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Criminals Using Virtual Maps Face Tougher Laws in Louisiana

by Amar Toor on May 31, 2010 at 04:30 PM

Virtual Maps
The Louisiana Senate recently passed a bill requiring a minimum 10-year sentence for any terrorist who uses virtual online maps to plan his or her attack. And no one's really sure why.

According to NOLA.com, the bill, proposed by Republican Senator Robert Adley, "defines a 'virtual street-level map' as one that is available on the Internet and can generate the location or picture of a home or building by entering the address of the structure or an individual's name on a website." In laymen's terms, that means 'Google Maps.' If burglars use online maps to plot their crimes, they'll now have an additional year tacked on to their sentences. Not only did the bill pass, it did so by a unanimous count of 89-0 -- which is all the more incredible when you consider the fact that this legislation falls squarely on the 'Stupid' side of the ledger.

In reality, it's likely that any convicted terrorist would face a jail sentence that far exceeds ten years anyway (assuming, of course, that said terrorist is actually tried in civilian court). And perhaps the prospect of an extra year in the slammer might be enough to deter some small-time burglars from using Google Maps to scope out their local suburbia. But are we really supposed to believe that this will be enough to deter them from committing the crime altogether? Last we checked, paper maps are still widely available, and it doesn't really take a Herculean effort for a thief to hop in his car and scope out the premises himself.

As Geekosystem points out, it's likely that Louisiana's latest initiative is simply the result of political image maintenance. Because state representatives are so intent on portraying themselves as crime fighting superheroes, they'll sign their names on even the most inane pieces of legislation, as long as they can use it to their advantage during the next campaign. Sure, most legislators have varying degrees of individual interest behind each decision they make. But at a time when Louisiana has far more important things to worry about, it's appalling that the Senate would devote even ten minutes to a toothless, vacuous law -- all in the name of political preening. [From: Nola; via: Geekosystem]

Tags: burglary, crime, google maps, GoogleMaps, internet map searches, InternetMapSearches, legislation, legislature, Louisiana, maps, Senate, terrorism

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