@pzmyers @cstross we had a brief interlude here in Italy where we actually did that. The Mafia responded by literally blowing up the prosecutors involved (famously Giovanni Falcone, whose assassination tore up a whole section of a montorway, and Giovanni Borsellino, whose assassination blew up a a building). This was followed by a negotiation between the government (Silvio Berlusconi was PM at the time) and the Mafia for the State to be less strict in exchange for less killings.