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High-Tech Burglars May Get Longer Sentences In Louisiana
Hugh Pickens writes "Burglars and terrorists should be careful not to use Google Maps if they plan on committing crimes in the state of Louisiana. Nola reports that a bill approved 89-0 by the Louisiana House will require that judges impose an additional minimum sentence of at least 10 years on terrorist acts if the crime is committed with the aid of an Internet-generated 'virtual map.' The bill, already approved by the Louisiana Senate, defines a 'virtual street-level map' as one that is available on the Internet and can generate the location or picture of a home or building by entering the address of the structure or an individual's name on a website. If the map is used in the commission of a crime like burglary, the bill calls for the addition of at least one year in jail (PDF) to be added to the burglary sentence. The House measure is now being sent back to the Senate for approval of clarifying amendments made by a House committee."
What the hell difference does it make whether someone used Google maps?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I'm reminded of a Cypherpunks list discussion on this, except that criminals would get a charge of using/possessing cryptography while committing a crime.
Will this deter crime via newer methods? Doubt it.
Who actually profits from this: Same old people, defense lawyers, the private prison industry with a huge lobby behind it and the fact that anyone who stands in their way gets painted as soft on crime.
Here's why the proposed law is bad:
1. It's way too specific. Why internet-generated maps? What about instructions to make burglary tools or improvised weapons?
2. If the use of "high tech" makes the punishment worse, is that not a condemnation of "high tech" itself? That would be a bad thing.
No, the thing that makes the crime worse is the premeditation, and the use of high-tech just offers evidence of this.
In Liberty, Rene
Shouldn't the punishment for the act itself be enough and that how they did it shouldn't matter?
If a thief bypasses a lock with some new fangled lock picking device, should they get more time than someone who bypassed a lock with lockpicks or a screwdriver?
If someone kills another person with a hand gun, should they get more time than if they killed the same person with a knife (all other circumstances being the same)?
That doesn't make any sense to me.
It's WHAT THEY DID that matters, now HOW they did it.
Don't these idiots have other things to do? Something about an oil spill?
There is a war going on for your mind.
time to invest in shares of a paper map maker I guess ;)
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
sounds like some old politicians finally got around to seeing the remake of the Italian job. When they saw the crews 'hacker' they wet themselves and decided Google maps was evil since it obviously shows real time traffic from web cams and allows your to manipulate stop lights.
I can see a long list of what will add time to your prison time.
Use a:
phone: 10 points
gun: 30 points
Google Maps: 15 points
wire cutters: 10 points
etc.
Just what we need...
And another fifteen years tacked on if the criminal tweets about it.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
We must not let ourselves be terrorized by these new masters of high technology! Further fines levied against kidnappers who make ransom demands by phone rather than letters cut and pasted together with words from magazines.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
if you think this is bad wait until they tack on another 15 years for wearing white after labor day while in the commision of a crime.
Can we also give longer sentences to criminals who rip us off with exotic investment instruments instead of good old-fashioned grifts and cons?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
So that would indicate to me that Microsoft produces abetting technology. Shit, I can see in my own windows on a Bing bird's eye view w/Silverlight.
This, to me, is the same as guys who put up these. Nah, providing the tools is ok, just don't actually use them right?
Grand jury time!
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
I say add 20 years for the iPhone and 18 for the Android phones. Those extra 2 years the iPhone user gets will help pay for the remainder of their ATT contract.
Hell we can make a grocery list:
Laptop: 20 years.
Smart phone: 15 years
PDA: 5 years on probation and $200 gift certificate to buy a smart phone.
iPad: iLIFE!
If you've ever looked at 4chan add 7 years for bad behavior.
I mean why stop at just one when we can tack on all kinds of useless, unconstitutional, soon to be struck down by the courts nonsense.
BP (a.k.a. BRITISH Petroleum).
Yours In Ufa,
Kilgore Trout
Since when did using Google maps qualify someone as "high-tech"?
Isn't enough that I ruined a pony, making a gift for you?
EOM means end of message. Don't read this.
Why not add a year for using a mechanical contrivance that speeds locomotion as well?
How about another year for using a device made of fabric stitched together in a way that improves ability to carry more ill gotten loot?
Does this mean, if I use Google Maps on my iPhone to choose what way home to drive from work, with traffic view, and I get a speeding ticket, am I'm gonna get 10 years for going 55 in a 45?
I'm genuinely baffled as to what reasoning could have been offered for this. "It's too easy if they use digital maps, so it's cheating"? To turn it around, if the criminal had to work harder to pick a house to burglarize he or she should get a discount on how much jail time he or she will have to serve?
I'm with other commenters who are basically suggesting this is just a way of creating a "bonus crime" with which to arbitrarily keep people imprisoned longer, but obviously that's probably not how it was actually sold in public.
Anybody have any links to an official explanation for this?
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Although the approach they took seems stupid, I think it somehow makes sense in a way that it might discourage some to try. Technology and science can be used in bad ways, most people know that; to us it's common sense, but to us so in civility (as in not robing/attacking people). Therefore I assume they make "dumb laws" for dumb people that could probably be dissuaded by such measures. What were they supposed to do? Ban the technology? Make every piece of tech go through some comity to see if can be used for wrongdoing? Assume people are wise and smart? To me technology is a privilege, not a right and abusing a privilege should be punished.
Sentenced to oil and feathers in Louisiana!
What you talkin' about Willis???
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
really appropriate...
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/article/815669--gary-coleman-42-child-star-of-diff-rent-strokes?bn=1
Lets do away with imprisoning them all together for a first offence,How about a good flogging so they think twice about the crime.second time they are caught same punishment.Third time hang them they are too damn stupid to learn from their mistakes.End of the story
Use a:
phone: 10 points
gun: 30 points
That is how the system works now.
It is the way it has always worked.
The old-time judge and jury may not have been keeping a scorecard.
But they were always free to distinguish between the amateur and the pro. To consider evidence of premeditation. The reality - or the potential - for a violent escalation of the crime.
Tech extends the criminal's reach. It makes his job easier. Criminal prosecution for wire fraud is as old as the telegraph.
This: http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/pages-nf/main
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
This has been the US way of thinking for ages. Yet you have more prisoners than any other countries.
The US needs to do something about why people go for such drastic steps, becoming burglars or similar. You cannot continue having a society where some win the great price and become rich whilst the majority stay poor. You need a better structure for so many things that I cannot see where to start.
The only great about the US now is the great minds that continue to immigrate from other countries. Yet for every great mind there is thousands of people growing up not even knowing anything except how to steal. It's time to wake up and try doing something about how peoples lives can get better in general.
... pick their victims at random and mug whoever is convenient.
Have gnu, will travel.
... go to jail longer. We Loosianna people ain't liking nobuddy takin advantage of us with teh intarweb. -Jeb
Use a paper map, save 10 ten years. Now there's a sales pitch
I don't understand.
are now 'burglary tools'
--- Mercutio was right.
Truly an American icon.
Well, to be accurate, more of a lowcon.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
if they go in meditation sessions before... that counts as pre-meditation :)
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
You use Google maps online, form a plan, do your deed. If you don't print it, how will they know if you used an internet map or not? If you had it on a laptop, and shut the power off prior to doing the crime (ok and cleared cache), how will they know? Also, (as others have stated), what difference does it make? What if I just followed my nose? What if I used a map from the gas station? What if I just got a tip from someone at the hamburger stand and she drew a map with a pen on the back of a napkin? What difference does it make?