On 2006-01-12, beamendsltd <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Not if the penalty for faking is *massive*, something like a
> no-quibble ten year automatic sentence for false number plates or
> similar.
That would be absurd, large sentences for faking a numberplate and
small sentences for killing a person, it wouldn't stack up.
I'm sure this'll bring out comments of "large sentences for killing
should be automatic", plenty of reasons why that shouldn't be the case
and why no civilised country takes that approach.
> It's that faking that needs to be stopped so that the criminal
> *knows* they are going to prison even if they have not yet commited
> the offence which they were planning.
Locking people up because they might be going to commit a crime of a
type you don't know? Now you're *really* talking about a police
state!
> I can think of no reason for having false plates other than to
> commit *some* offence, likewise using someone else ID, having
> someone else's bank details etc etc.
Hmm, people wanting to avoid being identified could include someone
who isn't trying to hide from the law, just from the wife or husband
while out on a dogging jaunt or somesuch. Or people who strongly
object to being tagged and tracked by corporations and governments,
despite not doing anything unlawful (I'd put myself in this category).
I don't live in a glass house, I wear clothes rather than walk naked
and if some random person wanted me to empty my pockets I'd tell them
to sod off, however I don't have anything to hide.
The more that we're tagged and identifed, the more people are going to
want to fake plates, e.g. someone out in the country with no public
transport who's skint but has to drive down toll roads charged on
license plates could well find themselves in the situation where they
have to work but can't afford to pay the congestion charges that are
likely to spring up all over the shop charged on your license plate.
If they can travel for little cost in their car then rather than use
expensive public transport and pay expensive congestion charges then
they may well decide to fake their plates at least for a while in
order to get back on financial track. 10 years punishment for that.
It'll hit the poor most of all.
This is just one simple example, the more charges and bureaucracy that
are foisted on us, the more ordinary people are going to want to
wriggle. Slapping a 10-year sentence on a wriggle is a little OTT.
Can you predict what amazing schemes various mayors and councils will
scheme up in their idle hours once they have access to a means to
automatically approximately identify citizens as they move around in
their area? If you strongly object to some stupid scheme that some
moron has dreamed up but the normal channels don't result in any
changes (e.g try protesting against London Congestion Charge or most
planning applications) then what do you do? How about a mass protest
where people swap plates, 10 years jail term for all!
> Of course there does need to be common sense applied
"Common sense" is one of those wonderful subjective things that people
bandy about that mean one thing to them and the opposite to others.
I'd say you've shown none on this subject but plenty on others.
Remember that common sense dictated that the earth was flat and the
stars and sun went around the earth.
--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!
