Do the unemployed deserve protected legal status? Empathy and the origins of cruelty. Don’t do time for the crime – pay the fine. Gun fight over the Second Amendment.
Do the unemployed deserve protected legal status?
Unemployment remains high, and employers who are actually hiring find that they already have the pick of the litter. Industry veterans are applying for entry-level jobs and people with advanced degrees are vying for the jobs that high-school grads used to get.
Employers demanded more and more out of job applicants and they got it, so some took it a step further. Some employers made it clear in job postings that they would only consider applicants who were currently employed. This left the nation’s 14 million unemployed workers at an enormous disadvantage.
Some national jobs boards banned ads that say no to unemployed workers, and now the Obama Administration wants to make it law. In the President’s new jobs bill there’s a proposal that would add the unemployed to the list of workers that it’s illegal to discriminate against. That means people who unsuccessfully compete for a job can sue if they believe their employment status was part of the decision making process. Labor advocates say this is an appropriate reaction to an employment market that’s making unfair demands on potential employees, and in a nation where millions are unemployed, the last thing we need is more hurdles for workers.
Critics, including the national Chamber of Commerce, say so few employers actually have an employment requirement that it’s totally unnecessary, and this opens job creators up to spurious lawsuits.
WEIGH IN:
Do they have a point? Or are employers being unnecessarily picky when it comes to applicants? How would a worker prove his or her employment status was reason for not landing the job? And will the bill have an effect on our runaway unemployment numbers?
Guests:
Judy Conti, Federal Advocacy Coordinator, National Employment Law Project (NELP)
Michael A. Kalish, lawyer specializing in employment law, Epstein Becker and Green
Empathy and the origins of cruelty
Cambridge psychopathology professor Simon Baron-Cohen has investigated psychology and autism for decades and has developed a new brain-based theory of human cruelty.
However, going beyond developmental psychology, he examines social and environmental factors that can erode empathy, including neglect and abuse. Borderline personality disorder, autism, narcissism, psychosis and Asperger's syndrome all have one thing in common: a lack of empathy.
In his new book "The Science of Evil," Baron-Cohen examines how in some cases, the absence of empathy can be dangerous, and in others, it can simply mean a different way of seeing the world.
WEIGH IN:
What are the root causes of cruel behavior? If lack of empathy leads to cruelty, should we pay more attention to its origins?
Guest:
Simon Baron-Cohen, author of "The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty"; Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge
Don’t do time for the crime, pay the fine
Noisy neighbors, barking dogs, construction without permits, public safety violations — these are just some of the wide-ranging criminal offenses that fall under the Los Angeles municipal code.
Violation usually leads to criminal charges and court dates, followed by a bureaucracy of filings, hearings and appeals.
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich thinks there’s a better, quicker way to handle these so-called “nuisance” crimes: Decriminalize many of the violations, and instead have police issue administrative citations, like parking tickets.
Speaking with KPCC's Larry Mantle on Tuesday, Assistant City Attorney Jane Usher agreed.
“You can imagine the volumes of code enforcement cases that are currently sitting on our desks. I’d rather issue them a ticket or even a second ticket if need be and get some movement and hopefully, the goal, get compliance,” he said.
The Administrative Citation Enforcement program, supporters say, could result in quicker, cleaner resolution of cases, less clogged courtrooms and prosecutorial expense. They also say the city could benefit from the fines imposed, rather than the state, which collects revenues from criminal offenses.
Critics say the program could deny due process to city residents.
The city’s Budget and Finance Committee met yesterday to review the proposal, which is under consideration.
WEIGH IN:
Is City Hall prepared to take on a new system? Would the threat of a fine – rather than jail time – be enough to deter your next-door neighbor from building his fence too high? Or might people factor the cost of a fine into their behavior – and just keep throwing those annoying house parties? Do you support decriminalizing nuisance crimes?
Guest:
Jane Usher, Special Assistant City Attorney with the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office
Gun fight over the Second Amendment
Several high-profile cases in the past three years have revived and reshaped the debate over Americans’ right to bear arms. Most recently, the Supreme Court in 2008’s District of Columbia v. Heller struck down a law banning handguns in the nation’s capitol. But the battle has been going on for centuries. And no wonder – the language of the amendment itself, historian Adam Winkler reminds us, is “maddeningly ambiguous.” Gun control laws have been enacted and retracted, with varying degrees of success, from colonial times until now. In his new book, Winkler takes us on an historical journey of gun rights and restrictions, starting with the founding fathers, continuing through the Wild West, Prohibition, the Black Panther Movement, the Brady Bill and up to the present. In doing so, he illuminates our country’s long and fiery dance around the Second Amendment, as well as the social, racial and other factors that have divided our nation over this locked and loaded issue.
Guest:
Adam Winkler, Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and author of "Gun Fight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America"
Adam Winkler will speak at the Los Angeles Public Library at 7:00 p.m. this evening as part of the ALOUD series, in conversation with Erwin Chemerinsky.