Stardate 20021210.1542

(On Screen): Democracy is far from a perfect system, and one of the ways that the lawmaking process in a democracy fails is when there's some sort of specific problem, and the voters demand that the legislators do something! The lawmakers, not really knowing what else they can do, will pass a law making the punishment for that crime more severe. That was a big fad here in the US for a while in the 1970's and 1980's; it was a way for lawmakers to prove that they were anti-crime without actually doing anything important (i.e. expensive).

The problem is that a law with a harsh penalty is worthless if there are no police to pursue lawbreakers or courts to try them. That's the situation in France now. Synagogues are burning, and it's arson. The French parliament just unanimously passed a law making that kind of crime get a more severe punishment if it was what we in the US generally refer to as a "hate crime".

But the problem in France right now is that their legal system has in many areas totally broken down. There are large areas where the police do not go, and in many cases even if they do arrest someone the courts will release them again, probably without punishment. What that means is that the laws that the Parliament passes are just empty words, with no meaning. If this new law does get enforced, it will be against those that least represent a danger to France because it will be against those that the police themselves don't fear. It's one of those symbolic acts that the Europeans are so enamored of.