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Daily Question: Should local governments be able to wipe out warrants and fees?
It was reported this week that 1-in-7 adults in the City of New Orleans has a warrant out for their arrest according to data. There are also more than 56,000 outstanding warrants in New Orleans’s Municipal Court dating back to 2002.
According to the Washington Post, there is a plan by civil rights organizations and the public defender’s office to wipe out nearly all 56,000 warrants as well as any debt accumulated from fines and fees.
Back in 2016, San Francisco discarded 66,000 arrest warrants for quality of life crimes that had been issued since 2011.
10 comments
A resounding NO!
Criminal is a criminal, if you wipe out their warrant they are free to break the law again and will do so accordingly.
For non-violent offenses, yes. Many offenses hold back citizens from opportunities to get themselves out of the hole their in, especially if they’re poor. You can have warrants for super petty offenses too or if you’re dealing with a crooked cop. Most people in this thread can’t empthize with poor folks, acting as if they can hire a great attorney or take time off work to go to court.
Meanwhile, rich kids like Brock Turner can rape an unconscious woman and walk free. If that was a poor POC, he’d get the death penalty.
What if we all made better decisions, and were held accountable for our bad decisions? Here in CA, a majority of rapes are considered non-violent….by your standard, Brock should walk free then…
Sure only hold certain folks accountable not everyone. Makes sense. I say hold the politicians accountable for allowing such crimes to no longer exists or be borderline acceptable.
There’s a huge discrepancy between white collar and blue collar crimes. Shoplift? You can get a warrant. Rip off peoples mortgages and pensions? Slap on the wrist.
People on ECT love painting a broad stroke of what a “criminal” entails. Acting like they’re as pure as white linen. Pathetic.
Hell no
No
Larry, you make a good point. If we forgive sentenced convicted criminals for anything , then why even have a law?
The penalty is meant as punishment and deterrent. Take those away and you have no civil society. The criminal stays a career criminal knowing there is no risk.
In fact we need to make penalties more stringent and remove dumb laws. Maybe remove 3 dumb laws for each added new.
Many people are above the law. Police can murder people if deemed appropriate, the rich and powerful can molest children and have sex trafficking networks, big banks can defraud the American public, corporations get to pollute waterways and air, etc.
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