Last November, Plaxico Burress, a 31-year old NFL Pro-Bowl receiver from the NY Giants, accidentally shot himself in the foot with an unregistered gun he had in his pants at a nightclub in downtown New York City. Last week, he plead guilty to one count of “attempted criminal possession of a weapon,” and will soon begin a two-year prison sentence.

Burress, like so many victims of power-hungry police, plead guilty in the fear of a much larger sentence (in this case, up to fifteen years in prison) for the “crime” of an unlicensed firearm. Because Burress didn’t register his gun with the government, he will now lose two-years’ salary while rotting away behind bars.

At the time of the incident, NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg scolded the Super Bowl winner, arguing that Burress should be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law…especially since he is a public figure and a sports hero.” Bloomberg’s glee sums up the tragic aspect of Burress’ sentence: why does American culture enjoy seeing people put in prison?

Probably because they’re so used to the spectacle. As of 2007, the US has 2.3 million people in prison, and another 5 million on parole or probation. The US also holds almost 24% of the global prisoners, despite having only 5% of the population. Either Americans are violent and crazy criminals, or there is something very wrong with our judicial system.

Handing a guy a two year prison sentence for shooting himself in the foot is an extremely disproportionate punishment backed by a prosecutor mentality that grips cops, judges, and attorneys. The severity of the sentence suggests not an effort to seek justice, but an attempt by an ever enlarging police-prison state to make an example, intimidate, and dissuade others from arming themselves. Burress is being put in prison not for harming someone else, but for refusing to have permission from the State to carry his own property. No grievances, complaints, or lawsuits by an individual seeking restitution was filed. How is this a crime?

Instead of prosecuting actual crimes, like murder, rape, and theft (actions that violate person or property), the US spends an exorbitant amount of money policing the populace in three key categories: driving, drug use, and gun ownership. In each of these three, “law enforcement” imposes increasing fines and jail sentences that remind people of who’s really in charge, and add nothing to “safety.” I feel so much safer knowing that our good and noble government is punishing speeders, drug users, unlicensed gun owners, and especially those who choose not to wear a helmet or a seat belt. Lost under this faux-concern for safety is, unfortunately, our liberty.

Government, the only institution with a legalized monopoly of force, “serves and protects” about as well as a cannibal or parasite does, and dares to tax us for this “protection” (kind of like paying off the Mob). For example, the governments’ “war on crime” and “war on drugs” ignore every constitutional protection , while only increasing violent crime, drug use, and drug addiction. The US justice system is obsessed with the idea that if we just put some people in prison for long periods of time, then they will magically be “corrected” for their “crimes.”

And like every government program ever devised, the results are exactly opposite of what was intended. The US police-prison state merely fosters resentment, make its more difficult for the sentenced to be productive members of society, and adds more and more government intrusion into our personal lives.

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