http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2798698Oh my.
Ms. Ed, the unappellated eohippus:
Horse with no Name (1000+ posts) Thu Jan-31-08 01:29 PM
Original message
Oh my aching ass. Texas Senator looking to ban prepaid cellphones
About these advertisementsWhat the ****? What about people who cannot afford Sprint, et al raping charges or do not qualify for a cellphone? I have a Sprint plan but I also keep a Virgin mobile phone handy with a few minutes on it.
This is outrageous.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestne...
A state senator and Dallas police officials are taking aim at prepaid cellphones in a strategy to fight criminal gangs that operate on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.
“Criminal gangs have become a major threat to our quality of living,†state Sen. John Carona said during a news conference at Dallas police headquarters. “They reach from the street corners of Dallas to the four corners of the globe, literally.â€
During Thursday’s news conference, the senator proposed making prepaid phones harder to get. He said that initiative would be the first of many to combat gangs.
“Prepaids are popular with criminals because they are cheap, accessible, untraceable, and discardable,†he said. “They don’t even have to bother blocking or disguising the phone number, which means if the crime involves a scam, your caller ID registers a regular number with a local area code, so your guard goes down, and you don’t even know what’s coming.â€
“This legislation will lead the nation in taking prepaid cellphones out of the criminal equation,†he said.
Stephanie (1000+ posts) Thu Jan-31-08 01:31 PM
Response to Original message
1. criminals often use cars to get away, too
we should ban them
Angela Shelley (807 posts) Thu Jan-31-08 01:32 PM
Response to Reply #1
6. and some senators don´t use their brains to think.
We should ban them.
Yep. The first one that comes to mind is Vast Teddy, although there's others too.
Winterblues (115 posts) Thu Jan-31-08 01:45 PM
Response to Reply #1
14. They wear clothes as well
No one should be allowed to have anything because criminals do too.
rocknation (1000+ posts) Thu Jan-31-08 02:30 PM
Response to Reply #1
23. YOU FORGOT GUNS!
And knives. And baseball bats. And ski masks. So what if banning them would unescessarily inconvenice the innocent the law-abiding? The priority is to keep them SAFE!
LisaM (1000+ posts) Thu Jan-31-08 01:31 PM
Response to Original message
3. I have a pay as you go plan. I wouldn't change it.
I never have a cell phone bill, and I don't want one. (I think it's slightly different from the phones that you just buy and discard though - I had to show ID, etc., and I can change it to a plan if I want).
And on it goes; it's a medium-sized bonfire there on Skins's island.
You know, cellular telephones are outside of my own life experiences, for obvious reasons, and I'm curious.
I have the sense "prepaid cellular service" is some sort of rip-off, like those telephone calling-cards that advertise "4 cents a minute".....and then count "minutes" as five seconds, and not sixty seconds.
The normal and usual and customary cost for a land-line telephone around here is $24 per month, and one can of course make unlimited local calls, yakking away 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, 31 days a month, for that charge.
Does anyone know how "prepaid cellular services" stacks up, against that?