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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

A light bulb went on while I was doing dishes.  When I was on the grand 
jury, I noticed that everywhere possible, a felony burglary charge was 
being tacked onto what would otherwise be misdemeanor crimes.  So 
finally I asked, "if a person were to enter a house without permission 
with the intention of stealing a lit cigarette in an ashtray, that would 
be a felony?"  The presiding liawyer read us the statute with relish to 
prove that this was indeed the case.  If you enter a house with the 
intention of committing a crime, no matter how small or whether related 
to the house or its occupants, whether or not they press charges (for 
instance, if you ducked into your vacationing buddy's kitchen to clean 
some out-of-season trout), you'll be guilty of a felony.  This statute 
undoubtedly exists in California too.

Now that laws exist with such creative potential, the product of a 
quarter-century of the fascist revolution, it dawns on me that the "free 
drug giveaway" was precisely the same thing.  If they can prove that you 
walked through a doorway into a framed structure to obtain what you 
believed to be a joint, then you can be sent away for years.

The neuter running the Ms. NebBisCh show probably didn't mention that.  
It might result in a massive tune-out, on the part of gullible females 
and others, if it became known that the only guys charged were the ones 
who actually brought the beer (after prompting) AND mentioned the 
(imaginary) girl by (fictitious) name, and then only because it's 
conveniently now a felony to enter a building with the intention of 
furnishing beer to a (non-existent) minor.  It's a little less spicy to 
find out that this is just the latest scam they're running, using their 
newest law enforcement toy.  Who cares whether the guys were even 
charged with what might be a misdemeanor if they actually did the 
crime?  The only purpose is to provide bodies to the machine, and the 
magic word "felony" is like an F-ticket, the ride that goes on forever.

Bill

Marie McHarry wrote:

> On 11/12/06, Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com> wrote:
>  
>
> > I'm not surprised that someone out there thinks this is a great thing.
> > Maybe it's a felony to steal play money that's really convincing looking
> > too.  If there were 3 non-existent quincean~eras in the made-up story,
> > does that trigger 3 counts of molestation?
> >
> >    
> IIRC, you don't have kids, Bill, but assuming you did, what would you
> do if you came home and found some guy chatting up your 14-year-old in
> the kitchen? I'm sure it happens. If so many guys will come out of the
> woodwork for the TV show, I'm sure they come out when the bait is
> real, not a decoy. I see (and I think the law does too) a big
> difference between showing up for free drugs and showing up for free
> sex with a minor.
>
> Marie
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