Abstract: The Police Rights Act

The intent of the US Constitution was to limit the power of government and to guarantee individual rights. In this document I will be focusing on my legislative proposal titled, the "Police Rights Act" designed to allow our nations police forces to better fulfill the universal police officers motto "to protect and to serve", as well as their duty to uphold the US Constitution. For too long our nations police officers have been maligned by a actions of a few bad apples. We have repeatedly heard the honorable police officers on ATS painfully voice this complaint and we have no reason to doubt this horrible truth which they are forced live everyday.

To these officer and all of the police officers across our great nation, "I HEAR YOU" and upon my election I will be sending the "Police Rights Act" to the congress for passage so we can restore the honor & dignity to all of those police officers that truly want "to protect and to serve" the American people and the US Constitution. We must severely punishment those that repeatedly violate the law of the land.

The rights of the law abiding people that are armed and vested with the power of the state must be protected. To that end, this act will apply to officers of all federal, state and local police agencies and/or any government official authorized to be armed in performance of his/her job. In that spirit the framework of this legislation is based upon a tried & true concept that has the approval of prosecutors and law enforcement agencies across the country, "three strikes your out".

Abstract: Police Rights Act

Any police officer found guilty of willfully violating the guaranteed rights of an American citizen under the US Constitution will be subject to the following mandatory minimum treatments and penalties as follows:

On the first offense the guilty party will be required to complete 180 hours of group counseling plus 8 days of weekend in-patient therapy and be confined to administrative desk duty without a badge or gun for a period of no less than 1 year. The judge shall have the latitude to increase any or all of these penalites if cases where the officer does not admit guilt and/or shows no remorse. Included will be a $3,000 fine in addition to court costs and repayment for the cost of therapy.

For a second offense the penalty will be 6 months of in-patient therapy, 6 months of group counseling with in-patient weekends and upon release be confined to administrative desk duty without a badge or gun for a period of 3 years. As with the first offense the judicial discretion to increase these penalties is allowed. Included will be a $10,000 fine in addition to court costs and repayment for the cost of therapy.

A serial third time offender will be sentenced to no less than 5 years in a federal prison with no chance of parole and lose all rights to carry a firearm, run for elected office or vote in any election at any level of government for the rest of his natural born life. Included will be a $50,000 fine in addition to court costs and repayment for the cost of incarceration.

Once this legislation is passed our law abiding police officers will no longer suffer the stigma of corruption & dishonor cause by the few. No longer will we all have to suffer from hearing the unanswered pleas of unfortunate victims. Write your congresspersons and tell them to vote yes on the "Police Rights Act". Do it for the US Constitution, do it for law abiding police officers and do it for the children.

The "Police Rights Act" will protect and serve all of us.

[edit on 12-3-2007 by df1]

This seems like a good idea on paper, but would you really be able to pass it?

Originally posted by JamesMcMahn
This seems like a good idea on paper, but would you really be able to pass it?

With the support of the public, police unions and other law enforcement related organizations I'm confident it can get passed in a form that is very close to the concept abstracted in my proposal. Americans almost universally say they want their constitutional protections restored. This would be a small step in that direction, but a very important step in that it would strongly and in no uncertain terms encourage police officers to caution on the side of protecting our constitutional rights rather than expanding the power of the state. It is not my desire to put anyone behind bars.