Kriminalität gehört generell verboten

[pne]

Edit: this is a non-entry, better titled "Philip should read the context". See elgrande's comment.

I happened on a page (in German) which describes various political parties present in Hamburg describing their views on a variety of topics.

One thing that just caught my eye was the PARTEI's statement on "Innenpolitik" (also visible here, along with other responses only from this party), which included this gem:

- Kriminalität gehört generell verboten.

That is, roughly: "All crime should be prohibited".

Which is kind of circular, isn't it? Or what's the definition of "crime"?

Dictionaries say, for example: "an action or an instance of negligence that [...] and that is legally prohibited" (Dictionary.com); "an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it [...]; unlawful activity" (AHD).

Both dictionaries also allow for extended senses such as "any offense"; "a foolish, senseless, or shameful act"; "a serious offense, especially one in violation of morality". But it seems to me that the primary meaning is related to legal prohibition, in which case demanding that crime be prohibited is useless: it's already prohibited, otherwise it wouldn't be a crime.

Ĉu ne?

Comments

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

I guess you don't know the PARTEI (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARTEI). The party was founded by editors of the satirical magazine "Titanic" and its political aims are often of a satiric nature. Seems like in the statement you stated they're simply following one of their own declared aims, namely gaining votes through populism.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Ah, no, I wasn't aware of that.

I had heard of the name and knew it had a vaguely ridiculous-sounding and long-winded expansion, but didn't know of its origin or aims.

[pne.livejournal.com]

And now that I've read the rest of their responses, I see that it's not something to be taken seriously -- that bullet point just caught my eye when I scrolled by, and I didn't read the rest.