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Stats Show
'Federalization' of Law Enforcement
The first comprehensive gathering of federal
arrest figures portrays a growing federal law-enforcement presence in the
United States, with increases in the numbers of federal agents, prosecutions
and convictions. Fueled
by an expanding war on drugs and greater efforts to curtail illegal
immigration, the number of federal criminal court cases rose nearly 13 percent
between 1997 and 1998, part of an expansion of federal police power that
concerns critics. Federal
agents arrested 106,139 in 1998, according to Justice Department statistics. Almost
half of those apprehended were for drug law or immigration violations. More
than 43,000 people were sent to federal prisons that year, for an average
sentence of almost five years. The
figures were released Wednesday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics as part of
the first-ever comprehensive compilation of federal arrest data, according to
Bureau director Jan Chaiken. There
were 83,000 federal law-enforcement officers in 1998, including 33,000 in four
Justice Department agencies that conduct nearly three out of four federal criminal
investigations: the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Immigration
and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Marshals Service. That
number has risen steadily since 1993, when there were 69,000 federal agents,
with about 24,000 of them in the DEA, FBI and immigration and marshals
services. In
one year, from 1997 to 1998, the number of people brought to trial in federal
court rose from 69,351 to 78,172, a 12.7 percent increase. Of
those, 87 percent were convicted, usually as a result of a guilty plea. The
past decade has seen a steady rise in the percentage of those convicted in
federal court who go to prison. In 1998, 71 percent of those found guilty were
incarcerated, compared to just 60 percent in 1990. The
average sentence for the 43,041 convicted in federal court was four years,
eleven months. Some
analysts and legal experts see in the statistics a confirmation of the
"federalization" of law enforcement in America. "Under
our constitutional system, the federal government is supposed to have a very
limited crime-fighting role," said Tim Lynch, an analyst with the Cato
Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. "But for the past 20
years, it seems every session of Congress has escalated the drug war, and that
has led to an increase in federal agents, and federal prisons and the federal
court system." Edward
Mallett, a Houston lawyer and the incoming president of the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said, "What is being reported
here is pretty much what one would expect. ...The federalization of some
formerly state offenses accounts for some of this." Mallett
said that in Texas, as the number of federal law-enforcement agents involved in
anti-drug and anti-immigration activities has grown, the threshold for
triggering a federal crime has fallen. "Cases
federal prosecutors would have declined a year ago they are prosecuting
now," he said. "They used to turn down drug prosecutions under five
kilos; now they'll prosecute for an ounce and a half. They're looking for
work." Since
1990, the number of people being held in federal jails awaiting trial or
deportation has grown rapidly from just over 140,000 to more than 200,000. The
number of inmates in federal prison is up more than 90 percent for the same
period, from 57,000 to 109,000. One
striking figure in the report, according to legal experts, is the high number
of guilty pleas - more than eight out of 10 - among people prosecuted by
federal attorneys. Joseph
diGenova, a former U.S. attorney in Washington, said mandatory minimum prison
sentences passed by Congress several years ago have changed the dynamic of
federal prosecutions. Most
defendants in a federal prosecution try to aggressively challenge an
indictment, but once charged immediately plea-bargain rather than risk stiff
sentences, diGenova said. Lynch,
the Cato Institute analyst, said the growing number of federal prosecutions in
America, "represents a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is the success of a
bureaucracy. As you federalize more crimes and expand federal law, you increase
the number of arrests and convictions." #1 response: This is sad for
America and any future ahead! #2
response: Nothing can be done... sad. It is wise to consider, that the expansion
of federal police powers is directly tied to a Republican majority in both
branches of the legislature. I doubt there is ANY way to deconstruct the
federal law enforcement monolith. #3 response: Local cops have a lot of power but they
can be held accountable by local elections and community peer pressure. The
scary thing about federal police is you never know who they are or how to keep
them accounatble. The reason the founding fathers kept policing a
responsibility of local governments is because law enforcement power can be
easily abused and the enforcers need constant and close scrutiny. The
SEC's or OSHA's (or all the other federal bureaucracies that think they need a
hostage rescue team) armed agents, are only accountable to appointed
bureaucrats. Say
no to federal police! #4 response: I
doubt there is ANY way to deconstruct the federal law enforcement monolith.
I
am becoming convinced that the only way to stop the federalization of law
enforcement is to end the war on drugs. Most of the unconstitutional laws, and
the republican willingness to go along with them, is because of the war on
drugs. #5 response: What I meant to say.. and did not do very
well is: if we have them already armed and possessing a budget to
"protect" each year given by congress.... even if we all became devout
christians or totally drug free in this nation... they would need to find
something else to go after to justify their existence... It
is like a perpetual, self-fulfilling prophecy... we cannot make it better, because
we insist on making it worse... and crying about it all the way to the
morgue... If
we remove the War on Drugs operations.. who they gonna kill, incarcerate, or
prosecute to justify their continued feeding at the public pigtits...??? I mean
really, does anyone believe they would not eventually kill folks for eating a
hamburger, if drugs, and cigarettes and alchohol were no longer a
"problem"??? They
must be strategically DEFUNDED on a ready, steady basis... and just HOW are we
going to do THAT??? the pubbies love "law and order" excesses as much
as the demmies love social welfare... in fact... keeping all those federales,
judges, prosecutors, marshalls, dea agents, and so on... IS a form of WORKFARE.
Where we make up phony jobs so that people can get on the public tit in
perpetuity. Follow
the money... when we destroy the IRS, we must also destroy the concept of
"revenue neutral" because their unlimited access to our revenue is
what feeds these bastards... The
policy should be a requirement that all cuts in taxation result in a revenue
NEGATIVE , that requires budget cuts in these federal "protective"
nanny-roles. Kill
the IRS tax monster, and you go a LONG way towards defunding the federal
excess. to blazes with "revenue neutrality." bttt #6 response: The true enemy of the USA is the Council
on Foreign Relations, the Trilateralists, Bilderbergers their hundreds of
organizations who manipulate the American government and both major parties.
They are currently in the process of elimination of the US Constitution in
favor of the New World Order. Their billions originate - of course - from the
tax and audit exempt proceeds of ownership of the stock of the American Federal
Reserve System. They are scared silly of Buchannon - as well as any serious
third party that would free Americans from the convoluted banking/monetary
system shoved down our throats by Woodrow Wilson in 1913. They want to insure
their position by ruling the NWO! (([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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