There are many arguments to be made in favour of an accessible pardon program. The astonishingly low rate of recidivism is the most important. Since the program began more than 400,000 people have been granted a pardon. The number of people, who subsequently reoffend, most often for minor crimes, amounts to about 4%.

With success in the 96% range there can be no legitimate argument against the effectiveness of a pardon. To think that a social program aiming to rehabilitate offenders into society could do better is to live in a fantasy land where common sense has no place and evidence has no meaning. Canadians demand a better approach.

A pardon is obviously a powerful incentive. If you make a mistake with law you must pay your debt to society. But once that debt is paid, once the sentence is complete, the criminal justice system says that one day you will be eligible to have your criminal record sealed. In other words, if you stay out of trouble with the law, one day a pardon will allow you to look for a job with a hook on the end of your line. 

The Conservatives want to take that possibility away for some people, and make the waiting period much longer for the rest.

The former approach fails in the face of common sense. If the debt is paid the punishment is over. But denying the possibility of a pardon and a decent job forever is obviously another form of punishment. And the Conservatives might consider that anyone who receives a lifetime sentence, as handed down by the courts, can never get a pardon anyway.

The latter approach fails due to an absence of evidence. Asking offenders to live a law abiding life before being eligible for a pardon does make sense. Few of us would argue with that. But there is nothing to suggest that the current waiting periods are inappropriate or ineffective. Nothing even close to an argument is being offered, let alone evidence that might support it. With a 96% success rate we have to wonder what it is the Conservatives are trying to accomplish.  

Changes to the pardon program, therefore, must be for ideological reasons. It is impossible to arrive at any other conclusion because there is no argument being made and no evidence being offered to support the changes contained in the omnibus crime bill. The Conservative government is simply telling Canadians that these changes will make us safer, that they are the right thing to do. We just have to trust them.

The problem is the lives this will affect and the families that will continue to struggle. I have spoken to many people who are just about to get things back on track. They would become eligible in the next few months for a pardon after completing their sentence and having had no trouble with the law for quite some time. But when the omnibus crime bill passes the hopes of a pardon and a decent job go out the window, for quite some time. Why? We can’t say. It’s just because the Conservatives want it that way. Try telling that to someone struggling to find work.

The Conservative government needs to reconsider its position on pardons. It should try to understand that people really can change. But most of all the Conservative government, being the party of fiscal responsibility, should recognize what a decent job does for the life of someone trying to build a positive future.  

Post from: Criminals Wanted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IbNfiB-Jjs

The National Pardon Centre featured on local news station in Calgary.

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Post from: Criminals Wanted

Below are some high grade drug rants that exploit the many complex issues facing illegal drugs. If you don’t agree with the politics at least you can enjoy a few laughs. For better or worse drugs are here to stay. Besides, it’s no one’s business what I do with my own body anyway. If I want to get high I want to get high and that’s all there is to it. Please don’t bogart my vibe!

But enough with the serious and on with the jokes…like Doug says: “Start the argument!”

Bill Hicks

Hicks died of cancer in 1994 which means that every single word he ever spoke is the truth. In this bit he does a pretty good job with the hypocrisies of drug policy and makes a good joke out of his own experience with drugs. RIP Bill.

Notable Lines:

I’ve seen a lot of things on drugs but I have never once looked at an egg and thought it was a brain. Maybe I wasn’t getting good shit.

Not only do I think marijuana should be legalized, it should be mandatory.

I have never seen people on pot get in a fight because it is fucking impossible.

Dennis Leary

Why is Denis Leary famous while Bill Hicks isn’t? Because there’s no cure for cancer.

Apparently Leary plagiarized Hicks on his comedy album of the same name. Crime is everywhere. In this rant Leary seems a little bit out of his mind but I guess that’s the point: Cocaine makes you crazy.

Notable Lines:

Cocaine? We started that. You’re welcome.

I like to sit in a bathroom and talk to a complete stranger for eight hours on end.

Hey man, let’s get an eight ball. It’ll last us all weekend.

Des Bishop

Des is a clever Brit’ who does another good job of tackling the harder drugs. In this one he points out a rarely noticed difference between cocaine and heroine. And he’s right. Cocaine does make you an asshole. Bloody brilliant.

Notable Lines:

Cocaine, so what? It’s only a couple of lines.

At least its not heroine? What the fuck does that mean? Who would you prefer to be robbed by?

Pablo Francisco

The thing about psychedelics is you either outgrow them really fast or there’s something seriously wrong with you. This is why I can’t for my life imagine why they’re illegal. What a waste of resources. Have you ever met anyone in their 30’s even capable of doing acid or going to a rave? Of course not, it’s impossible. Pablo on e does a good job showing us why you can’t take this stuff after you’re 25th birthday.

Notable Lines:

Are you e’in? No I’m Pablo.

Take one now and in ten hours take another one.

Bill Maher

Maher covers the hypcorisy of anti-drug advocates and the stupidity of drug policy in general. The bit about kids is over the top but considering how hyper safe-obessessed society is I think his point is bang on.

Notable Lines:

I think Penny Lane is worth ten dead kids.

You know what pal, we all got our “medication”.

This is just legislating taste.

Dave Chapelle

The thing about Chapelle is that it’s not so much what he says that’s funny as it is the way he says it. In other words, delivery is everything. Same thing goes for Chris Rock who comes next. I like the “drugs aren’t all that great” angle. It’s refreshing.

Notable Lines:

If I was 75 I’d do coke, heroine, everything.

Weed is a background substance, you ain’t crisp, but you’ll function.

Took a nap, woke up, fucked up.

Chris Rock

This is Chris Rock talking. We’ve all seen it. It’s hilarious. Enough said.

Notable Lines:

The government’s trying to get you hooked on some legal fucking shit.

The only reason coke and weed ain’t legal in American is because the best coke and weed ain’t made in America.

That should be the new slogan for Kripsy Kream: So good you’ll suck a dick.

Doug Stanhope

Doug is the quintessential no bullshit comedian. He isn’t angry about drugs or drug policy so much as he is about the bullshit behind the medical marijuana debate. And he’s right. It’s pure smokescreen!

Notable Lines:

Old fuck’s vote. That’s the problem with this country.

We don’t really want to get high this is just about Jimmy with Glaucoma. Bring out Milky Eyed Jim!

I wanna buy mushrooms at Walmart tomorrow. Let’s fight this one out.

xxxx

Face it. When you take alcohol and tobacco together it’s nearly impossible to find an illegal drug that piles up more human misery that those two. And most of us manage our lives around the legal pair just fine. We need to move toward a sensible drug policy that doesn’t involve clogging courts and prisons with people who are just being human. What’s next? Arresting kids on the playground for getting dizzy?

Keep in mind I’m not saying Crystal Meth should be sold in Walmart to toddlers. But I would happily argue that anything coming out of the ground should be available by legal means. It’s easier for my nephew to buy a bag of weed right now than it is for him to get a 6 pack of Molson Golden and a pack of Marlboro. And frankly I’d rather have him smoking weed. The case for a state managed distribution system over a black market is a strong one.

Obviously I just don’t like drug policy. I don’t like the hypocrisy and I don’t like the ignorance and I don’t like the fear mongering. I firmly believe that drug policy is a crime against common sense.

I do, however, enjoy the comedy a dumb policy inspires because I laughed my ass off when I watched these clips. And the God honest truth is that I wasn’t even high at the time.

Post from: Criminals Wanted

I know we all grew up thinking that big brother is watching but now we all know now that Big Brother is all of us and we are all on the lookout for bullshit like this because we don’t like it. And we don’t like bullshit like that NYC cop who tackled a guy on a bicycle and then hid behind his badge.

Anyway probably this nonsense all went accoding to protocal so the idiot judge will not end up in trouble. But maybe he will. We can only hope.

Post from: Criminals Wanted

No doubt about it. In the 21st century piracy is reborn and growing into such a widespread problem that piracy has actually become a real threat to international trade. Today’s pirates are real, armed to the tits and they will rob you blind without thinking twice about it. They are greedy, desperate and willing to die for the chance at a ransom. On the other hand they have little interest in hurting you because fanatical ideologues they are not. In the rapidly growing world of maritime piracy today’s elite pirates come from Somalia. In Somalia piracy is an industry and a way of life. In this part of the world piracy is supporting the last ditch hopes of an impoverished people and they are making a real go of it.

Battling even an average pirate is no easy task. And Battling Somalia’s booming pirate industry is a task requiring the best international efforts. One of the obstacles working against those trying to bring this problem under control is that pirates lack a proper classification under international law. They are not war criminals so they should not traditionally be dealt with by a military presence. But no adequate civilian naval presence exists. Furthermore, if a criminal pirate gang is captured in international waters, who is responsible for prosecuting the offenders? Should the arresting nation be responsible? Should the nation where the attacked vessel is registered take charge? Or should the criminals be handed back to the country from which they came? These are all legal issues waiting to be resolved because at the moment no international treaty exists and no properly organized international force is in place to protect international trade routes. As a result piracy is now big business and maritime transport is in jeopardy.

So what is being done? As recently as 1992 there was no organization set up specifically to deal with piracy. But with threats steadily rising since the early 1970’s the International Maritime Bureau finally stepped in and created its IMB Piracy Reporting Centre. The problem is that the IMB is not a response service. The IMB is only a reporting service. And as useful a service as it may be to seafarers in the event of an attack the IMB is not going to help you. The best it can do is report the incident to an authority (which one is anyone’s guess) and hope for the best. But it is a step in the right direction.

Another organization  tied to battling the problem of Maritime Piracy is the Combined Task Force 150 which boasts an excellent name but is still woefully inadequate to tackle the scale of the current problem. If Task Force 150 was restricted to the waters off Somalia’s coast it is doubtful if even this response would be enough. The real problem exists on shore. In the specific sense the conditions of Somalia itself need to be addressed and a stable government put in place. In the general sense Forces like 150 need the legal authority and mandate to counter the problem effectively. Until an International agreement is in place with law and force behind it pirate attacks will to continue to rise.

Somalia’s pirate industry is born from the kind of human desperation that comes from government corruption and absolute poverty. A good old fashioned civil war helps as well. You basically need to create a condition of perfect human misery for a population of people living near the sea and chances are they will turn to piracy. If drug, diamond and slave trading are not an option piracy may be the perfect choice. Somalia has established these conditions better than anywhere else in the world and as result the Somali pirate industry is the Ipod of pirating. They do it better than anyone else.  In fact, they do it so well that Somalia’s pirate industry is no longer just a small gang of armed thugs in speed boats. In the 21st century Somalia’s pirates are well organized, well armed and well focused with an onshore support system and an entire population devoted to sustaining this network of criminal activity.

Now let’s look at some recent success stories. Recently Somali pirates hijacked the Sirius Star (pictured above), a Saudi oil tanker which measures out longer than an aircraft carrier. We’ve all heard the news. The hijacking went off without a hitch and at the time of writing the Star is anchored off the coast of Harardhere. Consider that it takes more than just a few thugs with machine guns to take control of such a vessel. In a case like this armed force is the smallest of logistical concerns. What is important is having a team in place that can pilot such a massive tanker without running aground. If you kill the Captain who is going to make this thing move? It takes organizational skills that go way beyond the abilities of armed thugs. This is the result of very well trained and well financed crime syndicate.

In another audacious example of Somalia’s pirate capabilities the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, holding 33 Russian-designed T-72 tanks, was hijacked. The vessel and its cargo are, at the time of writing, still in possession of the pirates despite a strong international military presence that is monitoring closely to make sure the weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands. And there are only the cases that were notorious enough to grab the attention of the international press. Imagine the thousands of smaller vessels hijacked on a daily basis. Pirates are not just after cargo ships. They will take down a pleasure craft too if they think the chance at a modest score is reasonable.

And yet the thing we need to consider is that pirates are not interested in old Soviet military hardware and they are certainly not interested in the oil aboard the Sirius Star. The pirates are after cash, loot and ransom and nothing else. They have no interest in harming captives and, in fact, rarely do. They have no misguided ideologies, no mission from god and don’t care if the world insults their sensibilities. They want cash and they want it now and as much of a nuisance as they are greed is something that we, in the Western world, would be hypocrites to pretend we don’t understand. All of this is what makes the industry profitable. In most cases ship owners are willing to pay a ransom to get the cargo back while the pirates are more than willing to do so if the ransom is paid. Add to the fact that news headlines are unable to include hostage killings and you start to understand why the industry of pirating has gone relatively unnoticed for so long.

If all this makes you think that pirating might be a good business to get into think again. Remember that these pirates come from some of the most desperate human populations on earth. You can be absolutely sure that for every man getting rich there are a few thousand underneath him taking the big risks and still only managing to scrape a meager living. Plus you don’t want to land yourself in a Somali prison. Because if you do happen to get captured pirating, there is a good chance you will land yourself in a place you really do not want to be. And the cold, hard facts of that reality, is that you would rather be blown up by whatever nation’s warship happened to be the one to intervene. A Somali prison is a death sentence for anyone reading this article.

But if the living quarters in the images above look like something you could survive for more than 30 seconds by all means go try your hand in Somalia’s thriving pirate industry. If you think you’re coming out alive, though, think again. There are dark places in this world that you don’t want to be a part of and you can bet that Somalia’s prison system is one of the darkest. Remember, if you are apprehended by ANY authority whatsoever during a pirate endeavor they can pretty much do whatever they like with you. There is no legal process set up for dealing with you and you essentially have no rights whatsoever. If you’re caught you’re rolling the dice with your life and that’s it. Pirating, particularly off the coast of Somalia is dangerous business.

Yet the danger is still not enough of a deterrent for the thousands upon thousand of people attempting to pirate worldwide. Where there are riches to be had and people desperate enough to go after them you can bet that they will. At the moment Somalia happens to be leading the charge and they are getting very good at what they do. Seizing a supertanker full of Saudi oil and getting away with it is no small feat and even James Bond would have trouble stealing a fleet of Russian T-72 tanks. It is also no small feat to stare down the barrel of a Task 150 Warship without flinching. It is a shame that diplomatic solutions are not a viable answer to such problems. Piracy is a crime and international as stipulated originally by Hugot Grotius allows for private navies to defend themselves for deeds that would cause a Canadian criminal background here at home but such acts go unpunished now.

In the 21^st century Somali pirates are a naval force to be reckoned with.

Post from: Criminals Wanted

Brilliant. I’m so happy right now I could cry a little.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AI11B20081119?rpc=64

Post from: Criminals Wanted

The Prisoner (1980)

The Prisoner is the first example of a crime related video game I could find. In the seventies the only titles seemed to be Asteroids and Pong. It would be a little while before themes and story telling became a part of computer gaming I guess. This one, however, is a true example of storytelling and problem solving. In The Prisoner you are a secret agent trying to escape an island prison by searching through various structures on the island in order to find clues. The clues eventually lead to your escape. Apparently the CIA used it to train intelligence officers, which is rather impressive for an early generation Apple computer game.

Lock n’ Chase (1982)

I started the research for this post by asking a gaming forum what the earliest crime related video game was and someone quickly came up with lock n’ chase (thanks by the way). It looks like a pretty boring game but so was Zaxxon and I played that for countless hours back in the day. Lock n’ Chase is simple enough and seems a lot like Pac Man to me. The main character is a thief in a maze collecting coins and running away from policemen who are, obviously, trying to catch him. In 1982 it must have been revolutionary time wasting technology.

ET for Atari (1982)

The gaming forum that gave me Lock N’ Chase quickly degenerated into an argument over what was the worst video game ever when BobbyFatt claimed that “ET for Atari robbed everyone who bought it.”  So not exactly a crime related game but the spectacular crappiness of the game alone gets it included because somewhere between production and release a crime was committed for sure. Game play is not even worth mentioning.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? 1985

It’s a strange concept that an educational video game should have a crime theme but it worked for Carmen Sandiego. There have been several different versions of the game since 1985 making for a fairly impressive run. Game play seems pretty cool. Players chase villains around the world, hunting for clues that will lead to his/her capture before time runs out. I like the idea of chasing international criminals.

N.A.R.C (1988)

Any sensible, clear-thinking person knows that drugs are not a crime. Drug-policy is a crime and drugs are a health issue. If only we could face that fact. So of course there had to be a violent, crime related video game about the good ol’ boys trying to stop people from doing drugs. Of course, some drugs are really bad and shouldn’t be allowed in video games. But in this one either Max Force or Hit Man hunt down junkies (the crime here = simple possession) drug dealers and gang leaders. Max and Hit (amazing names on so many levels) are well equipped and their victims typically explode rather than just fall over and die. The ultimate purpose of the game, I believe, is to kill as many people as possible.

Thief: The Dark Project (1998)

I have to be honest. I have never played this game but just looking at what it’s about makes me think its pretty boring. I could be wrong of course. Like I’ve posted elsewhere, in the world of crime stealing is pretty dull and unintersting. Unless you’re stealing something almost impossible to steal you can’t even make a bad movie out of it. As for gameplay the purpose is to avoid fighting and instead sneak around the enemies, hiding in dark corners.

Road Rash (1991)

The thing I like about the crime in this videogame is that street racers are idiots but at least when people are racing motorcycles they are pretty much only putting themselves in danger. When you race cars you endanger a lot of people around you. But when you race motorcycles go ahead and hit whatever other vehicle you want. Of course that all applies to real life and this is the world of videogames. Gameplay is pretty straight forward: go fast on a motorcycle and don’t fall over. I don’t know why they decided to base the game on illegal street racing instead of circuit racing but it makes for a cool crime entry.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream 1995

This one makes the list because anyone who has ever watched Battlestar Galactica knows that computers can (or will certainly be able to) commit crimes. In this game an Evil computer named AM has happily killed off all of humanity, minus a few survivors he keeps as pets. Am likes to torture his pets in the form of a moral dillemma game. Players have to prove to the evil computer that they have the ability to be good. Irony in videogames is nice and apparently the future is no utopia.

Grand Theft Auto (1997/98)

The history lesson ends here for obvious reasons because everyone knows the GTA series is the pinnacle of not only crime-related videogames, but all videogames. Grand Theft Auto is the most violent, ridiculous, pointless and amazing way to spend 6 months of your life I have ever come across, at least in the gaming world. I get the feeling when playing GTA that I am witnessing the beginning of full-immersion virtual reality gaming where one day I will actually be walking virtual streets, smelling virtual air, stealing virtual cars and shooting virtual policeman. Of course the original title lacks dimension and I don’t know if it will be that much fun when killing people actually feels real. But in the meantime Grand Theft Auto proves beyond a doubt that there is something about crime we all love to love, love to hate and love to see in our multi-media.

And if anyone is interested you can DL an updated version of the original title for free without breaking a single law in the process. Pity!

http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/gta.html

Obviously there are a lot of crime related videogames I missed. A history lesson can never be more than a brief overview and since this one stopped ten years short of today a lot of good titles just couldn’t be included. So I apologize for that. GTA aside, what is the best crime related game? What is the most violent game? What videogame is most deserving of an organized protest?

The country of Australia has a strong record of banning games that are deemed too offensive for the general public. There is no Canadian Federal Pardon or ban on these in Canada and besides parental/pro-family values groups in America, violent/controversial games are still selling like hot cakes in North America.

Happy Gaming Fellow Criminals!

Post from: Criminals Wanted

Billy Joe Shaver

Coming straight out of Waco is Billy Joe Shaver, a man surrounded by tragedy and loss. He is an old cowboy and has written songs for Waylon Jennings, Elvis Presley and Kris Kristofferson. Shaver lost his wife to cancer, his son/lead guitarist to a heroin overdose and has survived a heart attack. When I think of a good country music I think of a guy like Billy sitting on a porch somewhere in west Texas strumming his guitar and humming to himself. Oh, and Billy Joe Shaver shot a man outside a tavern in Lorena Texas last year.

Waylon Jennings

The former bass player for Buddy Holly (He gave the Big Bopper his seat on the plane) he was a true outlaw country musician and is best known for writing the theme to the Dukes of Hazzard and being the show’s narrator. He had shared an apartment with Johnny Cash in 1966. He once dynamited a building outside a club which refused to pay him. In the early 1970s he received a $75,000 advance for signing with RCA and was given complete artistic control. He then proceeded to blow all his money on cocaine, and, when he was finally arrested, managed to get off because of massive screw up on the part of the Drug Enforcement Agency. As a testament to how tough Jennings was (died in 2002) he quit coke cold turkey.

Merle Haggard

Merle first went to prison at the age of 13. At 14, he ran away to Texas but returned to his home state of California later that year where he was arrested again. He was sent to jail a third time after he was arrested for beating a boy while committing a robbery. Merle and some friends had gotten drunk, and decided to rob a restaurant (they thought it was three in the morning, turned out to be ten at night). He was sentenced to ten years in San Quentin in1957. In San Quentin he saw Johnny Cash perform and along with the advice from Caryl Chessman (a convicted rapist, crook, writer, executed May 2, 1960) decided to mend his ways and devote himself to something greater, country music.

Huddie William Ledbetter

Ledbetter is mostly known as a folk singer but he is too talented and bad ass to leave out of this list. He was born in Texas in 1888 or 1889. No one really knows his actual birth date. He played eight instruments, made most of his early recordings (including Midnight Special) in prison after he was convicted of stabbing a man and apparently earned his nickname Lead Belly from receiving a stomach full of buck shot from a shotgun. Lead belly is country, blues, folk and true Americana.
Bob Dylan said he is the only ex-con to ever have a hit children’s album and once convinced the governor of Texas to pardon him with a song after the governor was elected on a no-pardon ticket. Lead belly was convicted of carrying a pistol in 1915, stabbing a man in 1930, stabbed another man in 1939. He was also rumored to have killed a man with his bare hands. He died in 1949.

George Jones

He was born in Saratoga Texas,1931. George Jones has one of the greatest voices in country music and earned the nickname “No Show Jones” for his tendency to skip shows in favor of drinking. George Jones was hell sent and whiskey bent. He would hide bottles of vodka in the orchard behind his house so that his wife wouldn’t bother him while he drank himself stupid. He developed a massive cocaine problem and rocked out. One time his wife attempted to hide his car keys from him in order to prevent him from drinking and driving, so he took his riding lawn mower to the bar instead and proceeded to drink like a fish. He usually started each morning with a screw driver and then it was a one way ticket to bourbon city. He was often broke and had to rely on Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash for financial assistance. He has been married four times and is now just a nice guy who sings songs, owns a diner, and is receiving a Kennedy Center Honor this year.

While writing this it was interesting to note that all five of these men have some kind of connection to Johnny Cash. Cash played songs written by Lead Belly and either performed with, knew or influenced the rest. Cash had some wild early years but was very spiritual and close friends with Billy Graham. Billy Graham disqualifies anyone. Willie Nelson was busted for not paying taxes and marijuana but those crimes seem rather small compared to what Haggard accomplished in his early years. Kris Kristofferson was a drunk but also a West Point graduate and a trained US army ranger. He could kill you, but he was generally too laid back to do so. Chuck Berry was a good ol’ country boy but he was pure rock and roll, but since Lead Belly is on the list, Berry gets honorable mentions. Chuck Berry was convicted of armed robbery in 1944. He was arrested again in 1959 when he tried to smuggle a 14-year-old Apache girl across state lines in violation of the Mann act. These guys are all criminals to someone, probably would need a Canadian federal pardon to play shows at some points(at least in Alberta).

Hank Williams is another name that pops into mind when one thinks of all time country music bad asses, Hank is a post in unto himself. Like all great modern music, what made these musicians great is that they sang about their passion and their problems. They made their music that much more real and had true insight into the human condition. Outlaws, criminals, men, people - at the end of the day, they had their moment in the sun.

(Shaver being awesome)

Post from: Criminals Wanted

I want to apologize to my fans for screwing up again, and to promise them I’ll sort myself out.

* GEORGE MICHAEL,
* in a statement released after he was arrested in a public toilet for possession of illegal drugs (from time.com)

I know a ot of women who love George Michael, which I suppose is ironc in many ways but I just have to wonder how long can you continue loving someone who gets arrested in a public toilet…for drugs? And why in the world is George Michael hanging out in a public toilet at all? Doesn’t George Michael have enough money to buy a really nice private toilet where he can rail to his heart’s content? I think this must be a classic case of hating oneself.

Personally I don’t care about the drugs. But public toilets are so dirty I don’t even like going to the bathroom in them. Next time he goes on tour he will need a US entry waiver to make it on to the soil but it will be one hell of a time through customs.

Post from: Criminals Wanted