Legal Quandary

Dear Mr. Criminal - Please Use a Knife Instead *

I ride the bus to school most days. The bus company has kindly provided all kinds of things for us to look at so we don't actually have to make eye contact with the other people riding the bus. They have a "Poetry on Buses" series (really), pictures of their Employees of the Year, generic advertisements, and Public Service announcements - all displayed along the inside of the bus on little 18x24 inch (or so) placards.

One of the PSAs proclaims "Use a Gun - Do Extra Time!" Then there's pictures of 4 scowling young gentlemen who all got an extra 5-15 years for using a gun in their crimes. At the bottom it says "Don't Use A Gun!"

This strikes me as more than a little odd. It's almost as if whoever is making this PSA is conceding that they can't actually prevent people from committing crimes, but they'll at least try to make sure that no one will be shot while being victimized.

I'm thinking that if a lengthy prison sentence (or a general sense of decency) isn't enough of a deterrent to prevent someone from committing a crime in the first place, another couple of years added on just isn't going to make much of a difference.

Also - it doesn't inspire much confidence in me about my fellow bus riders.

* I fully recognize that women are just as capable of being violent felons - I'm just going off the fact that the PSA people chose to portray all their criminals as males. Also, credit to ES for suggesting the title.

posted by Legal Quandary at 02:13