Jim Crow Marijuana Arrests Keep U.s. Prisons Thriving

[LongHairBri]

read full story here

 

 

By Nat Hentoff
This article appeared on Cato.org on November 20, 2013.

A startling scandal in our so-called criminal justice system is largely unnoticed by most Americans because the media in all their forms ignore it. But the American Civil Liberties Union does not.

According to a June 3 report from the ACLU, the “over-policing” of marijuana use combined with “staggering racial bias” are leading to appallingly high numbers of incarcerated African-Americans:

“Between 2001 and 2010, there were over 8 million pot arrests in the U.S. That’s one bust every 37 seconds and hundreds of thousands ensnared in the criminal justice system … Marijuana use is roughly equal among blacks and whites, yet blacks are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession” (“The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Report,” aclu.org, June 3).

Citing the ACLU’s grim statistics, an August report from The Economist says, “blacks are almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession … in some places their arrest is over eight times more likely.

“People with criminal records risk losing public benefits, being kicked out of public housing and suffering permanent gaps in employment and earning prospects” (“Waking life,” The Economist, Aug. 24).

In other words, their lives could be essentially over.

The leading, continuing source of documented information on this brazen American prejudice is marijuana-arrests.com, “an online library about marijuana possession arrests, race and police policy in New York City and beyond.”

The site is part of the Marijuana Arrest Research project, which examines “race, police policy, and the growing number of arrests for marijuana possession and other victimless crimes in large U.S. cities, especially New York City.” The organization’s co-director is Harry G. Levine, a professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center at City University of New York.

Furthermore, Levine, whom I interviewed when I was at The Village Voice for more than 50 years, has definitively reached a national audience in the Nov. 18 edition of The Nation magazine with his story, “The Scandal of Racist Marijuana Arrests — and What To Do About It.”
 

[Chauncy Gardner]

This has been going on for years and people have been sounding the alarm, yet the mainstream media is apparently intent on ignoring it. Why?

 

Is racism more imbedded in this country than we are lead to believe? It's like the weather - everybody talks about it, but nobody seems to want to do anything about it.

[trichcycler]

maybe our media is THE tool of the oppressors

[Ms Chocolate]

maybe our media is THE tool of the oppressors

 

LOL

Maybe?!

 

This is old new that is starting to gather attention; in part due to the book "The New Jim Crow"

 

[Wild Bill]

maybe our media is THE tool of the oppressors

[trichcycler]

Willie Lynch(yep, Lynch mob)

 

first introduced this to the wealthy slave owners. those slave owners are still the entities that control some of the largest corporations. when slavery was to become outlawed, they already had their plan. That plan was to make everyone the new slave, with a minimum wage, making it legal.

the plan hinges on a simple basic idea, and we cannot seem to break free from it since. Fear , distrust, and envy, towards all of our brothers and sister, keeps us from coming together. How else could the rule of just 600 policy makers in this country get away with the atrocities they commit daily ?  We are not weak, we're just on our knees, licking the boots of tyranny for the taste of freedom. 

 

Just hear his instruction here, when slavery was accepted, and then applied to all of us together.

 

"Gentlemen you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I have a fool proof method for controlling your black slaves. I guarantee everyone of you that if installed correctly it will control the slaves for at least 300 years. My method is simple. Any member of your family can use it.

I have outlined a number of differences amount the slaves and I take theses differences and make them bigger. I use fear, distrust, and envy for control purposes. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple list of differences, and think about them. On top of my list is "Age" but it is there only because it starts with an "A", the second is "color" or shade, there is intelligence, size, sex, size of plantations, status on plantation, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, east, west, north, south, have fine hair course hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action-but before that I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust and envy is stronger than adulation, respect, or admiration.

The black slave after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self-refueling a self generating for hundreds, maybe thousands.

Don't forget you must pitch the old black male vs the young black male, and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the dark skin slaves vs the light skin slaves and the light skin slaves vs the the dark skin slaves. You must use the female slave vs the male slave, and the male slave vs the female slave You must also have your white servants and overseers distrust all blacks, but it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us but they must love, respect, and trust only us. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control, use them. Have your wives and children use them. Never miss an opportunity. If used correctly for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful."

 

when we break free from that indoctrination.............ahhhh

Edited November 30, 2013 by grassmatch

[knucklehead bob]

This has been going on for years and people have been sounding the alarm, yet the mainstream media is apparently intent on ignoring it. Why?

 

Ignoring it ? They , are the main perpetrators .

 

 

There's a tune by Zappa about it .   

Edited November 30, 2013 by knucklehead bob

[LongHairBri]

[Norby]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo couldn't even get the loophole out of the law where if a cop asked you to empty your pockets and if you had mj in private(in your pocket) it was now public and leads to a misdemeaner.  Under NYS the possession of up to 25 grams in private is only a ticket.  I think that's where a lid(7/8ths oz. or 24.5 grams) came from.  Just like here, it's interpretation of the law that they use to up arrests which turn out with (I think) a 4 to 1 arrest rate.

  Friggin democratic state and they can't get medical MJ and people still get arrested w/ loopholes in the law.  No problem with passing an "assault weapons" ban in the middle of the night w/ DISAPPROVAL from every county outside NYC but can't do it for med mj.  Glad I left that state!  I think it's going to take a LOT more than I thought to fix things with the money they make off it being illegal.

Edited December 1, 2013 by Norby

[knucklehead bob]

 

Thanks LongHairBri