

	The Law Enforcement Fraud

While the public clamors for a "safe streets" program, Massachusetts Law enforcement is a fraud that does not make our society safer. While there are unsolved murders and disappearances, the emphasis is on victimless crimes, one of which is the "War on Drugs," really a money making gimmick. While the public is being hoodwinked into thinking that the big "drug kingpins" are being arrested, the jails are filling with people who are not a threat to us, and the cost is busting the states budget.

"Grant money" is used to pay for information. Essentially alcoholic, drug users, people without visible means of support team up with their buddies, the local police, and sell them information. The "good information" is then used to obtain search warrants. The non-violent offenders then are attacked by masked cops who aim guns at their heads until they "tell them where the drugs are."

Many of the people arrested are semi-literate or illiterate. They then run afoul of the next phase. While some Public Defenders do a conscientious job, many work hand and glove with the Prosecutor and advise the defendant that he will languish in jail waiting for trial if he does not sign the plea bargain. If he signs, he will spend a short time in jail, and then get probation.

Now the cops have another arrest, the Sheriff has another prisoner, the court has another case, the DA and Public defender have another case, and they can claim they need more money. Then the defendant is assessed lawyer's fees ( in Gideon vs Wainwright the U.S. Supreme Court required the states to supply legal defense for poor defendants ). He then gets assessed "probation fees."

The defendant, marginally employable before his arrest, now almost unemployable with a jail record, gets assessed almost $1000 in various fees which must be paid in 30 days. When he cannot pay he is found in contempt of court and sent back to jail. There is no legitimate way most of these people can earn that money.

In effect the taxpayer is duped into paying cops, judges. prosecutors, and probation officers who coerce the defendant into a life of crime.

Public Safety Budget only includes the Sate of Massachusetts, not municipalities. Some towns make other departments pay for police "service," so the police budget is actually understated.

Department	Millions of Dollars	Higher Education Requirements
Public Safety	$1044	None
Judiciary	$561	Law Degree
Sheriffs	$210	None

Almost half of this money is to process victimless crimes, including marijuana use.

The figures also hide how many people committed property crimes to pay their court fees so they could stay out of jail.

That means most of our tax dollars spent on public safety are not keeping us safe, it is just keeping a few well connected people on the public payroll.

Notice most Law Enforcement and public safety jobs do not require higher Education. That means the appointing authority has a pretty free hand in hiring, he just has to follow civil service laws

Support the Libertarian Party Platform which would abolish most victimless laws. Law enforcement, what would be left of it, would be directed toward protecting the constitutional rights of the citizens, such as the increasing numbers of missing persons and murder victims. not very much of the public safety budget has been spent on these cases, nor has th Republican and Democratic Parties assured a quality response to these cases.

Support the Libertarian Party, the only party that will cut waste and protect the rights of the citizenry

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