Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucf-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!decvax!mcnc!duke!ucf-cs!giles From: giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: congresscritters Message-ID: <1250@ucf-cs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 27-Apr-84 18:20:34 EST Article-I.D.: ucf-cs.1250 Posted: Fri Apr 27 18:20:34 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 28-Apr-84 10:47:38 EST Organization: University of Central Florida Lines: 82 For those of you picky about copyrights, the following is exerpted from *the Orlando Sentinel* for the purpose of opening a political discussion. If I can't quote my state's senator, who can I quote? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) The Orlando Sentinel, 26 April 1984 Hawkings: Crack whip on drug traffickers By Chris Reidy Sentinel Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Calling drug traffickers "mass murderers," Senator Paula Hawkings [Rep., Florida] proposed legislation Wednesday that would impose stiffer and more innovative penalities for drug-related crime, including the imprisonment of some offenders in Holiday Inns and Howard Johnson hotels. ..... "I'm saying drug traffickers are mass murderers and should be treated as such," she said. "During the Al Capone days -- which I was too young to remember, but I remember seeing the movie -- and if you remember they got him. He was a terrorist. He killed a lot of people with guns, and they got him for IRS. And that's the way we can catch them. Through forfeiture and tracing their funds." Confiscated wealth would be used to finance new prisons, Hawkins said. In the meantime, criminals could be imprisoned under special circum- stances in empty hotel rooms and at unused military bases. "The judges like to tell you that the jails are full," Hawkins said. "But I like to tell you that we probabily have 50 percent occupancy in Holiday Inns and Howard Johnsons around the United States, and it costs much less to keep them there than it does in jail. So we may have to alter the way we think about where we keep them. As for military bases, Hawkins said, "They already have a fence around them." ..... Her bill would make the possession of 10 kilograms -- about 22 pounds -- of heroin or cocaine a federal offense. Those convicted would get a mandatory life sentence. The possession of the same amount of marijuana would carry a 20-year sentence. The bill stipulates, "Murder committed in connection with the production or distribution of an illegal drug ... would carry a mandatory life sentence or the possibility of capital punishment." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The article continues on an unrelated incident, involving the seizure of 3 pounds of cocaine from an Eastern Airlines jet, and the [alleged] involvement of the senator in releasing the plane from impoundment by the U.S. Customs Service. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I almost posted this article to net.jokes, but then I realized that Senator Hawkins was one of the 100 individual who is responsible for ratifying any treaty President Reagan decides to sign. If she is unable to understand the simplest measures of security (i.e. why Holiday Inn a prison does not make) and the full consequences of her proposed bill (i.e. if a drug trafficker will leave behind a MILLION dollar bond in order to avoid a 2-year prison sentence, what will they do to avoid a life sentence?), what is she doing in the Senate? Am I just overreacting, or is this really the ridiculous legislation I think it is? (Note: this article was piped through the nroff macro -gg (goody-goody) so as to avoid shocking anyone with the original language.) ave discordia going bump in the night ... bruce giles decvax!ucf-cs!giles university of central florida giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay orlando, florida 32816