Conroy Proposes Paddling Graffiti Vandals : Crime: Legislator says favorable comments on Singapore caning of American teen gave him the idea. Critics call it unconstitutional.

Taking a cue from the celebrated caning case in Singapore, an Orange County lawmaker is preparing a bill to require paddling of juvenile graffiti vandals.

Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) said he was prodded into pursuing the idea by constituents caught up in the highly publicized debate about the caning of an American teen-ager for spraying paint on cars in Singapore.

“The thing I was hearing from the public was, ‘Why can’t we do something like this? Our graffiti problem is so bad,’ ” Conroy said. “I’m not a crusader for beating up on children, but I’m also not for children beating up on adults or defacing property.”

Although the measure has not been introduced, the notion of importing the caning concept to California did not sit well with several legal scholars or legislative leaders.

“That clearly would be considered cruel and unusual punishment in this country,” said Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. “We haven’t had public whippings and lynchings since practically the Middle Ages around here. To come back with that now is ludicrous.”

Peter Arenella, a UCLA law professor and nationally recognized expert in criminal law, said “there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell” that the bill would pass constitutional muster.

“What is significant about this proposal is not the likelihood of its enactment, but the fact that it was made at all,” Arenella said, adding that it reflects “the current hysterical” debate about crime.

Conroy, however, contended his bill could survive a court test, noting that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia--the intellectual leader of the court’s conservative wing--said in a talk last week in San Francisco that he believes caning is constitutional.

“If Justice Scalia thinks it’s constitutional, why should we question it?” Conroy said. “He’s more of a constitutional scholar than I am.”

In addition to the urgings by constituents, Conroy said he was inspired by several of his young staff members who began discussing the merits of corporal punishment when headlines appeared about the Singapore case. Michael Fay, an 18-year-old high school senior from Dayton, Ohio, received four strokes of a rattan cane May 5 after being found guilty of vandalism in the island nation and was also sentenced to four months in jail and a $2,230 fine.

Conroy has asked the legislative counsel for an opinion on his proposal, which would require that a physician be present. As now drawn, the bill would allow no more than six whacks. Conroy said the punishment should be carried out in a public forum with a paddle.

While public caning has not been widely practiced in the United States for generations, Conroy recalled that when he was a Marine Corps officer stationed in North Carolina he heard about parents ordered to paddle their children in court as punishment for juvenile crimes. It served, he said, as an effective attitude adjuster.

“The point behind this is deterrence, not punishment,” Conroy said. “It could prove to be an effective way to change the lives of some youngsters who are now on the wrong track.”

Conroy also insisted that he is not trying to whip up election-year publicity, and would drop his effort if the public does not embrace it.

If he goes forward, Conroy would introduce the bill as part of the Legislature’s continuing special session on crime, which has already yielded a bumper crop of tough anti-crime bills.

During the Fay episode, supporters of the flogging littered Congress and the Singapore Embassy with telephone calls and letters. Meanwhile, one nationwide poll found that three-quarters of all Americans thought caning would be the appropriate punishment for graffiti.

Such sentiments reflect an American tradition. From the pillory to the paddle, the United States has a long history of corporal punishment. The Continental Congress drew up regulations in 1775 permitting flogging on American warships, and it wasn’t abolished until 1850. The last legal whipping for a crime occurred in Delaware in 1952. Today, 23 states still allow corporal punishment--mostly paddling--in schools.

Mark A.R. Kleiman, an associate professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, suggested that Conroy’s bill could be abused by the courts or penal system.

“They’d go overboard,” Kleiman said. “Rather than basing punishment on the merits of a case, some county judge would start randomly handing out canings to anyone who looked like they simply needed a good flogging.”

Kleiman speculated that state and federal courts could declare caning to be constitutional, but suggested it is inappropriate to rely on judicial interpretations to determine the merits of Conroy’s bill.

“It’s obscene to pluck out graffiti for corporal punishment as opposed to something more serious, like assault and battery,” Kleiman said. “I admit I sometimes come across graffiti and would like to see the guy who did it at the other end of a stick. But that’s not necessarily a sane reaction. . . . This is one trial balloon that ought to be punctured.”