Fred Thompson seems to think forgiveness is one of his strong suits. The Republican presidential aspirant recently brushed off news that one of his campaign co-chairmen, Phil Martin, posted a guilty plea in 1979 for selling 11 pounds of marijuana and a no-contest plea in 1983 for cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. "You are talking about something that happened in his life, I guess, 25 years ago... when he was in his 20s," Thompson said.
Not to be outdone, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor running for the Republican presidential nomination, has excused the illegal dealings of Bernard Kerik, Giuliani's former police commissioner whose nomination to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security he supported. "Sure, there were issues," Giuliani told the Associated Press, "but if I have the same degree of success and failure as president of the United States, this country will be in great shape."
Even before them, President George Bush commuted the 30-month prison sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby who had been convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the probe of the leak of the name of a CIA operative. In another case of compassion and forgiveness of the powerful, the President claimed that Libby's sentence was "excessive," and that the suffering of the former aid to Vice President Cheney "long-lasting."
Thompson, Giuliani, and Bush have proven that they're willing to forgive millionaires and the powerful for big mistakes. Libby is one of the few exception to Bush's stinginess with forgiveness of prisons -- on pace to issue the fewest pardons since George Washington. If either Thompson or Giuliani become president, I just hope they'll extend the same compassion to wayward kids in my community who have run-ins with the law that they've shown to their friends.
The criminal justice system certainly hasn't been forgiving over the past 20 years. In response to the onslaught of cocaine abuse in the 1980s, the nation crafted a drug policy totally lacking in compassion, and worse, that was totally unfair to the weakest, and most disadvantaged, in society.
The sudden, frightening epidemic of a new street drug -- crack cocaine -- and the drug induced death of basketball star Len Bias in 1986 -- impelled besieged lawmakers to enact stiff punishments for crack cocaine offenses, including long mandatory minimum jail sentences. Instead of reducing drug addiction and crime, those laws -- however well-intentioned, swelled prison populations, created a sentencing divide that victimized young Black men, left a generation of children fatherless, and drove up the costs of a justice system focused more on harsh punishment than rehabilitation.
The resulting frustration is not limited to the heartbroken mothers and shattered communities. Law enforcement and even judges are chafing under the inequity in the law that slaps the same 5-year sentence for possessing 5 grams of crack cocaine as is mandated for possessing 500 grams of powder cocaine -- a 100-1 disparity.
The inequality is feeding the population of 2.2 million prisoners, the world's largest. Blacks, who are most likely to be caught up in drug sweeps, comprise only 15 percent of users but account for over 40 percent of the 500,000 imprisoned drug offenders. Caught in a cycle of poverty, crime and recidivism, it's no wonder that more than half of the African American male high school drop-outs have spent time in jail. Overall, Black communities have more kids behind bars than they do in college.
The criminal justice system is only inching toward reform. Last week, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which is mandated by Congress to set sentencing guidelines for judges, reduced the recommended penalties for crack cocaine convictions. Under the ruling, sentences meted out to new crack cocaine offenders will be 15 months shorter than the current average of 120 months.
We urge that body to make its amendment retroactive so that past offenders may benefit. Retroactivity has the potential to shorten the sentences of 19,500 low-level offenders, unburdening our prisons of 2,520 of them in the first year and reuniting families left in shambles.
Next year, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Sentencing Commission's guidelines have unduly hamstrung judges. We urge the high Court to restore judicial discretion by granting federal judges greater flexibility in deviating from those guidelines. I am heartened by the Sentencing Commission's actions thus far and look forward to the Court's decision, but it's far from enough.
However the Sentencing Commission and the Court decide, it is Congress −- and Congress alone −- that has the unique authority (and responsibility) to set crack penalties on par with powder penalties. I have proposed the Crack-Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act to do just that, since there is no significant difference between crack and powder cocaine, experts agree −- except that 90 percent of those sentenced under severe crack cocaine penalties are Black or Hispanic.
The policy of targeting crack cocaine users and sellers has diverted law enforcement's focus away from incarcerating drug kingpins who supply them. No one is condoning drug use or crime of any kind, at any level. But it seems to me, there could be a more judicious allocation of resources at both ends of the drug pipeline: Choke off the flow of drugs before they reach small-time thugs on our streets and rehabilitate more of those who slip through the cracks. Every Frank Lucas produces ten thousand crackheads and dealers, and for them, the stigma of a prison sentence is a ticket to a career of crime.
To me, the growing incidents of high school dropouts, drugs, and crime are national security issues, threatening our ability to compete in the global economy. We cannot afford to cede ground to countries like India and China, by allowing any of our youngsters to go astray while our standing in the world dwindles. The cost in human and economic capital eventually will be too much for our country to bear. America has to invest in these kids -− not throw the book at them. The smartest approach employs good sense; the most moral approach employs compassion. The very best approach employs both.
President Bush and presidential wannabes Thompson and Giuliani seem to find it so easy to find compassion when one of their own breaks the law. But they are silent when the poor and powerless are warehoused in our jails because of an unjust criminal justice system.
Just to show how smart these violent animals are they managed to plan it for a long holiday weekend so we can't contact anyone and get him whatever help he needs NOW while he is hurting.
I don't understand man's inhumanity to man as it is but this deal with the prison refusing to help juvenile victims of violence with medical help just is too much for my brain to deal with. If anyone has any words of advice, the family is open to whatever ideas you have. If all else fails would you at least send positive energy to him in the direction of Cocoa Beach, FL?
pacarr50
Joined: Nov 11, 2007
Posts: 1
Status: Offline Posted: Nov 11, 2007 - 05:38 PM
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My grandson was transferred from Indian River CI to Brevard due to the results of an investigation regarding a guard unnecessarily hitting him on a regular basis. He was "greeted" at Brevard by inmates who beat him, knocked out his teeth, ripped his lip, broke his nose, blacked both eyes. Although this type of behavior is not unheard of it shocked me to learn that after his mother drove 7.5 hours to see him they refused to let her in and worse than that they will not send him to a medical facility.
Beatings that severe (the Capt confirmed it was extremely severe) can cause brain damage and even death. They are refusing to give him medical treatment other than having facility personnel make sure he is still breathing and they put him in protective custody so he can heal before they send him back out into general population to possibly have it done again. My brain is just not processing this.
The Capt said there would be an inside investigation and an outside investigation would only be allowed if my grandson said who beat him. Are they insane? That would be his death warrant. He's not a violent kid himself but he's also not stupid.
His mother wants him put in a prison in the FL panhandle which would be closer to home but they said he has to give up his youthful offender status for that. I've not seen so many rules that have hands tied.
I have posted this before, but it is worth posting again. This ought to tell you something about the Clinton's and how much they care.
I wonder why, as a Democrat you do not even mention the attack on our constitution for having these sentancing guide lines in the first place...Im not sure what the Democratic party is up to, but it is certainly not working to protect the people...
Hundreds of thousand s of scientists, Doctors and even (many) Law enforcement officials say that these issues are medical issues and not criminal ones.
When we discover an alcoholic among us, we do not throw them in jail. Only when they commit a crime.
Why then should we throw these innocent young people with their whole lives in front of them for making a mistake and doing what their culture tells them to do..
I am tired of the federal government wasting our tax dollars on things that again waste more tax doillars and do not address the issue.
Whenwe had the alcohol prohibition, the people ended this because they saw the harm it was doing to society and the uselessness of the laws...
Drugs should be looked at the same way and people know this by now...
People know it is not criminal to take drugs, but more, a medical problem that needs immediate consideration.. I want my tax dollars spent on education and therapy not more prisons.
Im tired of you people writing law that should only exist in the 1950s...
Wake up and l;ook around, has the war on drugs worked?
We had 200,000 people in jail in 1980 for a drug charge...Now its up around 2 million...
Something is seriously inconsistent...
Especially when the federal government is the biggest drug pusher of all, only they legalize what they peddle...And I submit the Fed by lack of oversight kills more people every year than illegal drugs do..
Again thank you for NAFTA and all the other wonderful things you do for our economy.....
These sentencing guide lines were unfair from the start...Im sorry it took all of you 30 years to see this racial injustice, because that is exactly what it is...Like it or not.
It kills the futures of so many that could contribute to our society in so many ways. What a horrible waste.
Pretty much like prohibition did. When will we stop this idiocy?
bow to the law of the common people. One must
have friends who know how to cover up all
manor of vile behavior. One must never, ever
rat out ones friends. One must be willing to
go through trial indignities knowing that the
embarrassment will be short lived. And if one
aspires to be the ruler of a country, one
must always keep long-time friends with shady
pasts near, because they must always get the
very best jobs in the land.
By David Sirota on November 9, 2007 - 4:31am.
"House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY), the chief architect of the the Peru Free Trade Agreement that expands NAFTA, he appeared on CNN Thursday night. In the midst of congratulating himself for passing the NAFTA expansion through the House this week, he acknowledged that the pact will crush American workers, saying:
"We haven't protected those people that have lost jobs as a result of trade or those people who just don't find industry in their communities...And so if you're hurting, then [the Peru agreement] is a bad deal."
This is stunning, even for Washington. The chief proponent of a bill earlier today was selling this bill on the House floor as a great achievement for the middle class that has been crushed by lobbyist-written trade policies. Then hours later after the votes are already cast, he goes on national television to admit that, actually it is true - the bill "is a bad deal" for workers who are hurting."
Source Link:
http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/rangel_nafta_expansion_if_youre_hurting_then_its_bad_deal
If I get one more email from a Republican making sick jokes about the Democratic candidates, I will implode.
Republican oil barons succeed. Get a clue.
Why do you think people in this country think liberal is a four-letter word?
Fellow Democrats, get off your high horses.
I'm a liberal, I'm a Democrat, but only because I've learned to prioritize and read between the lines. I believe in truth beyond tradition, but I also know the only way to accomplish this goal is to play the game the way the boys have set it up. You say one thing to get elected and then you turn around and do another, like triple the cost of oil by starting wars and then impose triple taxation on the masses by increasing the cost of gasoline. Just make people think before they go to the polls that they are voting to end gay couplings. Just make people think they are voting for God.
Maybe the Democrats have finally caught on to this trick, you think? I hope so.
One of the reasons why our economy is in such dire straits now is that the main thing driving it is black market cash.
The trillion dollar a year black market drug money is not being taxed. It goes into hedge funds to be laundered, and we know that the hedge funds are not paying many taxes.
Until the American public is educated on how our country is really being run, the possibility of getting drugs decriminalized is remote. The mainstream conservative Americans don't care how many minorities are locked up.