Originally posted by Guy@May 13 2005, 11:31 AM
The problem with this legislation is that jail time/capital punishment/etc is not very effective in stopping crime, so adding more to the tax payers burden by stiffening penalties really is only to the benefit of those who are involved with the prison system (guards, suppliers, etc). It is similar to how people will advocate the death penalty because they think that it stops murder. If that were true, then we would expect the state with the highest rate of capital punishment to have the lowest murder rate, right? Im afraid Texas is far from the lowest. Same logic applies here; gang members (in the traditional sense or by the new definition) are not going to sit and contemplate the reprocussions of their actions before engaging in crimes, and no additional penalties will change that fact.
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No one ever said that penalties were going to stop crimes, they never will. However, if you lock up the head of gangs, or "gang bangers" then thats one less gang member on the streets.