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Alan Keyes on Crime
Republican challenger for IL Senate; previously Candidate for President
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Don't lower age of adult criminal prosecutions
I am opposed to lowering the age at which we adjudge people to be adults. The tendency in that direction now, to want to treat our children as if they are adults, is a confession of our own failure as a society to maintain the structures of family life,
to maintain the basis of moral education. As a result, we have children now in whom there exists a shocking moral void, and those children engage in some acts that are heinous to us. But we need to respect the
difference that exists between children and adults. We need to insist, from adults, moral accountability and moral responsibility-and we also need to help our children develop that ability to be mature adults.
But we shouldn't take out our failure of moral education on younger and younger children. That is a great error.
Source: Campaign website www.Keyes2004.com, "Issues"
Sep 9, 2004
Failing to revere God results in violence and crime
We as a people have experienced, sadly, the consequences of forgetting this fundamental truth:
fail to revere God in our schools, and the tide of violence, and crime, and drug abuse rises in our schools, along with a tide of low motivation and bad performance.
Source: Rally in Blairsville, Georgia
Oct 21, 2003
Diallo verdict does not need federal review
Q: Are you comfortable with the Diallo verdict [where NYC police were found not guilty of murder]? A: I withhold judgment [because] I didn’t sit through all the testimony. The jury did and they reached a conclusion. The only thing I’ve heard from a lot
of the critics of this case have to do with the number of bullets and other things. I haven’t yet heard a good case made that on the facts, one should question that verdict. And until I hear that case I am not going to indulge in sort of emotional
rhetoric scapegoating police officers. Q: Should there be an automatic Justice Department review in a case like this where you have alleged police abuse and the verdict goes in favor of the police? A: No, absolutely not. I really protest against the
liberal tendency to want the federal government to take over those responsibilities which rightly belong to states and localities, on the assumption that people at the state and local level are too depraved to do justice without federal supervision.
Source: GOP debate in Los Angeles
Mar 2, 2000
Without death penalty for murder, we disregard life
Q: What is your position on the death penalty?
A: There are certain circumstances in which the death penalty is essential to our respect for life. If we do not in our law send the message to everybody that by calculatedly, coldly taking a human
life in a way that assaults the structures of law in a society or shows a cold-blooded and studied disregard for the value of that life, if we are not willing to implement the death penalty in those circumstances, then we are actually sending a message
of contempt for human life. We are encouraging people to believe that that step is not in fact a terminal step, when they fatefully and fatally decide to move against the life of another human being. So I think that there are circumstances
under which it is essential, in fact, that we have and apply the death penalty in order to send a clear moral message to people throughout our society that we will not tolerate that kind of disrespect for life.
Source: GOP Debate in Manchester NH
Jan 26, 2000
Stricter penalties; truth in sentencing
Keyes supports the following principles concerning crime:- Impose stricter penalties for violent felons.
- Impose “truth in sentencing” for violent criminals so they serve full sentences with no chance of parole.
- Support programs to provide
prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released.
- Support programs to provide prison inmates with drug and alcohol addiction treatment.
Source: Vote-Smart.org 2000 NPAT
Jan 13, 2000
“Hate crime” laws inappropriately punish attitudes
Let’s say a ruthless drug dealer exterminates a person who crossed him up. Put that side by side with a crime that is motivated by racial, or religious bigotry, but with the end result being the deliberate murder of an individual. Should we have two
separate standards for these two murders? The proper approach to take toward crimes is to judge the act, not the attitude. The real purpose behind the hate crime legislation movement, however, is to accord to the government the right to punish attitudes.
Source: (Cross-ref from Civil Rights) WorldNetDaily “hate crimes”
Jun 14, 1999
Supports capital punishment.
Supports capital punishment.
Source: 1996 National Political Awareness Test, Project Vote Smart
Jul 2, 1996
External violence results from internal lawlessness
The problem [causing crime and violence] is control all right, but it’s self-control not gun control. External violence is the symptom and consequence of internal lawlessness and self-indulgence. I wonder if [liberals]
understand the intimate connection between violence on the streets and violence against unborn children? Crime and violence aren’t just social facts--they are moral realities. Moral problems can’t be addressed with external solutions such as
gun control or condom distribution. They need internal remedies. Though we shy away from the subject these days, most decent people know in their hearts that the only solution to these moral problems is moral education. The basic principle of all
moral education is respect for our moral faculty, i.e., the human capacity to act rationally, to discipline passion in order to prevent immoral consequences. Lawless ideas have lawless consequences.
Source: Our Character, Our Future, p. 33-5
May 2, 1996
Capital punishment is necessary to show respect for life
Q: The Pope condemned capital punishment.
A: Having read the Encyclical, the Pope reasserted the Church’s traditional doctrine on capital punishment and He cautioned against the abuse of that position and said that it would be very rare.
Q: You do
agree it should be rare?
A: Certainly. I’ve never been somebody who thought that you should be applying capital punishment indiscriminately. But I do believe that it is necessary in certain instances in order for a society to show due respect for life.
Source: Interview on Larry King Live
Apr 4, 1995