A Better Use of Justice Department Resources

As many of you might know, the U.S. Government has a multi-trillion (yes, trillion) dollar debt, the interest payment of which is 200 billion dollars a year. As I read an article in my morning newspaper about mortgage fraud I thought of how the resources of the Justice Department could be put to better use. First, to the stats on mortgage fraud.

In 2002 banks reported 5,623 incidents of mortgage fraud. In 2007 banks reported 47,717 such incidents. Mortgage fraud is a form of larcenous behavior. It is the behavior of profiting through deceit, by telling lies. Banks use other people's money (your money) to secure loans. When the banks are defrauded the general public suffers from higher banking costs and harder to obtain mortgages by honest people. Mortgage fraud also leads to more defaults and foreclosures which, in turn, leads to lower prices for houses that honest people are trying to sell. Mortgage fraud is just stealing and it hurts all the honest people.

The article (As mortgage fraud multiplies, investigators can't keep up, the Fresno Bee, Sunday, December 30, 2007) noted that due to the "eightfold" increase in mortgage frauds "government agencies that investigate and prosecute [these frauds] cannot keep up,. . ." The government needs to re-focus its resource allocation to vigorously go after real, rights-violating secular crimes, such as mortgage fraud and other rights-violating behavior.

How can they do this without a budget increase, without increasing taxes? It's very simple. Take the money out of the so-called war on drugs and use it to go after real crimes. Use the personnel now involved in the so-called war on drugs to investigate these mortgage frauds.

Why do I say "so-called war on drugs"? Because, as I have consistently stated in my blogs, the so-called war on drugs is actually a war on rights. Adults--if they have the right to the ownership of their bodies and minds and if they have inalienable rights and if they have true freedom and liberty--have the right to use drugs that may be addictive and harmful to their health. My proof?--alcohol and tobacco. Those two "legal" drugs cause far more harm, death, and destruction than the "mere" use of the presently illegal ones. Almost all of the violence and real rights-violating behavior related to the presently illegal drugs come from that fact that they are illegal. Once upon a time those drugs were legal to adults and there was no criminal justice problems associated with their manufacture, sales, or use. If adults have a right to use alcohol and tobacco then why don't they have an equal right to use less harmful drugs?

We, "the people", need to tell our legislators and government officials at all levels to stop violating the rights of otherwise honest adults and uphold the principle of inalienable rights. We need to tell them to use scarce government resources to go after real criminals, those whose behavior actually violate the rights of others. After all, using a drug is a moral issue, which comes under the general heading of religion. Stop prosecuting "sinners" (who don't believe in or accept your version of morality or go to your church) and focus on the "criminals" whose behavior is wrong because it harms, physically or financially, innocent others.