The Los Angeles Times: on Crime

Ayn Rand: Crime involves force; no such thing as crime against society

Do not be misled by sloppy expressions such as "A murderer commits a crime against society." It is not society that a murderer murders, but an individual man. It is not a social right that he breaks, but an individual right. He is not punished for hurting a collective--he has not hurt a whole collective--he has hurt one man. If a criminal robs ten men--it is still not "society" that he has robbed, but ten individuals. There are no "crimes against society"--all crimes are committed against specific men, against individuals. And it is precisely the duty of a proper social system and of a proper government to protect an individual against criminal attack--against force.

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Kamala Harris: Fulfill Proposition 69: fast analysis of all DNA samples

Officials whittled down the backlog by shifting cases among the state's seven crime labs that handle DNA testing. In addition, robotics helped reduce part of the process for analyzing sexual assault evidence from two days to two hours. Last year the labs analyzed 5,400 evidence samples, up from 4,800 in 2010 and 4,100 in 2009, according to the department.

The state's crime labs came under increasing pressure in January 2009, when Proposition 69 began requiring authorities to collect DNA samples from any adult arrested for a felony. But Jill Spriggs, who oversees the state forensic system, said that backlog is also gone. "That's been eliminated for almost a year now," she said.