Viet-Justice

Boortz has an interesting reading assignment today concerning the life story of Charles Heaton. A young man convicted of a felony at the age of 17, who turned his life around after prison and graduated from Young Harris College and Emory University. He can not find a job today because criminal background checks have become so common in the workplace.

As a security professional I can understand the concerns of the businesses; however, I believe that the profession of corporate security and governance has been reduced to the same zero tolerance practices that public schools have adopted. I tend to question “why” with every situation. Recently in my career I have had to argue with a customer who wanted my assurance that we would not hire people with any criminal record. My stance is that as long as the conviction has nothing to do with the position a person will be working in would be acceptable. I told this particular customer that I don’t care if someone has 20 DUI’s if we’re paying them to sit at a computer all day. Fortunately this customer was eventually replaced by someone who incidentally was an ex-cop who saw that my approach to the situation was reasonable, rather than taking the zero tolerance approach because “that’s what our policy manual says”.

Everyone gets in trouble with the law at one point or another, even if it is a minor traffic violation. We also face the over criminalization of many behaviors in America. I hear all too often from people who say “What?! That aught to be a felony.” With more and more crimes going from misdemeanors to felonies I predict that in the next 100 years at least 33% of the workforce will be felons and that eventually a felony conviction will not matter to employers unless it is directly related to a person’s job.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Two women — members of a group called Breasts Not Bombs — were arrested after they stripped off their tops at the state Capitol to protest measures backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday’s special election ballot.

Other protesters were permitted to pare to their brassieres or to pasties without being arrested. Some men in the group also removed their shirts.

But a federal judge ruled Friday that there is no First Amendment right to bare breasts on the grounds of the state Capitol.

Puritanical nonsense at its finest. In other countries this wouldn’t even be news worthy. I still have to wonder what good can come from taking police away from real crime to deal with a group of nudists harassing a local politician. I think I’ll have to go open a medicinal marijuana shop in California if this is what their idea of law enforcement is all about.