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When the law makes the laws

A rather dumb couple of laws:

Law enforcement officials from across Tennessee plan to push lawmakers to create tougher penalties for people who assault officers and to require pawn shop customers to be fingerprinted, Chattanooga Police Chief Steve Parks said.

Why tougher laws for assaulting an officer as opposed to just assault? And obviously all pawn shop customers are criminals, right?

Fingerprinting pawn shop customers “would be a method to better identify a person if they are trafficking stolen property,” Chief Parks said.

Rep. Chris Clem, R-Lookout Mountain, said he has reservations about both measures.

On thumbprinting pawn shop customers, he said, “I would have to be convinced that half or more customers are criminals.”

Good for Clem. I was actually in a pawn shop Saturday. I usually swing by USA Super Pawn about once a month to see if they have any good deals on guns (note: they haven’t yet). Of course, if I bought a gun I’d be fingerprinted anyway.

12 Responses to “When the law makes the laws”

  1. Les Says:

    When the article says pawn shop customers, do they mean sellers or buyers and sellers both?

    I’ve wondered why Tennessee didn’t already require fingerprints for selling to a pawn shop. They are notorious places for fencing stolen goods. For that reason they’re already regulated. For instance, pawn shops are required to give copies of pawn tickets to police to assist in finding stolen goods.

    Getting fingerprinted to sell an item to a pawn shop seems like a pretty small inconvenience for the societal good of catching thieves and returning property to its rightful owner. If the law includes fingerprinting buyers, I’d agree that would be an unreasonable burden.

  2. Drake Says:

    I don’t often take the opposite side with you but I am forced to disagree Les. Law enforcement is not supposed to be easy in a free society. I generally loathe the practice of lobbying the legislature to make their jobs easier by making my day to day life harder. I have seen to many good ideas gone bad (seizure laws, rights and protections given to current and former police, red-light cameras, etc.) to simply trust them.

    I would think that given the patronage promotion scandals and current felons on the force at the THP, violations of civil rights by Campbell Co. deputies, Cocke Co. officers getting indicted, and those two Loudon cops under suspicion of coercion in the drug fund seizure that the powers that be in the law enforcement community would do some PR work.

  3. cube Says:

    “They are notorious places for fencing stolen goods.”

    The highways are notorious places for shipping stolen items. why don’t we just pull over everyone and fingerprint them?

  4. SayUncle Says:

    And flea markets!

  5. Les Says:

    Drake: making the cop’s job easier in this case also helps people who have been robbed. Being fingerprinted when selling to a pawn shop seems like a small inconvenience in exchange. The state’s requirement that I have a visible license plate makes the cop’s job easier if I use my car in a getaway from a bank robbery – that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

    cube and Unc: you’re hilarious.

    Do people have to show ID when pawning something? If so, this is just adding a second form of identification in the form of biometrics.

  6. Drake Says:

    Not necessarily a good thing either Les. Now the police will send you a ticket because not they, but the private company they have outsourced law enforcement to, have been entrusted with a red light camera and can see your clean plate. No pesky face your accuser stuff there. Also, you say pawn shops are a prime place to fence goods and you probably are right, but even if that were the majority case IDing and printing from the minority of legal merchandise seeking public screams unnecessary instrusion.

    And I will say this, every little law or regulation the police get the legislature to pass only emboldens them to further lazy measures. Again… making their jobs easier at my convenience is not something I want them in a habit of. I mean, look at those examples of law enforcement malfeasance I posted earlier…not encouraging in my opinion.

  7. SayUncle Says:

    Les,

    Not sure what’s so hilarious. Dunno the answer, never pawned anything. But I’d say you’re more likely to find stolen stuff at a flea market than a pawn shop.

  8. SayUncle Says:

    I found TN laws on pawnbrokers here and it appears that counties of certain sizes require fingerprints anyway. Odd.

  9. Les Says:

    Drake, like I said earlier, if buyers have to be printed I think that is excessively burdensome, but I don’t object to people selling to a pawn shop being printed. That’s a reasonable precaution.

    Unc: good find. I had tried to find something like that and couldn’t. It follows with what I said earlier about pawn shops having to give copies of pawn tickets to police, and recording the identity of the seller (though it isn’t clear if they have to use photo ID).

    Pawn shops are already regulated and I don’t see the problem with an additional regulation that would put more crooks behind bars.

  10. Drake Says:

    I suppose we will have to just disagree Les, but I could live with the idea that a seller would have to be printed. Lazy law enforcement is just a big peeve of mine, and I don’t think it would stop at just the seller in due course.

  11. cube Says:

    Les,

    I am surprized that you even broached this idea considering you background in technology. Pawn shops are going the way of the wooly mammath.

    Ebay, craiglist, google’s verison of craiglist, and microsoft’s version of craiglist make pawnshops useless.

    Putting more laws and more restrictions on pawnshops will only drive the stolen goods futher undergound.

  12. Les Says:

    Cube: I’ve thought about that. No doubt it has happened and will continue to happen, but it’s sort of a high profile way of selling hot goods. If I’m a crook and I’m selling stolen goods on eBay or wherever, here’s the problems I’m facing:

    – I’m putting the stuff in a place that’s well-known and easily searchable, both by police and the crime victim.
    – For bulky stuff (like my mom’s Oreck vacuum that got stolen) the shipping is a pain.
    – The sale is tied to me. Besides the money I receive, I have to give eBay (or anyone else) payment for the listing service, and the credit card points right back to me (assuming I even have a credit card – most street criminals won’t).
    – If I ship out of state I’ve turned it into a federal crime.
    – I have to wait a week or two for the item to sell and for the payment to come to me (if I’m not using PayPal). People who steal tend to need the money urgently to buy drugs or whatever.

Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.

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