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April 7, 2010
Louisiana moving to adding "drug offender" label to state drivers licenses
This local article, which is headlined "'Drug offender' could be added to licenses," details the latest approach to offender branding being considered in Louisiana. Here are the particulars:Second-conviction felony drug dealers should have that noted on their driver's licenses, a House committee said Tuesday. The House Transportation, Highways and Public Works Committee unanimously approved House Bill 139 by Rep. Rickey Hardy, D-Lafayette, after increasing the fee assessed on offenders from $10 to $25 to cover the cost of issuing a special license with "DRUG OFFENDER" in bright orange on the bottom. Similar licenses with "SEX OFFENDER" already are issued to people convicted of certain sex crimes.
Hardy said the main goal of his legislation is to "give the officer who would stop that person a heads-up who he's dealing with, to let him know that person has been involved in criminal activity and might be armed."
The legislation was supported by state police Maj. Dewayne White. "When they hand that license, a caution light is going to come on" in a law enforcement officer's mind, White said. "If a drug offender doesn't have it, his caution light may come on too late."
Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, who got the committee to increase the fee so it covers the license cost, told Hardy "I wouldn't mind amending the bill to paint their cars white with pink polka dots."
Rep. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport, raised the only objection. "If that person has done his time in prison, why put it on the driver's license?" she asked. "Sometimes we go a little bit too far. I think this is wrong. It is not the American way. It's not going to stop crime."
April 7, 2010 at 10:37 AM | Permalink
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Comments
See this is what you get when you are dealing with small time rubes in the backwoods of America. No imagination! Paint his car with pink polka dots? How boring! I have a better idea from up here in the ivory tower.
Tar and feather them!
Posted by: Daniel | Apr 7, 2010 11:00:43 AM
So ... Vitter is going to sponsor one with a scarlet A on the bottom? Didn't think so.
Posted by: . | Apr 7, 2010 11:32:01 AM
article: "Hardy said the main goal of his legislation is to "give the officer who would stop that person a heads-up who he's dealing with, to let him know that person has been involved in criminal activity and might be armed.""
me: translation - this is designed to give the police "reasonablly articularable suspicion" and create "probable cause" to conduct a search without having to use any sort of actual police work or thinking.
Posted by: virginia | Apr 7, 2010 12:03:58 PM
Virginia is right on the money and here is another something to think about. Don't you think that by the time than a officer pulls a car over, adjusts his hat, gets all of his ticket writing gear in order, walks up to the "suspicious" vehicle and asks for the drivers license, that it may be already a little late to decide that the driver is a threat?
Posted by: Just Thinking | Apr 7, 2010 12:54:26 PM
fyi: In both houses of the Louisiana legislature, Democrats outnumber Republicans. Maybe the Dems need to hear from the leader of their Party, President Obama.
For that matter, where's Congressman Jefferson now that we need him?
Ooooooooooooops.............don't answer that.
Posted by: Bill Otis | Apr 7, 2010 4:26:14 PM
I would like to see a law mandating the label, Lawyer, on the driver license of all cult criminals. That way, all service and product providers could deny them services or expel them from their facility. Or how about a label, judge, which would immunize and provide a bounty reward to anyone coming upon such a person who kicks their asses.
Seriously, was it a good idea to make Jews wear Star of David bands when walking outside? This idea is pretty offensive to the prior victims of any type of branding. Who invented that Jew label idea, by the way? Edward I, Longshanks in Braveheart. His portrait is among those of the great law givers in the gallery of the House of Representatives. He offended everyone but the vile, rent seeking lawyer, and was French to boot.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Apr 7, 2010 4:35:58 PM
nothing unusualy about that. i've said it was coming for a while once the nazi's were allowed to do the same for sex offenders across the country.
Once you make it legal to do to one..IT'S LEGAL TO DO TO ALL!
Posted by: rodsmith | Apr 7, 2010 6:09:56 PM
"I would like to see a law mandating the label, Lawyer, on the driver license of all cult criminals."
Are you sure you don't mean you want "I the lawyer"?
Posted by: Daniel | Apr 7, 2010 8:53:23 PM
hey, it stripped out the joke! You have an anti-joke filter on this thing Doug?
Posted by: Daniel | Apr 7, 2010 8:54:31 PM
Daniel: The lawyer is funny enough. No joke could be funnier than the real thing. Except its sick thoughts are imposed on the public at the point of a gun.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Apr 7, 2010 11:21:43 PM
Note to Clod: "Braveheart" wasn't a documentary.
Posted by: Ferris Bueller | Apr 8, 2010 12:00:09 PM
Ferris: Did you know that Wallace was an unknown historic figure in Scotland, before that film, and now he is a national hero, with his own museum, thanks to the movie? Beyond statues, it inspired Scotland to get its own Parliament and a measure of local control. Fiction can sometimes show more truth than documentaries.
A coalition of Jews, Scot, Welsh, and Irish groups should unite to get the portrait of Longshanks taken down from the House Gallery of Great Law Givers. This mass murdering, French tyrant killed 100's of Jews, yes. However, he massacred hundreds of thousands of Scot, Irish, and Welsh innocent civilians to impose his tyranny.
How about a portrait of Idi Amin in that Gallery? It would be less offensive.
Here is why his pic hangs there.
He was French. He taught the English lawyer hyper-proceduralism. He taught him to speak in incomprehensible gibberish, to force clients to hire a lawyer to even know what is being said in the law. His punkass judge and weasel, Henry Bratton (read "Brittany"), student of Thomas Aquinas, established all the current, supernatural, lawless, core doctrines of the common law, including the word reasonable, as the central idea. It means, in accordance with the New Testament. And the reasoabale person is a thinly disguised Jesus.
The lawyer has been riding that pony to wealth and power for 800 years ever since. His portrait hangs there because he is the biggest rainmaker in lawyer history.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Apr 10, 2010 11:44:37 AM
