Comments about ‘Prosecution useless’

But Tonia, Shurtleff is scoring inestimable political points with Latinos in Utah.

Good letter.

This letter's call for all out anarchy is extremely disturbing. On the one hand, the letter seems to call for prosecution of everyone who broke the law. However, it quickly gets to its main assertion that only some laws are worth prosecuting. A disrespect for the law in one area quickly leads to disrespect for the law in all areas. The extremist view that only some laws are worth obeying is what has led this Country into the mess that it is currently in. As Thomas F. Meagher famously stated, "Extremism in defense of liberty is no virtue."

Hardee harr harr. You want everyone to follow the LAW, OBEY THE LAW.... Untill you talk about not paying your taxes and misuse of private information.

Tonia, consider this. State employees are entrusted with using private information of our state's residents for only the purposes outlined in their job. You may make the argument that illegal residents don't fall under this protection, BUT a very bad precedent is set here. You cannot steal and abuse personal information to advance your political cause.

What if another set of employees took your family's information and used it to advance a different political agenda? Say, maybe a DMV employee noticed that you made a rolling stop, so they use your license plate number to access your information on the state database, and forward that on to law enforcement. Would you be OK with that? What you did was illegal, so why should the DMV employee be punished?

Forget the illegals. Prosecute Orrin Hatch. Wonder why there is no report here of his payola goings-on...Hmmmmm

Ya know, if I wanted to I could collect the license plate numbers of hundreds of cars that are speeding along I-15. I could send this list to media outlets and law enforcement, and then write letters to the editor asking why they haven't all been prosecuted.

Yes, we have a problem with immigration. Many people have come into this country without following the proper legal channels. One could argue that for many, these channels don't realistically exist.

Deporting illegals doesn't help, because they often can't afford to go home, and paying their passage is a stupid way of using taxpayer money when so many other issues are more important, not to mention the lives and relationships that would be damaged (both legal and illegal). I don't know the best solution, but I think prosecuting citizen anarchy is better than penalizing a small group of people that I don't even know.

How do people live with the cognitive dissonance: Breaking the law to enforce the law is fine, as long as I agree with the politics of the law-breakers. Nice moral relativity there--maybe Ms. Doussett is a philosophy professor at a liberal arts college? I didn't know they had those in Orem.

Good letter with good points. As long as we are going to "cherry pick" the list of crimes that are WORTH spending time and resources on prosecuting, then let me get my input into the mix. This whole issue has been turned into an overblown farce.
As for the license plate - speeding or no stop at stop sign issue, is that really a legitimate comparison? Are license plates and their numbers not public information? Wouldn't the alleged speeding or stop sign running, still require a burden of proof on your part, other then just your word on it? What is law enforcement going to investigate in that matter and where is the evidence coming from - they weren't exactly caught in the act? On the other hand, turning over the names of immigration law breakers, doesn't change status. If they are illegal last week they are still illegal this week. Prosecute!

I want to be on the jury.

So the DMV example isn't a great one. How about this: It's just as easy to compile a list of probable polygamists from the Workforce Services files as it is probable illegal immigrants. How many of you who laud the DWS list would be okay with someone from Washington County releasing a list of "probable polygamists"? Remember, now, polygamy is not only a more major offense than being in the country without documentation--in Utah it's unconstitutional. Are you okay with a few Judds, Christensens, Jeffs, and Steeds being accused unfairly? I mean, if they're not polygamists, they can just prove it, right?

And if you're okay with the "illegal" list and not the "polygamist" list--what's the difference?