2016 Postmortem
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NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)Vietnam had it's "body counts" and the war on drugs has it "prisoner count".
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)The police ignore the crimes or just choose to not look for them in white areas.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)The War on Marijuana in Black and White
https://www.aclu.org/feature/war-marijuana-black-and-white
Marijuana Arrests by the Numbers
According to the ACLU’s original analysis, marijuana arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana. Nationwide, the arrest data revealed one consistent trend: significant racial bias. Despite roughly equal usage rates, Blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)industry.
We've had a Democratic Administration for eight years, and this is where we are. Nothing done to end this, what Bernie calls 'morally repugnant practice' of putting prisons into private hands.
EIGHT YEARS! Shameful, those prisons are horrors, slave labor as they get those unfortunate prisoners to work for pennies for big Corporations.
Why does anyone still refer to this country as a democracy??
And it just keeps getting worse. 'Elect Democrats'!
We did!
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)We didn't. I'm sure things would have improved a lot more without the large Republican majority in the house. As it is, the republicans have large control of states as well.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)but then we had two disastrous mid-term elections. We might have had a good Democrat in the US Senate from Arkansas if Bill Clinton and Obama hadn't campaigned against the better candidate in the 2010 Democratic primary. And we might have had a good Democrat sitting in the Arkansas governor's mansion now if the state party apparatchiks hadn't forced him out of the primary before any votes could be cast.
DUers from Wisconsin and elsewhere have told me of similar stories in their states.
And there were 60 Democratic politicians who endorsed Christie for New Jersey governor in his last election, and the state party didn't lift a finger to help the Democratic challenger.
frizzled
(509 posts)nt
mhatrw
(10,786 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)So it's a primary wash, really.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)law enforcement and prison expansion. Hillary actively supported it.
He voted for it because of this:
Title IV: Violence Against Women
Subtitle A: Safe Streets for Women
Subtitle B: Safe Homes for Women
Subtitle C: Civil Rights for Women
Subtitle D: Equal Justice for Women in the Courts Act
Subtitle E: Violence Against Women Act Improvements
Subtitle F: National Stalker and Domestic Violence Reduction
Subtitle G: Protections for Battered Immigrant Women and Children
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Bernie was an active member of Congress and voted for the bill.
That will hurt Bernie more than Hillary.
He protested some provisions you claim? Doesn't matter. He still voted for the bill.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)her on this issue)
The sad truth is that, unfortunately, there are those who would rather talk about fighting crime than actually give you the tools that you can use to fight crime. And what we have to do, those of us in civilian life, is to stand up and support those of you who are on the front line. Because this crime bill will make a difference in your lives as police officers and in the lives of the communities you serve.
There will be more police on the street, a hundred thousand more police officers, with flexibility given to local communities to determine how best to use them. We will be able to say, loudly and clearly, that for repeat, violent, criminal offenders — three strikes and you’re out. We are tired of putting you back in through the revolving door.
We will also finally understand that fighting crime is not just a question of punishment, although there are many dollars in the crime bill to build more prisons. It is also a question of prevention. We want to give police officers the tools to help young people stay out of trouble. We want to begin to give young people something to say yes to, not just to have to face the bleak, alienated streets that too often push them in the wrong direction.
And also in this crime bill is something that goes along with the domestic violence initiative. For the first time, there is a special section that focuses on violence against women. And understand that there are special problems that go along with domestic violence and other crimes committed against women.
So all in all, this crime bill tries to take a bottoms-up approach, because it is built on the experience of people who have actually been there, people like yourselves.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/times-change-heres-hillary-clinton-in-1994-talking-up-tough#.wwwy2JyA0
Bernie was saying this:
In other words, there is a logical and rational process called cause and effect. In terms of Newtonian physics, that means that every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, Mr. Speaker, there are reasons why things happen, as controversial as that statement may be.
A farmer neglects to tend and care for his fields—it is likely that the crop will fail.
A company neglects to invest in research and development—it is likely that the company will not be profitable.
In a similar way, Mr. Speaker, a society which neglects, which oppresses and which disdains a very significant part of its population—which leaves them hungry, impoverished, unemployed, uneducated, and utterly without hope, will, through cause and effect, create a population which is bitter, which is angry, which is violent, and a society which is crime-ridden. This is the case in America, and it is the case in countries throughout the world.
Mr. Speaker, how do we talk about the very serious crime problem in America without mentioning that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world, by far, with 22 percent of our children in poverty and 5 million who are hungry today? Do the Members think maybe that might have some relationship to crime? How do we talk about crime when this Congress is prepared, this year, to spend 11 times more for the military than for education; when 21 percent of our kids drop out of high school; when a recent study told us that twice as many young workers now earn poverty wages as 10 years ago; when the gap between the rich and the poor is wider, and when the rate of poverty continues to grow? Do the members think that might have some relationship to crime?
Mr. Speaker, it is my firm belief that clearly, there are some people in our society who are horribly violent, who are deeply sick and sociopathic, and clearly these people must be put behind bars in order to protect society from them. But it is also my view that through the neglect of our Government and through a grossly irrational set of priorities, we are dooming tens of millions of young people to a future of bitterness, misery, hopelessness, drugs, crime, and violence. And Mr. Speaker, all the jails in the world, and we already imprison more people per capita than any other country, and all of the executions in the world, will not make that situation right. We can either educate or electrocute. We can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we can build more jails. Mr. Speaker, let us create a society of hope and compassion, not one of hate and vengeance.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/09/1410122/-Senator-Sanders-remarks-on-1994-Crime-Bill#
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)got as a result of the bill was where we are today. Can you demonstrate for me that there has been a reduction in violence against women that justifies the rest of what the bill did? No you can't. Very sorry, both were wrong to support it, Bernie was wrong to vote for it and it was in fact a big giant Drug War bill. I knew it then, but most everyone at the time was all about 'law and order'.
mhatrw
(10,786 posts)Joe Biden wrote it and Clinton sold it, though.
The bill included an assault weapons ban, but most of it was the prison industrial complex's wet dream.
If you remember, at the time, a racist political bludgeon was being used on any candidate who could be labeled "weak on crime."
Rather than fight back against that lunacy, I think that Sanders, facing a tough reelection battle that November, voted for the bill so that his nay vote could not be used against him politically. Sanders barely held on to his House seat in the 1994 election in which the Democrats got killed nationwide.
Yes, Sanders is a politician. He has compromised on occasion to stay in office. But I would put his overall Congressional voting record up against just about anyone. When it comes to his overall voting record, he is in the top 1%.
He did not write the bill. He did not actively campaign for the bill. He did not force the vote on the bill in the climate of fear that all Democrats whose seats would be up in 1994 faced. He reluctantly voted for it, and I'm pretty sure he would admit his mistake.
reddread
(6,896 posts)will have to do.
