Contributed by Huhnkie Lee
Greetings, this is Lee, running for Alaska State Senate in District D in 2020. I have an idea to eliminate crimes and homelessness. I first thought that Matsu needs a borough level police department. Then I learned that it would raise property tax to fund the new police department. How about we change the state law so that we give Alaska National Guards (“ANG” hereafter) the police power?
I understand Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of federal military personnel to assist local police, but we are talking about activating state military personnel. So, let us assume that state legislators manage to make a law that endows police power to ANG so they work with local police. Then the sky is the limit.
ANG has the man power, are trained in combat and weaponry, and they have rifles, ammunitions, bullet proof jackets and helmets, tactical vehicles, everything that they need to fight off crimes. If I were an Alaska senator, I would go even one step further: I would convince our two U.S. Senators and U.S. Congressman so that they propose a House/Senate Bills to abolish Posse Comitatus Act. Then, we can supply manpower to the state/local police/firefighters with federal military personnel and equipment.
Imagine we come up with a technology of a missile that is equipped with fire extinguishing chemicals. Upon a wildfire in Alaska, U.S. Airforce jets from JBER can fire the ‘fire-extinguishing’ missiles to that burning forest. The possibilities are endless.
Regarding the homeless, we will have to change the laws so that police can escort them so that they live in a place that we may call, “Institution of Improvement”, or IOI. The idea is, we should get back to the basics, hence the name 101.
Why do crimes and homelessness exist? It is because not everyone has good parents like we did. We, law-abiding and hardworking citizens were fortunate enough to have parents, teachers, mentors, role-models who taught us, disciplined us, loved us, strengthened us. But there are people who never had such nurturing environment and some of them become homeless and criminals because they can’t contain anger, or they are not strong and patient enough to handle the stress and pressure at work.
As long as criminals stay criminal, it is us whose lives and limbs are in danger. If we allow the homeless live in parks and street corners, our neighborhood will be filled with human wastes, needles, fleas, and bedbugs. It is time that we, Republicans and Democrats come together and solve this problem. With partisan politics like ideological warfare, we cannot achieve anything.
So, the idea is that we change the laws so as to allow ANG and federal military personnel to work with state/local police to imprison criminals and escort the homeless to IOI. Or for simplicity, we may just put them all in jail and rename the prison as IOI. In those correctional facilities, we will make them work. First kind of work for prisoners will be sorting out trash in landfills. We should coordinate with trash collection companies to achieve this.
Working with trash serve both liberal and conservative purposes. Inmates will learn to work, and get disciplined. The proceeds from recycling will help pay for the operation of the prisons. Reducing the trash will save the environment. Everybody wins.
If inmates refuse to work, then we will discipline them. We can reduce their daily portion from 3 meals a day to 2 meals a day; take away gym-usage/visitation privileges; or even reduce the room temperature heating level by 1 degree in winter; solitary confinement, etc. We will educate inmates just like our parents educated us when we were children.
If inmates prove themselves in recycling in landfills, we will give them a better job, which is the second kind of money-making prison job. Again, we will have to work with federal and state legislators to change laws to achieve this. The idea is, to farm Alaskan wild animals in prison. Let the well-behaving inmates raise bears, moose, etc. Instead of killing bears that live in Eagle River or letting moose becoming road-kills in Glenn Highway, we sedate them and send them to prisons. The IOI animal farm will be open to public so the citizens would come with their left-over food to feed bears, moose, etc. Inmates will clean the farm/zoo/safari and take care of the animals.
Such prison safari system will satisfy both conservatives and liberals. Animal activists will love this because we are saving the animals. Conservatives will like this because inmates will be working and prison will pay for its operation without state fund or taxpayer’s money. How? Inmates will carve farm animal bones, tan bear hides, and sell them. We can even have them process slaughtered bear gall bladders and sell them to Asian countries. We will be farming them with latest biotechnology so that the animals can reproduce in captivity. The prison farm/safari will be big, as Alaska has big lands.
If you elect me as Alaska State Senator next year, I will make the projects above my personal and professional mission.
