My Radical Idea

I just had a thought. What if every person had to have a mandatory police check every ten years or so? Just think nearly everyone (who has a social security number, that is) who is involved in a crime of some sort will be caught.

One of the objections the government might have is overcrowded prisons. That's the way things would be for a while, but people would be scared into shape pretty quickly. From there crime rates dramatically decrease only at the expense of overcrowded prisons for the first little while.

The other obvious objection is the invasion of privacy, but the way I see it- if you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide.

Even to my ears this sounds pretty radical and I'm sure there's a fatal flaw in it, but right now it seems like it would be good solution. Your thoughts?
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

I have an even more radical idea: mandatory law enforcement service. In some countries, at least in the past, it was mandatory to server a term in the military. I'd like to do that for law enforcement. Everyone gets a turn. Would cut down on long term corruption.

As for a mandatory police check. What do you mean by that? I don't really know what's involved with a police check.
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Master Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 745 Location: Denver

A fair number of employers require background checks which look at people's criminal background. Personally I think a periodic background check would be hard to enforce and I am not sure I see the immediate benefit.

I agree with you partly DS. I think that people should do some service but should be allowed to choose the service. If they would rather be a teacher, for example, than work in law enforcement that would be ok by me - I bet some schools are more dangerous than some towns law enforcement. Smile

Master Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 1346

Hm, not a bad idea, Reep. Smile

But DS... I don't think I have to guts to be part of the pow-leese... Razz

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Interesting idea and it might work. But then you might have the issue of the justice system being clogged with people who illegally downloaded music or some such thing along with the murderers.
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All things die, Anakin Skywalker, even stars burn out.

So this is how liberty dies....with thunderous applause.

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@DS. I forget what all is covered in a police check. I know there is a urine test or something to that effect and that in itself would put a lot of people behind bars.

@Padme. Like I said, overcrwded prisons would certainly be a problem early on and I'm not sure how they would deal with that (send them to a prisons orbiting the earth?) Eventually though, crime rates should go way down and in the long run, prisons would have less expense.
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Okay, so is this "police check" different than a police background check? A police background check just looks at your record, and that wouldn't achieve anything as far as catching criminals because it's simply a record of stuff you've already been caught doing. You're "police check" sounds more like random drug testing.
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To tell you the truth I'm not really sure. Random house inspections are also part of it, I believe.
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

So many criminals and regular people who think the government already has more power then they need would go off the grid.

Think about this: The constitution states we have the right to bear arms against our government if it's corrupt.

In this current day and age- after all the Palpatine like things Bush Jr set up, (Homeland security, wiretaps, background checks on a whim) can we? no you can't- you'd be labeled "Terrorist" and removed.

Some politician will be taking advantage of this someday....
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Yes that would definitley be a problem. The thing is though what do you have to hide? If you're living a clean life and everything, you'll be fine. I will say that even I'm not entirely convinced this is the way to do things, because it seems a little too good to be true (like smiling, charismatic, plastic-haired speakers). Just a little creepy.
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

"If you have nothing to hide..." Ah, well that's the kicker, isn't it? What does the Government consider wrong at this point in time? What if they consider the Christian religion to be wrong? Personally I have no intentions of denouncing the God I believe in and serve, so they would lock me right up for being a Christian. I wouldn't consider that something I need to hide, because I am currently a Christian, and I have nothing to hide where that is concerned. But one day, that might be a criminal offense. So that's why I have a problem with that idea. Confused

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"It's not about the legacy you leave, it's about the life you live." ~Mara Jade Skywalker

Allright the chink in my armour has been found. I'll concede to these points. If my country ever banned Christianity, I might stay around just to boycott. Smile

Unless, of coourse, they shoot me...
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.