enough, Father Heiter stepped between, stopped the fisticuffs & had the once angry, but now more tired than angry, students shake hands.
It was great fun, no one got hurt, no one got a criminal record & no one went to jail.
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Before I evolved into the Fella I spent more than 30 years in the Automotive Industry. This happened over and over...
- A manufacturer saw a consumer need for a Small Car.
- It built a small car.
- Every few years that small car was retooled & we would hear the manufacturer advertising, “Our Small Car Is Bigger Than Your Small Car”.
Before long the confused public was heard to say, “Is that a Pinto or is it a Lincoln Town Car?”
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(873)
