Sometimes I end up listening to what they have to say, just so I can get an idea of what people are actually hoping to accomplish.
Today I got a call from a cop asking for a donation to a cause. They wanted funding so that they could punish criminals who injure cops. They didn't specify how though. I ended the call with a nice "This isn't a cause I would support" and hung up.
Studies have shown that the size of punishment isn't what has the most impact, the likelyhood of getting caught does. (In fact, the punishment has a negative impact overall.) Since in this situation it is very unlikely that an increase in likelyhood of getting punished is even possible, the only reason they want this is to hurt people that do something that is considered a social stigma in their eyes. The choice of words was interesting too. They didn't say anything other than "criminal", which as you can probably guess, is dehumanising. You can see their goal was never to help people, only hurt.
If I could go back I would have probably asked a question or two. I would really be interested to see how they respond to "do you think criminals deserve a right to vote?".