Broward Palm Beach Blog

If thieves run free, why can't we?

At least, that's my paraphrase of the old Bob Dyland song. It's hard to understand why the author seems to be defending the right of meth dealer/addicts to steal DVDs and sell them for profit. While i reject an intrusive government, I don't think a fingerprint taken in seconds is intrusive, especially when contrasted to the cost of the games, the tears of kids who lose them, the anger of parents about the thefts, and all the attendant anxiety the thief has caused. The may be meaningless as objects of merchandise, but they are not without a potentially wide range of meanings to their rightful owners. Children cry; mothers have anxiety attacks; dads blow up, all behind a single theft. The fact that police can run these prints and identify thieves could dave taxpayers in even a small town tens of thousands of dollars, and the nation billions. That's what it costs people to replace lost things, insurance companies who insure the lost things, the police who investigate thefts, the judge and jury's time, the gas the patrol car uses, the car's maintenance - all tiny little droplets of cost that add up to a mighty river when they converge. The thoughtless dismiss all these consequences, but they remain in force for the dismiss-er and the victim alike.

Florida's Statutes Division and the Department of Revenue have both stated that this law only applies to the business owners. The Sherrif's Office will definitely land in hot water for this, considering what was done was illegal. This article poster obviously never bothered to properly followed up on this and I find it sad the sheriff office cannot interpret their own laws. Then again I didn't expect much accurate information from a blog.