My understanding of Project Exile as it was concieved and implimented in Richmond. Virginia is that it was a special agreement between the local police department and the local federal prosecutiong attorney to jointly co-operate in prosecuting convicted felons who are violating both state and federal laws against convicted felons possessing or carrying firearms. These already convicted felons who have either already served some minimum sentance or are out on bale or parole are responsible for a large share of violent crime in this country.
It worked like this: The local police have a very good idea of who the convicted felons are in their area who are still engaged in committing crime. They can pick many of these people up on weapons violations just about any time they feel kike it, for many of these people are habitually carring firearms. But if they take them into a State of Virginia Court, the charges are often simply dropped as too minor a charge to worry about in an overcrowded state justice system. Even if prosecuted, it may take over two years to get a conviction, all the while this felon is out on low bail. If a conviction is finally achieved, the sentence is very abbreviated and the felon let out early to boot because of an overcrowded state penetentiary system which needs to "house the worst cases only".
The Federal government, on the other hand, has harsher penalties for this kind of violation, a quicker justic system, higher bailes which keep a lot of down and out low life behind bars from day one, and penetentiary systems that can keep them behind bars for a long time, the full time if thought necessay. But the Feds they have no truely local police forces that know who the trouble makers are and most federal prosecuters thoughout this country are uninterested in what they normally view as a local problem.
So, what the Richmond Police did was bypass their inefective state system and turned these already convicted felons who were caught carrying firearms over to the Federal Prosecutor, who had made a agreement with them to be especially tough and especially diligent in pursuing this kind of case. I worked very, very well, cutting down the number of murders in that City by over 50% in less than two short years.
Now do note:
1. This is a sad commentary on the justice system within the State of Virginia where local police can get better results in reducing violent crime by the simple expedient of bypassing the state court system and co-opertating directly with a sympathetic Federal prosecutor, but it is no doubt typical of the situation in many or most of the states. The same thing could be done between local police and the state district attoneys if the state systems were not so hopelessly inadequate.
2. This tactic requires the joint co-operation of local police and a prosecuting attorney, state or federal, to focus seriously on the problem of already convicted felons roaming the streets of this land fully armed in defiance of all law, state and federal.
3. Many politicans and citizens would like to see this type of program implemented in other places, but it takes real co-operation between police, prosecutors, courts and penetentaries to actually keep violence prone convicted felons behind bars where they belong. It would be very easy for politicans to pass lots of nice sounding laws proclaiming Project Exile type programs the law of the land, but this stands no chance of actually reducing violent crime if the the co-operation between parts of criminal justice system, state or federal, simply is not a reality. As many of you already know, we have plenty of laws against all types of crime already and that the problem lies in enforcement, not in the lack of laws.
4. In addition, there certainly are plenty of cynical politicans like Clinton and Gore and many, many others who would gladely corrupt the basic idea of getting convicted felons who show every indication of ignoring all the laws against their being armed in our midest into something else along the lines of whatever agenda them have. Politicans like Gore and Clinton would no doubt gladly turn this around into a war on law abiding gun owners instead of a war on convicted felons who flagrantly disregard the terms of their release.
5. There is nothing particularly unconstitutional about the Project Exile Program implimented in the City of Richmond, Virginia. Its validity has never been challenged and is unlikely to ever be challanged in a court of law. Whether similar programs could ever be set up in other cities with similar results remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen if this program, which had spetacular initial success in Richmiond, can be maintained in the long run. Remember, the change of a Federal D.A. or City Police Chief to one with a different agenda could sink the whole program in practial reality.
6.Say over and over again "Project Exile was imlimented to remove alrady convicted gun toting felons off our streets for a long, long time" until the idea finally sinks into your brain. Anything else is not Project Exile.
