In many ways, the $22 billion crime bill moving through Congress this week is as flimsy as a tin badge. Around its core of solid proposals -- money to build more high-security prisons and help local governments hire more cops -- are the kind of specious gestures that are made whenever Washington tries to tap into voter sentiment on what is largely a state-and-local issue. If adopted in its present form, the bill will extend the death penalty to 47 mostly uncommon crimes and create 60 new federal crimes for acts that are already punished by state law. Among the offenses...
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