Felons being restored their rights hinges on the premise that they pay a debt.
Ever watch the show "LAPD" and listen to how often after the arrest that the annoncer says that the person was "let go due to insufficient evidence" or the "charges were dropped" because the suspect already had a court case for another crime pending? I don't get it...so if you commit crimes fast enough, they only can charge you with one at a time?
My friend was stabbed in a bar scuffle, out front of the bar. The person who stabbed him was known to carry a knife, the knife was definitly theirs, then the stabber came into the bar and told us that our friend was "mortally wounded" (which he was) and that we should go take him to the hospital. We did. The stabber was arrested, weapon found, witnesses interviewed. The person who stabbed him was let go for lack of evidence, even after coming into the bar and admitting guilt! The Police claimed that they could not prove that the person actually stabbed him. This is a notoriously violent person who can now go buy a gun etc, and never payed any "debt".
With this kind of thing going on all the time in our justice system, I don't see how we can talk about debts paid. We need to fix the system before anything else, I am afraid.
I have another friend, for the flipside example, who was stabbed by a mugger, then pulled the knife out of his gut and stabbed the mugger back with his own knife. (For the record, there were two muggers, and the innocent party was with his fiancee, so he was defending both himself and his wife-to-be from the two muggers). My buddy was sent to prison for three years because a jury decided that the moment he was "wearing the knife like a posicle stick" in his gut, that he had posession of the weapon and should have calmly let the muggers go, and called an ambulance. This is a man that can now never own a gun again because of this record. He paid a debt that he did not deserve.
The whole system right now is so f***ed that it really needs to be fixed before anything else can stem from it.
Personally I call for the flogging of all minor violent offenders and the death to all major violent offenders from rape on up, given sufficient evidence. You will see no sympathy from me. Prisons should also be so hellish that they never want to go back, instead of being more like a resort away from home.
MHO,
thaddeus
[This message has been edited by thaddeus (edited April 22, 1999).]