Tag: Criminal Law

Criminal law

City’s Shopping Cart Ordinance and the Punishment of Crime Victims

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

I have noted over the years a trend to punish victims of crime. Yes, victims of crime. Punishment of property owners who’s buildings are tagged with graffiti, people who have had firearms stolen and then they were used in crimes, and now it is shopping carts stolen from retailers that have led to the City of Federal Way, Washington to pass an ordinance punishing the victims, the store owners, for having their shopping carts stolen.

While there does exist some limited case law in that a victim cannot be a suspect concurrently, ordinances such as this lead me to believe that the legislature should establish laws mandating that crime victims have a right not to be prosecuted as a result of being crime victims.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Society, Torts

Washington Legislature Bans State Agencies From Releasing Personal Info To Federal Government And Threatens Individuals In Order To Protect Their Fourth Amendment Rights

Submitted by Darren Smith, Guest Contributor

Washington Legislative BuildingThe Washington State House of Representatives have crafted House Bill 2272 titled “The Fourth Amendment protection act” with the purported purpose of protecting state citizens from unwarranted collection of data that is provided to various agencies of the United States government without a search warrant. The act includes provisions that allow for a citizen to be arrested for complying with the U.S. government and sanctions local agencies and employees with even harsher penalties. One has to wonder which is a greater threat to individual liberty, the actions of the federal agencies targeted or this potential state law.
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