Quotes about criminal (880 quotes, page 9)

“Nobody but nobody is quite so dumb as to believe that all, most, or even very many uses of firearms to prevent acts of criminal violence result in justifiable homicides.”

Kevin D. Williamson (1972) American writer

Most of them do not result in anybody’s being shot, much less shot dead, because most of them do not involve discharging a firearm. As it turns out, pointing a gun at a would-be assailant is in many cases a very persuasive gesture.
"The Dumbest Gun-Control Paragraph" https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-dumbest-gun-control-paragraph/ (3 June 2019), National Review

“I read to you parts of the indictment claiming that I was part of a joint criminal enterprise to expel Croatians from Croatia, Muslims from Bosnia, Albanians from Kosovo, in order to create some sort of Greater Serbia. Now, if you have in mind that the greatest part of that Greater Serbia would be precisely the Republic of Serbia, which did not see any expulsions at all throughout the crisis, do you find it logical that Serbia should initiate expulsions from territories outside of Serbia?”

Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006) Yugoslavian and Serbian politician

Slobodan Milošević (2004) International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia https://www.icty.org/x/cases/slobodan_milosevic/trans/en/041116IT.htm

Parting , Reading

“Our Amazon rainforest is larger than Western Europe and it remains virtually untouched. This shows that we are one of the countries that protects the most its environment. This time of the year, dry weather and winds favor both spontaneous and criminal fires. It is also important to mention that indigenous and local populations also use fire as part of their culture and means of survival. All countries have their issues. However, the sensationalist attacks we have suffered from much of the international media due to the Amazon fires have aroused our patriotic sentiment. It is a misconception to state that the Amazon is a world heritage; and it is a misconception, as scientists attest, to say that our forest is the lung of the world. Resorting to these fallacies, some countries, instead of helping, have followed the lies of the media and behaved disrespectfully, with a colonialist spirit. They have questioned what is most sacred to us: our sovereignty! One of them, at the last G7 meeting, dared to suggest imposing sanctions against Brazil without even listening to us.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Speech at the at the 74th UN General Assembly. Statement by Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil http://statements.unmeetings.org/GA74/BR_EN.pdf. United Nations PaperSmart (24 September 2019).

Time , Question , Country , Suffering

“My country has been on the verge of socialism, which has put us in a state of widespread corruption, serious economic recession, high criminality rates and unending attacks on the family and religious values that underpin our traditions.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Speech at the at the 74th UN General Assembly. Statement by Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil http://statements.unmeetings.org/GA74/BR_EN.pdf. United Nations PaperSmart (24 September 2019).

Family , Country

“Maybe -- I am not affirming it -- these (NGO people) are carrying out some criminal actions to draw attention against me, against the government of Brazil. There is a war going on in the world against Brazil, an information war.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

On 21 August 2019, claiming that NGOs were starting the fires in the Amazon rainforest. Bolsonaro says Brazil lacks means to fight Amazon fires, backtracks on NGO accusations https://www.france24.com/en/20190822-bolsonaro-brazil-lacks-resources-fight-amazon-fires. France 24 (22 August 2019).

World , War , Drawing , People

“War criminals are not confined to the Axis powers alone. Roosevelt and Churchill are no less war criminals than Hitler and Mussolini.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Mahatma Gandhi. Interview given to Ralph Coniston, ‘before April 25, 1945’, reproduced in Collected Works, vol. 79, p. 423. Quoted from Elst, Koenraad (2018). Why I killed the Mahatma: Uncovering Godse's defence. New Delhi : Rupa, 2018.
1940s

War

“The underlying cause has to do with deep, deep, deep realms of racial injustice, both in our criminal justice system and in our economic system… The Democratic Party should be on the side of reparations for slavery for this very reason… I do not believe that the average American is a racist, but the average American is woefully undereducated about the history of race in the United States.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Statement regarding a police shooting in South Bend, Indiana, in her first Democratic Party presidential debate (27 June 2019), as quoted in "Long-shot 2020 Dem Marianne Williamson calls for reparations, after debate skirmish over South Bend shooting" by Brooke Singman. in Fox News (27 June 2019) https://www.foxnews.com/politics/long-shot-2020-dem-marianne-williamson-calls-for-reparations-after-debate-skirmish-over-south-bend-shooting

Justice , History

“He had been cheated out of his compensation, on a technicality, by the corrupt officialdom of the spaceways. He’d turned criminal then, and had been as ruthless to society as it had been to him.”

Fredric Brown (1906–1972) American novelist, short story author

Source: Short fiction, Gateway to Glory (1950), p. 607

Cheating

“I now come to the close of my defense, but I will not end it as lawyers usually do, asking that the accused be freed. I cannot ask for freedom for myself while my companeros are already suffering in the ignominious prison of the Isle of Pines. Send me there to join them and to share their fate. It is understandable that honest people should be dead or in prison in a republic where the president is a criminal and a thief.”

Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

ibid, p. 104
History Will Absolve Me (October 16th, 1953)

Understanding , Freedom , Fate , Dead

“It is a fundamental principle of criminal law that an imputed offense must correspond exactly to the type of crime described by law. If no law applies exactly to the point in question, then there can be no offense.”

Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

Ibid. p. 53
History Will Absolve Me (October 16th, 1953)

Law , Question

“Mr. President; how does that compare with what happened during 4 years under German occupation? During 4 years while the Germari Army was there, there were two cases of criminal assault, and in each case the man guilty was apprehended and shot the very day the assault happened, while in the cases of American culprits files would have to come back to Washington, the opposition of the Organization for the Advancement of Colored People would have to be faced, a fight against the infliction of the penalty would be made by the Communist Party, this group and that group, so that it would take 7 or 8 months before any sentence was carried out, and by that time the entire effect of the punishment would be lost.”

James Eastland (1904–1986) American politician

1940s

Time , Penalty , People , Color

“Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

1880s, Plea for Free Speech in Boston (1880)

Money

“The outlook had become still more threatening since the Pact of Munich. So far from that notorious surrender purchasing appeasement, it had encouraged the dictators to a greater display of insolence. … Three years ago we discovered that our armaments in essentials for our defence had fallen far behind those of Germany, Italy, and Japan. It was a piece of criminal negligence. … During the past two years the dictators had, through our lack of foresight, through the gross stupidity of our national leaders, cleverly but relentlessly succeeded in placing the British Empire and France in the most dangerous strategical position which they had ever been situated.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in Llandudno (19 January 1939), quoted in The Times (20 January 1939), p. 14
Later life

Past , Stupidity

“When the limits of free speech are trespassed, when it is about criminal expressions, sedition, incitement to carry out criminal offences that threaten people, such content has to be deleted from the net, and we agree that as a rule this should be possible within 24 hours.”

Heiko Maas (1966) German politician (SPD), federal minister for foreign affairs

Facebook, Google, Twitter agree to delete hate speech in 24 hours: Germany https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-internet/facebook-google-twitter-agree-to-delete-hate-speech-in-24-hours-germany-idUKKBN0TY27R20151215, Reuters, (15 Dec 2015)

People

“For Spinoza, by contrast, there is to be no criminalization of ideas in the well-ordered state. Libertas philosophandi, the freedom of philosophizing, must be upheld for the sake of a healthy, secure and peaceful commonwealth and material and intellectual progress.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Steven Nadler, in his article Spinoza's Vision of Freedom, and Ours https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/spinozas-vision-of-freedom-and-ours/ (The New York Times, 5 February 2012)
M - R, Steven Nadler

Idea , Peace , Freedom

“It was the standard airport-security operation, which meant it appeared to have been designed to hassle law-abiding passengers just enough to reassure them, while at the same time providing virtually no protection against criminals with an IQ higher than celery.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Source: Novels, Big Trouble (1999), Chapter 11

Appearance , Law , Time

“We do without the lawyers, certainly… It would not seem reasonable to us, in a case where the only interest of the nation is to find out the truth, that persons should take part in the proceedings who had an acknowledged motive to color it. But who defends the accused? If he is a criminal he needs no defense, for he pleads guilty in most instances. The plea of the accused is not a mere formality with us, as with you. It is usually the end of the case.”

Edward Bellamy (1850–1898) American author and socialist

Source: Looking Backward, 2000-1887 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25439 (1888), Ch. 19

Personality , Truth , Color , Motivation

“Unlawful revenue which, after being conveniently cleaned, is then reinvested within the legal economy: polluting it, corrupting it, forging it, killing it. Whether it’s reinvested in the London property market, in Parisian restaurants, or in hostels on the French Riviera. Drug trafficking money will buy homes that honest folk can no longer afford; it will open shops that will sell at more competitive prices than legitimate shops; it will start businesses that can afford to be more competitive than clean businesses. But one thing must be clear: these businesses are not interested in being successful; the main purpose for which they were created was to launder money, turning money that shouldn’t even exist into clean and usable money. In silence, illegal assets are moving around and undermining our economy and our democracies. In silence. But it doesn’t stop here; organised crime is providing us with a winning economic model. Organised crime is the only segment of global economy to have not been affected by the financial crisis; to have profited from the crisis, to have fed on the crisis, to have contributed to the crisis. And it’s in the crisis that it finds its satellite activities, such as usury, gambling, counterfeiting. But the most important – and most alarming – aspect of this issue is that it’s exactly in times of crisis that criminal organisations find their safe haven in banks.”

Roberto Saviano (1979) Italian journalist, writer and essayist

Dirty Money in London event (2016)

Money , Home , Democracy , Time

“Behind all the Great-Society-style housing/anti-poverty/education programs lurked all the old stereotypes: blacks as animalistic, criminal, sexual, violent, and above all, as time went on, as pathological. The white power structures are always diagnosing the dysfunctions and prescribing a cure for the black family: high-rise housing projects, compulsory education and standardized testing, wars on poverty or drugs, self-esteem seminars. A good portion of the African-American population was simply institutionalized or interned, in public housing complexes, in urban schools, and in one of the biggest prison systems the world has ever known. It all amounts to a sprawling race gulag in which people are both dependent and hedged about with restrictions.”

Crispin Sartwell (1958) American philosopher

White Liberals: We’re Not Racist (August 29, 2016)

School , Family , Time , Housing

“That is why our masters in Washington are so anxious to disarm us. They are not afraid of criminals. They are afraid of a populace which cannot be subdued by tyrants.”

Jeff Cooper (1920–2006) American journalist

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 2, No. 5, May 1994

“We should be committed to ending this spate of gun violence and criminality. We should stop allowing the progressive, socialist left to manipulate us for the sake of their insidious ideological agenda. The problem is simple — doing that takes courage, and the left tends to define courage with examples such as Bradley Manning or Bowe Bergdahl. Real courage, however, is shown by those who don’t merely follow the trend or status quo, but who stand up for that which is right and truly just — and don’t kneel.”

Allen West (politician) (1961) American politician; retired United States Army officer

2010s, I'd like to see MORE football player protests — NOT less (27 September 2017)

Courage , Problem

“Esteemed chairman of the court, today we have to pass a verdict on the defendants Nicolae Ceaușescu and Elena Ceaușescu who have committed the following offenses: Crimes against the people. They carried out acts that are incompatible with human dignity and social thinking; they acted in a despotic and criminal way; they destroyed the people whose leaders they claimed to be. Because of the crimes they committed against the people, I plead, on behalf of the victims of these two tyrants, for the death sentence for the two defendants.”

Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989) General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party

Chief prosecutor Dan Voinea at the Ceaușescus' trial http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Transcript_of_the_closed_trial_of_Nicolae_and_Elena_Ceau%C5%9Fescu (25 December 1989)
About Ceaușescu

Way , Thinking , Death , People

“The Tribunal is satisfied that Matsui knew what was happening. He did nothing, or nothing effective to abate these horrors. He did issue orders before the capture of the city enjoining propriety of conduct upon his troops and later he issued further orders to the same purport. These orders were of no effect as is now known, and as he must have known. It was pleaded in his behalf that at this time he was ill. His illness was not sufficient to prevent his conducting the military operations of his command nor to prevent his visiting the City for days while these atrocities were occurring. He was in command of the Army responsible for these happenings. He knew of them. He had the power, as he had the duty, to control his troops and to protect the unfortunate citizens of Nanking. He must be held criminally responsible for his failure to discharge this duty.”

Iwane Matsui (1878–1948) Japanese general

Tribunal decision.

Time , Failure

“The lights are going out all over Europe. Anyone who thinks or speaks individually is at risk. Freedom-loving citizens who criticize Islam, or even merely suggest that there is a relationship between Islam and crime or honour killing, must suffer and are threatened or criminalized. Those who speak the truth are in danger. The lights are going out all over Europe. Everywhere the Orwellian thought police are at work, on the lookout for thought crimes everywhere, casting the populace back within the confines where it is allowed to think.”

Geert Wilders (1963) Dutch politician

Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pfEJaI2iS4 (7 February 2011)
2010s

Freedom , Light , Suffering , Truth

“It was true enough, he did not appear ashamed — merely worried about his own immunity from trial as a war criminal.”

Erhard Milch (1892–1972) German general

Leon Goldensohn, March 13, 1946

War , Appearance

“Bach-Zelewski is a liar and a criminal — a terrible man. I repeat, he is a liar, a criminal, and a killer. I have proof of what I am saying about myself, but I know that Bach-Zelewski is a frightful liar.”

Erich von dem Bach (1899–1972) German politician and SS functionary

Hjalmar Schacht to Leon Goldensohn (10 March 1946)

“Convictions following the admission into evidence of confessions which are involuntary, i. e., the product of coercion, either physical or psychological, cannot stand. This is so not because such confessions are unlikely to be true but because the methods used to extract them offend an underlying principle in the enforcement of our criminal law: that ours is an accusatorial and not an inquisitorial system — a system in which the State must establish guilt by evidence independently and freely secured and may not by coercion prove its charges against an accused out of his own mouth.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534, 540-41 (1961).
Judicial opinions

Law

“Reflecting upon the whole of the story, I am glad not to be responsible for the way in which Hess has been and is being treated. Whatever may be the moral guilt of a German who stood near to Hitler, Hess had, in my view, atoned for this by his completely devoted and frantic deed of lunatic benevolence. He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy. He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded.”

Rudolf Hess (1894–1987) German Nazi leader

Winston Churchill, in The Grand Alliance (1950), p. 55.

Way

“Miss Austen was surely a great novelist. What she did, she did perfectly. Her work, as far as it goes, is faultless. She wrote of the times in which she lived, of the class of people with which she associated, and in the language which was usual to her as an educated lady. Of romance, -- what we generally mean when we speak of romance -- she had no tinge. Heroes and heroines with wonderful adventures there are none in her novels. Of great criminals and hidden crimes she tells us nothing. But she places us in a circle of gentlemen and ladies, and charms us while she tells us with an unconscious accuracy how men should act to women, and women act to men. It is not that her people are all good; -- and, certainly, they are not all wise. The faults of some are the anvils on which the virtues of others are hammered till they are bright as steel. In the comedy of folly I know no novelist who has beaten her. The letters of Mr. Collins, a clergyman in Pride and Prejudice, would move laughter in a low-church archbishop.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

Anthony Trollope, Lecture (1870)

Time , People , Women , Education

“This is a very good recommendation. Nothing can stop young people from enjoying sex. Criminalizing something natural is a crime.”

Raël (1946) Author of Raëlism and founder and current leader of the Raëlian Movement

8 December 2013 regarding Professor John Ashton "there is an argument for reducing it to 15" https://raelusa.org/health-expert-calls-age-consent-lowered-15/

Sex , People , Nature

“For Egypt, the greatest horror was the destruction or abduction of the cult images. In the eyes of the Israelites, the erection of images meant the destruction of divine presence; in the eyes of the Egyptians, this same effect was attained by the destruction of images. In Egypt, iconoclasm was the most terrible religious crime; in Israel, the most terrible religious crime was idolatry. In this respect Osarseph alias Akhenaten, the iconoclast, and the Golden Calf, the paragon of idolatry, correspond to each other inversely, and it is strange that Aaron could so easily avoid the role of the religious criminal. It is more than probable that these traditions evolved under mutual influence. In this respect, Moses and Akhenaten became, after all, closely related.”

Jan Assmann (1938) German egyptologist

Jan Assmann, From Akhenaten to Moses: Ancient Egypt and Religious Change, pg. 76, 2014, The American University in Cairo Press.

Relation ships

“In general, the best thing to do when you suspect people of trying to distract you from the truth is not to actively confront them in the beginning, but in fact to encourage them to continue by showing interest in what they are saying or doing. You want them to talk more, to reveal more signs of tension and contrivance. At the right moment you must surprise them with a question or remark that is designed to make them uncomfortable, revealing you are onto them. Pay attention to the microexpressions and body language they emit at such moments. If they are really deceiving, they will often have a freeze response as they take this in, and then quickly try to mask the underlying anxiety. This was the favorite strategy of detective Columbo in the television series of the same name—facing criminals who had tried to reverse engineer the evidence to make it look like someone else had done it, Columbo would pretend to be perfectly friendly and harmless but then would suddenly ask an uncomfortable question and then pay extra attention to the face and body.”

Robert Greene (1959) American author

Chap. 3 : See Through People’s Masks
The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

Truth , Making love , People , Question

“The effect of our drug policy on the health of people who use illicit drugs stem from four basic problems: (1) a lack of information about medial hygiene, because our laws push drug users away from the medical professionals who can help them; (2) no quality control regarding either the strength or purity of illicit drugs; (3) the inability of many drug users to prepare and use injectable drugs under more medically hygienic conditions;… and (4) the enormous pressure on drug addicts to engage in dangerous criminal activity, such as prostitution, burglary and drug dealing, in order to get the money to purchase these artificially expensive drugs.”

James P. Gray (1945) American judge

Source: Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs, 2011, pp. 126-127

Money , Law , People , Health

James P. Gray (1945) American judge

Source: Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs, 2011, p. 10

Money , Problem , Fraud

“You kill, with a single gas canister, an average of five hundred criminals per day!”

Luiz Carlos Alborghetti (1945–2009) Italian-Brazilian radio commenter, showman and political figure

Original: (pt) Você mata, com um botijão de gás, uma média de 500 bandidos por dia!
Original: (pt) Source: [9 December 2009, Morre Luiz Carlos Alborghetti, dono do bordão 'bandido bom é bandido morto', https://extra.globo.com/tv-e-lazer/morre-luiz-carlos-alborghetti-dono-do-bordao-bandido-bom-bandido-morto-209786.html, Portuguese, Extra, Editora Globo S/A, 31 March 2019]

“A criminal is a criminal, street-smarts! And a criminal you gotta have to kill!”

Luiz Carlos Alborghetti (1945–2009) Italian-Brazilian radio commenter, showman and political figure

Original: (pt) Bandido é bandido, malandragem! E bandido você tem que mandar matar!

(pt) Source: [9 December 2009, Morre Luiz Carlos Alborghetti, dono do bordão 'bandido bom é bandido morto', https://extra.globo.com/tv-e-lazer/morre-luiz-carlos-alborghetti-dono-do-bordao-bandido-bom-bandido-morto-209786.html, Portuguese, Extra, Editora Globo S/A, 31 March 2019]

“A good criminal is a dead one!”

Luiz Carlos Alborghetti (1945–2009) Italian-Brazilian radio commenter, showman and political figure

Original: (pt) Bandido bom é bandido morto!

(pt) Source: [9 December 2009, Morre Luiz Carlos Alborghetti, dono do bordão 'bandido bom é bandido morto', https://extra.globo.com/tv-e-lazer/morre-luiz-carlos-alborghetti-dono-do-bordao-bandido-bom-bandido-morto-209786.html, Portuguese, Extra, Editora Globo S/A, 31 March 2019]

Dead

“If a man who professes to be a communist punishes an innocent person by labelling him a reactionary, he's no longer a communist, but the worst of criminals.”

Kim Il-sung (1912–1994) President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

With the century, vol. 3

Personality

“Those who defend criminals are against the Brazilian family!”

Luiz Carlos Alborghetti (1945–2009) Italian-Brazilian radio commenter, showman and political figure

Original: (pt) Quem defende bandido está contra a família brasileira!

Family

“When you're white you don't know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto, you don’t know what it's like to be poor...You don't know what it’s like to be hassled when you walk down the street, or dragged out of a car. And I believe that as a nation in the year 2016, we must be firm in making it clear, we will end institutional racism and reform a broken criminal justice system”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

2016-03-06
Sanders: If You're White You Don't Know What It's Like To Be Poor
Amanda Terkel
Huffington Post
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-ghetto_n_56dce712e4b03a405679062b
2010s, 2016

Cars , Justice , Making love

“It is true, I confess, that if a male character of my invention started across the stage to disrobe a virgin criminally (ah, euphemism to end euphemisms!), he would probably catch his foot in the piano stool and end up playing "Button Up Your Overcoat" on the black keys.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

"The Case for Comedy", Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances‎

“I want them [criminals] to literally feel terror at the thought of committing offences.”

Priti Patel (1972) British politician

I want criminals to be terrified, says Priti Patel: New Home Secretary vows to return to zero-tolerance policing as she demands full explanation over bungled 'Nick' sex abuse inquiry https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7316055/I-want-criminals-terrified-says-Priti-Patel-Home-Secretary-restore-confidence-Britain.html (2 August 2019)
2019

Feeling

“Capital punishment [could] serve as a deterrent. I do not think we have enough deterrents in this country for criminals – let’s not forget that murders, rapists and criminals of that nature choose to commit the crimes that they commit.”

Priti Patel (1972) British politician

Said during a Question Time debate. Quoted by the Independent. Priti Patel MP: Who is the new Treasury minister who supports death penalty and rejects plain packaging for cigarettes? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-mp-who-is-the-new-treasury-minister-who-supports-death-penalty-and-rejects-plain-9608096.html (15 July 2014)
2014

Nature , Thinking , Forgetting , Country

“Very commonly substances are criminalized because they're associated with what's called the dangerous classes, you know, poor people, or working people.… Actually, the peak of marijuana use was as I said, in the seventies, but that was rich kids, so you don't throw them in jail. And then it got seriously criminalized, you know, you really throw people in jail for it, when it was poor people.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Dialogue with trade unionists, February 2, 1999 https://web.archive.org/web/20051226071614/http://zpedia.org/Chomsky_on_pot
Quotes 1990s, 1995–1999

Marijuana , People

“The post-pandemic world should be a world of international solidarity – without unilateral coercive measures. This is the moment for the international community to reaffirm the principles of multilateralism contained in the UN Charter and demand that unilateral coercive measures that cause death and suffering be condemned by the International Criminal Court as a crime against humanity.”

Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official

2020

World , Death , Suffering , Communication

“It is a cry of alarm that I run to save the innocence of children, threatened by madness and anger. And it is at school and at the mosque that they are formatted to become criminals! Because in my country and beyond, the main suppliers of terrorists are mosques.”

Waleed Al-Husseini book The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam

The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam

School , Anger , Country , Children

“From an outsider's point of view, a naked woman out of doors is either a sun-worshipper or a rape victim; a man in the same state is either a sexual criminal or a plain lunatic.”

Kingsley Amis The Green Man

Maurice Allington in Ch. 2
The Green Man (1969)

Sun

“Communist parties are both legal and illegal, and the illegal structure governs the legal. But legality is an enormous aid to the illegal conspiracy. It prevents forthright action against the chief criminals; it leads to roundabout persecution; it enables the Communist to deceive simple, generous-hearted, and gullible citizens, and it leads to dubiously legal actions from the government itself. The present half-legal, half-persecuted position of the Party and its members is not justice. It operates to eliminate one evil with another, both evils containing dangers to the Constitutional order.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Source: "Let the Record Speak" 1939, “The Truth about Communism” https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051180423&view=1up&seq=5 (1948), p. 15-16

Evil , Justice , Heart

“One of the most dangerous words is 'extremist'. A person who commits acts of violence is not an 'extremist'; he is a criminal. If he commits those acts of violence with the object of detaching part of the territory of the United Kingdom and attaching it to a foreign country, he is an enemy under arms. There is the world of difference between a citizen who commits a crime, in the belief, however mistaken, that he is thereby helping to preserve the integrity of his country and his right to remain a subject of his sovereign, and a person, be he citizen or alien, who commits a crime with the intention of destroying that integrity and rendering impossible that allegiance. The former breaches the peace; the latter is executing an act of war. The use of the word 'extremist' of either or both conveys a dangerous untruth: it implies that both hold acceptable opinions and seek permissible ends, only that they carry them to 'extremes'. Not so: the one is a lawbreaker; the other is an enemy.The same purpose, that of rendering friend and foe indistinguishable, is achieved by references to the 'impartiality' of the British troops and to their function as 'keeping the peace.'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The British forces are in Northern Ireland because an avowed enemy is using force of arms to break down lawful authority in the province and thereby seize control. The army cannot be 'impartial' towards an enemy, nor between the aggressor and the aggressed: they are not glorified policemen, restraining two sets of citizens who might otherwise do one another harm, and duty bound to show no 'partiality' towards one lawbreaker rather than another. They are engaged in defeating an armed attack upon the state. Once again, the terminology is designed to obliterate the vital difference between friend and enemy, loyal and disloyal.</p><p>Then there are the 'no-go' areas which have existed for the past eighteen months. It would be incredible, if it had not actually happened, that for a year and a half there should be areas in the United Kingdom where the Queen's writ does not run and where the citizen is protected, if protected at all, by persons and powers unknown to the law. If these areas were described as what they are—namely, pockets of territory occupied by the enemy, as surely as if they had been captured and held by parachute troops—then perhaps it would be realised how preposterous is the situation. In fact the policy of refraining from the re-establishment of civil government in these areas is as wise as it would be to leave enemy posts undisturbed behind one's lines.</p>
Source: Speech to the South Buckinghamshire Conservative Women's Annual Luncheon in Beaconsfield (19 March 1971), from Reflections of a Statesman. The Writings and Speeches of Enoch Powell (1991), pp. 487-488

Peace , Country , War , Personality

“I alone bear the responsibility. But I am not a criminal because of that. If today I stand here as a revolutionary, it is as a revolutionary against the revolution. There is no such thing as high treason against the traitors of 1918.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

At his trial https://worldhistoryproject.org/1924/2/26/adolf-hitler-goes-on-trial-for-treason, 24 February 1924
1920s

“We need to have perspectives in candidates that reflect the perspectives of a younger generation... Young people have demands and unmet needs. One thing I want to do is say that we can make change and enact legislation that will help. Investment in clean energy, environmental action, real criminal justice reform, and college debt reform are issues that matter to millennials but get little attention in a Senate dominated by boomers and members of the Greatest Generation.”

Jon Ossoff (1987) American politician

Quoted in Fortune (magazine), Jon Ossoff becomes the only senator under 40, injecting some much-needed youth, by Nicole Goodkind, (6 January 2021)

Justice , Help , People , Making love

“Criminals are the product of arrested development.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

“Crime and madness have some similarity. Seeing the prisoners of the Conciergerie in the courtyard, or seeing the mad in the garden of a nursing home, it's the same thing. Both walk around, avoiding each other, glancing at each other at least singularly, atrociously, according to their thoughts of the moment, never cheerful or serious; because they know each other or they fear each other. The expectation of a condemnation, remorse, anxieties give walkers in the courtyard a worried and a haggard look of madmen. Consummate criminals alone have an assurance which resembles the tranquility of an honest life, the sincerity of a pure conscience.”

Honoré de Balzac book Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes

et Misères des courtisanes (The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans) (1837-1847), part IV. La dernière Incarnation de Vautrin (The Last Incarnation of Vautrin) https://books.google.ca/books?id=ajtOAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Splendeurs+et+Mis%C3%A8res+des+Coutisanes+Sc%C3%A8nes+de+la+Vie+parisienne&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiq69XJuJTvAhXrMlkFHcxvDVgQ6AEwCHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&f=falseSplendeurs, "Le Préau de la Conciergerie" ("The Courtyard of the Conciergerie") (chapter title).
Original: (fr) Le crime et la folie ont quelque similitude. Voir les prisonniers de la Conciergerie au préau, ou voir des fous dans le jardin d'une maison de santé, c'est une même chose. Les uns et les autres se promènent en s'évitant, se jettent des regards au moins siguliers, atroces, selon leurs pensées du moment, jamais gais ni sérieux ; car ils se connaissent ou ils se craignent. L'attente d'une condamnation, les remords, les anxiétés donnent aux promeneurs du préau l'air inquiet et hagard des fous. Les criminels consommés ont seuls une assurance qui ressemble à la tranquillité d'une vie honnête, à la sincérité d'une conscience pure.

Home , Fear , Sincerity , Life

“In the hood, even if you're not a hardcore criminal, crime is in your life in some way or another. There are degrees of it. It's everyone from the mom buying some food that fell off the back of a truck to feed her family, all the way up to the gangs selling military-grade weapons and hardware. The hood made me realize that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn't do: crime cares. Crime is grassroots. Crime looks for the young kids who need support and a lifting hand. Crime offers internship programs and summer jobs and opportunities for advancement. Crime gets involved in the community. Crime doesn't discriminate.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 209
Born a Crime

Family , Food , Support , Communication

“It is now an established fact that there is a complete lack of fear of law in the minds of criminals and instead the laxity of the system emboldens them to commit gruesome crimes against women and girls in the country.”

Swati Maliwal (1984) women activist who fights for women rights

Zee News https://zeenews.india.com/delhi/dcw-chief-swati-maliwal-asks-delhi-lg-anil-baijal-to-fast-track-two-delhi-rape-cases-ensure-death-penalty-for-accused-2308623.html, accessed May 9, 2021

Law , Country , Girl , Fear

“It is now an established fact that there is a complete lack of fear of law in the minds of criminals and instead the laxity of the system emboldens them to commit gruesome crimes against women and girls in the country. The justice delivery mechanism in the country is painfully long and cumbersome which more often than not breaks the spirit of the girl or woman who has been raped,”

Swati Maliwal (1984) women activist who fights for women rights

Zee News https://zeenews.india.com/delhi/dcw-chief-swati-maliwal-asks-delhi-lg-anil-baijal-to-fast-track-two-delhi-rape-cases-ensure-death-penalty-for-accused-2308623.html, accessed May 9, 2021

Justice , Law , Country , Girl

“At least try to see my motives. Granted that I was foolish—criminally foolish—can’t you understand? Can’t you try not to hate me?”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

She said softly, “I have tried not to love you and, as you see, I have failed.”
Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Stars, Like Dust (1951), Chapter 19 “Defeat!” (p. 163)

Hate , Understanding , Motivation

“Government is, and always has been, the greatest criminal threat to the peaceful members of society.”

Richard Ebeling (1950) American economist

Jacob G. Hornberger, editor, The Tyranny of Gun Control, “Introduction,” Fairfax, VA, Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF), (1997) p. xii

Peace

“The criminal code is not an effective instrument
an administrative system that is flexible and efficient
The blunt instrument of imprisoning someone, putting them through a rigorous criminal trial, is probably not the right answer for enforcing rules against hate speech online in every instance.”

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (1984) Canadian politician and lawyer (born 1984)

16 May 2019 https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/as-canadian-mps-weigh-how-to-police-online-hate-one-proposes-new-body-to-give-tickets-or-warnings-to-offenders

Hate

“The fact that Jesus died for your sins is actually encouraging the criminals to do whatever they want.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“The truth is beautiful only for those who want to hear it. Bitter for criminals and indifferent to the ignorant.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Indifference , Beauty , Truth

“Charity is system-affirming. It does nothing about the root causes of poverty, criminalization, and racism. It just treats a few of the symptoms selectively. Social justice work is about making it so that no one is poor, homeless, targeted by police, deportable, or exploited.”

Dean Spade (1977) American activist

“Having a Cause” versus Living in a Life Centered in Radical Transformation

Justice

“The customs of that most criminal nation have gained such strength that they have now been received in all lands. The conquered have given laws to the conquerors.”

Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist

De Superstitione (On Superstition)
Source: Apostle Paul: A Polite Bribe https://books.google.com.br/books?id=wefkDwAAQBAJ&pg=108 by Robert Orlando; p. 108

Law

“We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former Presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”

Mitch McConnell (1942) US Senator from Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader

2021, February

Justice , Country

“I do not believe that iron bars and brutal treatment have ever been cures for crime. And certainly I feel that in our great enlightened country, there is no reason for going back to middle ages and their form of torture for the criminal.”

Mary Harris Jones (1837–1930) Irish-born American labor and community organizer

Source: Autobiography of Mother Jones

Age , Country , Feeling

“The notion of a prison industrial complex insists on understandings of the punishment process that take into account economic and political structures and ideologies, rather than focusing myopically on the individual criminal conduct and efforts to "curb crime."”

Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete?

Source: Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), Chapter Five

Understanding , Effort

“While jails and prisons have been dominant institutions for the control of men, mental institutions have served a similar purpose for women. That is, deviant men have been constructed as criminal, while deviant women have been constructed as insane.”

Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete?

Source: Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), Chapter Four

Women , Men

“Our demand for restraint in foreign policy must be stronger than defense contractor lobbyists. Our demand for criminal justice reform must be stronger than the prison-industrial complex.”

Ro Khanna (1976) U.S. Representative from California

Source: Twitter post https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/1078674237311860736 (28 December 2018)

Justice

“When there is no consequences for criminality, it mushrooms.”

Oby Ezekwesili (1963) Nigerian accountant, politician, human rights activist, convener of bring back our girls (Chibok girls) and pres…

Source: https://independent.ng/2019debate-30-powerful-quotes-from-oby-ezekwesili-reactions-to-questions/ Quote during 2019 Presidential Debate

“[I]mpeachment does not require proof of a crime... The argument that only criminal offenses are impeachable is deeply and profoundly wrong. It misunderstands the Constitution, U.S. history, and the nature of criminal law in important ways.”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

To End a Presidency (2018)

History , Law , Nature , Way

“Spontaneous rallies were used as a pretext for provoking civil unrest. Religious radicals, criminals, outright thugs, looters and petty hooligans filled the streets as if on cue. Socio-economic and socio-political demands were put on the back burner, they were forgotten. Next followed the hot phase, and armed fighters, who were biding their time, took over. The main goal of these events became clear – to undermine the constitutional system, destroy governance institutions and seize power. It is obvious now that these armed activities were coordinated from a single centre, and the carefully planned operation entered its decisive phase.”

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (1953) Kazakh politician

Source: Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (2022) cited in: " Don’t Ignore All Sides of Russian Messaging https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/dont-ignore-all-sides-of-russian-messaging" in The Cipher Brief, 18 January 2022.

Decision , Time

“The worst criminals were not the men who did the deed. The crime of mobs and courtiers, infuriated by the lust of vengeance and of power, is not so strange a portent as the exultation of peaceful men, influenced by no present injury or momentary rage, but by the permanent and incurable perversion of moral sense wrought by a distorted piety.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

Source: 1860s, The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew (1869)

Sense , Rage , Peace , Men

“It's all political; if my music is literal and I'm a criminal, how the fuck can I raise a little girl?
I couldn't, I wouldn't be fit to”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Sing For The Moment"
2000s, The Eminem Show (2002)

Girl , Music

“It is time that we acknowledge the legacy of systemic racism in our criminal justice system and work together to eliminate the racial disparities that endure to this day. Doing so serves all Americans.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, May 2022
Source: Executive Order on Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety (May 25, 2022) https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/05/25/executive-order-on-advancing-effective-accountable-policing-and-criminal-justice-practices-to-enhance-public-trust-and-public-safety/

Justice , Time

“We want to get our army involved with the people in productive work and remind it constantly that, without patriotic training, a soldier is only a criminal with power.”

Thomas Sankara (1949–1987) President of Upper Volta

From a speech to the United Nations on 4 October 1984 https://www.marxists.org/archive/sankara/1984/october/04.htm

People , Training

“The West is an oasis for criminals from Russia.”

Dmitry Peskov (1967) Russian politician

"Песков назвал Запад оазисом для преступников" https://ria.ru/20220403/zapad-1781539233.html (in Russian; "Peskov called the West an oasis for criminals"), interview in RIA Novosti, 3 April 2022
CNN Interview (March 2022)

“If there is an infallible mark of an advanced civilization it is surely the marginalization and criminalization of violence.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969) Dutch feminist, author

Source: 2010s, Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010), Chapter 13, “Violence and the Closing of the Muslim Mind” (p. 191)