AS I LEARNED, LESS THAN 50 PEOPLE HAVE EVER BEEN ARRESTED FOR RANDOM GUN FIRE. OF THOSE, ONLY A HANDFUL WERE CONVICTED. LOGIC WOULD TELL YOU THAT IT WOULD BE NEXT TO IMMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW WHO FIRED A GUN INTO THE AIR UNLESS SOMEONE WATCHED THEM DO IT.
AS FAR AS THE CRIMES AGAINST NATURE GO, THERE ARE A FEW IN PRISON FOR THESE ACTS BUT THEY HAVE BEEN SENT THERE FOR OTHER AGGRAVATING REASONS, SUCH AS RAPE OR ASSAULT. NOBODY IS IN JAIL FOR CONSENTING ACTIONS.
-----Original Message-----
From: markvill@aztec.asu.edu [mailto:markvill@aztec.asu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 10:33 AM
To: rkyle@azleg.state.az.us; prios@azleg.state.az.us;
lgray@azleg.state.az.us; jhart@azleg.state.az.us;
bwong@azleg.state.az.us; bleff@azleg.state.az.us;
smay@azleg.state.az.us; kbee@azleg.state.az.us; aday@azleg.state.az.us;
info@kyl.senate.gov
Subject: does the state currently count arrests, convicitons, and
criminals
does arizona currently count the arrests, charges, convictions, and people in jail by crime type or law violated?
a number of gun nuts wrote you and said dont pass Shannon's Law not because the intent is bad but because the existing laws on the books are not being enforced.
if we had numbers on the number of arrests for this crime, number of arrested people that were charged with a crime, number of arrested people convicted of the crime, and number of people in jailed for the crime then it would be easy to say if the gun nuts were right.
i wrote those of you in the senated a letter about senate bill 1471 which would remove the law that jails homosexuals for having sex, and jails straight for having oral sex. the bill also removes the states christian law that jails people for living together with out being married (cohababitation). and last the bill removes the law that jails people for the biblical sin of adultery.
in my letter i asked for the number of people convicted and jailed for these crimes. mainly to see if the laws are being enforced.
i suspect that these numbers are not being kept.
if this is true i would like you to propose some type of law to keep statistics like these. not tracing each case from arrest to final end. thats too much work and not needed.
but just counting the numbers at each level. number of arrests by state code violation, number people charged by state code violation, number of people convicted by state code violation, number of people jailed by state code violation.
but we live in a computerized world. im sure most of the police reports are filed on computers. asking the police to count the number of arrest for each type of crime and then having the state keep track of a city, county, and state totals would give us an idea of what the police are arresting people for and what the problems areas are.
then asking to courts to count the number of people charged with each type of state law violation, and the number of people convicted of the violation.
again this will show trends. are the cops arresting 1000 people for crime a, but the courts are plea bargining 950 of them down to crime b and only charging 50 people with crime a.
or did the courts throw out 250 of the arrests for a crime because the cops falsely arrested the people, or because the cops bungled the job and didnt get enough evidence needed to convict the person.
and last keeping tracking of convictions. were all 50 people charged with crime a convicted, or were only 25 of them convicted.
and last keeping track of the number of people jailed fined, or put on probation.
keeping stats like this would also tell us how well you people in the house and senate are doing. are you passing laws where tons of people are charged with crimes, or are you passing feel good laws that are never enforce such as claimed for the shanon's law.
it way also be usefull to require city and countys to keep track of what laws they are arresting, charging and convicting people for.
mark villa