Document:Libertarian Party Radical Caucus Platform 2016: Difference between revisions

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===2. Crime and Victimless Crime===  
===2. Crime and Victimless Crime===  


TO BE COMBINED WITH VICTIMLESS CRIME
[APPROVED-FINAL]


[ASSIGNED]
Criminal laws should be limited to violation of the rights of others through force or fraud, or deliberate actions that place others involuntarily at significant risk of harm. We support restitution to the victim to the fullest degree possible at the expense of the criminal or the negligent wrongdoer.


The continuing high level of violent crime -- and the government's demonstrated inability to deal with it -- threatens the lives, happiness, and belongings of Americans. At the same time, governmental violations of rights undermine the people's sense of justice with regard to crime. The appropriate way to suppress crime is through consistent and impartial enforcement of laws that protect individual rights. We call for an end to "hate crime" laws that punish people for their thoughts and speech, distract us from real crimes, and foster resentment by giving some individuals special status under the law. Laws pertaining to "victimless crimes" should be repealed since such laws themselves violate individual rights and also breed genuine crime. We applaud the trend toward private protection services and voluntary community crime control groups. We support institutional changes, consistent with full respect for the rights of the accused, that would permit victims to direct the prosecution in criminal cases.
We believe individuals retain the right to voluntarily assume risk of harm to themselves. We favor the repeal of all federal, state, and local laws creating "crimes" without victims. In particular, we advocate:


a. the repeal of all laws prohibiting the production, sale, possession, or use of drugs, and of all medicinal prescription requirements for the purchase of vitamins, drugs, and similar substances;


b. the repeal of all laws restricting or prohibiting the use or sale of alcohol, requiring health warning labels and signs, making bartenders or hosts responsible for the behavior of customers and guests, making liquor companies liable for birth defects, and making gambling houses liable for the losses of intoxicated gamblers;
c. the repeal of all laws or policies authorizing stopping drivers without probable cause to test for alcohol or drug use;
d. the repeal of all laws regarding consensual sexual relations, including prostitution and solicitation;
e. the repeal of all laws regulating or prohibiting the possession, use, sale, production, or distribution of sexually explicit material;
f. the repeal of all laws regulating or prohibiting gambling;
g. the repeal of anti-racketeering statutes such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) that punish peaceful behavior -- including conspiracy to commit acts such as sale of sexually explicit material, and nonviolent anti-abortion protests -- by freezing and/or seizing assets of the accused or convicted; and
h. the repeal of all laws interfering with the right to commit suicide as infringements of the ultimate right of an individual to his or her own life.
We demand the pardon and exoneration of everyone who has been convicted solely for these "crimes." We condemn the confiscation of property via civil asset forfeiture that all too often accompanies police raids, searches, and prosecutions for victimless crimes.


===4. The War on Drugs===
===4. The War on Drugs===

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