The State's system of providing competent legal defense to the indigent charged with a crime has been overwhelmed. The only answer is to find a new funding mechanism.
Most people come to the attention to the police because they have been drinking or using drugs. These persons may be arrested for, DUI, or DOC, or domestic assault, or violation an order for protection, or even illegally carrying a handgun.
So much of crime is die to alcohol use, that it is the alcohol transaction to which we should look for funding!
Wherefore: We the undersigned urge the government to
1) impose at tax on every alcohol transaction occurring in the state;
2) earmark that money to pay for the public defender system,
3) set the tax high enough to adequately fund the system, for current an pensioned workers.
Why is this important?
The poor come into contact with the police far more frequently than their white counterparts. This means a black teen may be stopped and questioned several times a day, merely due to his race or class.
The people who end up defending these folks, both the guilty and the innocent, are the states Public Defenders.
