Thursday, March 26, 2015

Your Local Politician Will See to It That Some Day, You're on a Registry

We'll say it again: Sooner or later, you or someone you know and love will be on one of the state-sanctioned hit-lists for crazies that they call registries. Politicians know that the coolest and easiest way to seem to be doing something about a problem (without ever really doing anything about it) is to pass a law that creates a registry.

The governor of Utah has signed into law a measure to create a registry of people who committed a white-collar crime. Several years ago, Nebraska started putting people on a public-shaming registry because they're behind on their taxes.

These registries purport to "protect the public," which is among the biggest of the lies foisted on the public in our Big Lie culture.

Responding to the latest Utah registry, Walter A. Pavlo Jr., a blogger for Forbes convicted of a white-collar offense years ago: “The government would further tag you beyond the debt you’ve already paid,” he said. “It’s frightening.”

During the debate over the registry, Utah Representative LaVar Christensen recalled that the state’s Legislature passed a law a decade ago to monitor pornographic websites. “Can you imagine going home every night and saying that your full-time, state-paid job was to look at pornography?” Mr. Christensen, a Republican, asked his fellow lawmakers. The pornography registry was created after every state in the country built a sex offender registry. And according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, several states have formed drug-offender registries and even a database of arsonists.

None of the registries makes one whit of difference in terms of protecting the public. Politicians know this, and they know that most people who vote either don't know or don't care that registries only make things worse for the public they purport to protect.

1 comment:

  1. We've had registries for many crimes for a while, actually. Some states have violent offender registries, for example. Meth makers, child abusers, domestic violence, arsonists, even DUIs have registries in some parts of the country.

    We even have a "dangerous dog" registry for your mangy mutts.

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