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Sessions bringing back Mandatory sentencing for Drug Offences

Whelp, time for me to stop playing with marijuana again until we get a better AG.
Fingers crossed this hits heroin-infested areas - nothing pushes back for legal reform like when white people are affected
That I'm ok with, the people pushing the heroin, the cocaine and pain pills need to be locked up.
 

KHlover

Banned
This is so dumb. You're not going to curb drug use like this. By all means throw the book at dealers, but posessing an amount of substance for self-consumption shouldn't be more than a fine, confiscation of your substance and a flyer with some info for counselling.
 

UberTag

Member
Would Sessions selling out his own country just to get the chance to screw over black people make him the most racist politician we've ever had? I know we obviously have shitloads of racists in positions of power, but have any of them gone that far?
Sessions would swear fealty to the Kremlin if it meant he could displace and ruin the lives of black people.

Hell is too good for this man. He deserves worse.

This is so dumb. You're not going to curb drug use like this. By all means throw the book at dealers, but posessing an amount of substance for self-consumption shouldn't be more than a fine, confiscation of your substance and a flyer with some info for counselling.
Sessions knows this. He doesn't care. This is entirely so he can ferry black people into the prison system like chattel.
 
That's a pipe dream though. This is about sentencing, which would require police to actually profile and arrest white people at the same rates they do minorities.
Well if you look through the weekly mug shots it's pretty diverse cast of people who break the law and get arrested. At least where I am. I looked at what people get arrested for, I'm not about to defend someone for aggravated assault, larceny, gang activity etc etc.
 

Saganator

Member
Fingers crossed this hits heroin-infested areas - nothing pushes back for legal reform like when white people are affected

This is where you and many others are mistaken. Rich white people will be able to lawyer themselves out of jail time, just like they always. Poor whites will get tossed in jail without a second thought just like a minority would. These policies are a direct assault on poor people.

It's rich vs poor, don't let them separate us into groups and pit us against each other, that's what they want.

OT: Sessions is an idiot.

Sessions is not an idiot, I'd go with evil.
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Looking forward to arrests of marijuana "trafficking" in Colorado leading to a Supreme Court case that legalizes it nationwide.

Get on it Sessions!
 

Gattsu25

Banned
Quite honestly this has absolute nothing to do with voter suppression but I guess you can see anything through that lense and not be able to be proven wrong.

OT: Sessions is an idiot.

Many states block felons from being able to vote. This action is re-enacting felony convictions for minor drug offenses. Minority populations, despite using drugs at the same rate as whites, received the vast majority of felony drug convictions.

The reason why it's possible to see this through a disenfranchisement lense because it stands up to that test.
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
This is where you and many others are mistaken. Rich white people will be able to lawyer themselves out of jail time, just like they always. Poor whites will get tossed in jail without a second thought just like a minority would. These policies are a direct assault on poor people.

It's rich vs poor, don't let them separate us into groups and pit us against each other, that's what they want.

Indeed. Trump's actions thus far should indicate how little the GOP cares about poor whites. They pay them lip service and use their dog whistles to rile them up and make them fear the "other" but then do very little to actually support them.

I could see Sessions throwing poor whites a bone by directing US Attorneys to only fully prosecute in the most "drug addled" areas (read: cities with majority black populations) but i doubt they'd want to risk the Supreme Court case against discriminatory law enforcement on a nationwide scale.
 

Duxxy3

Member
One of a handful of people that I wouldn't mourn if he were found dead in a ditch on the side of the road. What a pile of shit this man is.
 
This country has huge problems with underemployment, drug addiction, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. And we are concentrating on making sure we have our population spend more time in prisons.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
This is where you and many others are mistaken. Rich white people will be able to lawyer themselves out of jail time, just like they always. Poor whites will get tossed in jail without a second thought just like a minority would. These policies are a direct assault on poor people.

It's rich vs poor, don't let them separate us into groups and pit us against each other, that's what they want.
It's rich vs poor when it comes to who will get convicted of those charged. However, our justice system is not colorblind and treats people different on more than just a class metric. That's just sentencing though.

Then couple that with the fact that the justice system in this country is also not colorblind when it comes who even gets arrested.

Looking at issues purely through distinctions of class is a gross simplification. Sad as it may be but America is not colorblind. The opposite, in fact.
 
AHH...That feeling when America is becoming great again.
rejoice.png

obvious /s
 

Shadybiz

Member
OT: Sessions is an idiot.

Not an idiot....idiots can't pass the Bar. Just a racist asshole...unfortunately, racist assholes are perfectly able to pass the Bar, if they study hard.

Felons can't vote in most states.

I did NOT know that until I read The New Jim Crow. Very good read for those who want to learn more about the War on Drugs, mass incarceration, etc. Recommended by a gaffer whose name I cannot remember. That little factoid blew my mind...like what the fuck?
 

Saganator

Member
It's rich vs poor when it comes to who will get convicted of those charged. However, our justice system is not colorblind and treats people different on more than just a class metric. That's just sentencing though.

Then couple that with the fact that the justice system in this country is also not colorblind when it comes who even gets arrested.

Looking at issues purely through distinctions of class is a gross simplification. Sad as it may be but America is not colorblind. The opposite, in fact.

I won't argue against the justice system being systematically racist, I completely agree, and I'm also at work so I shouldn't engage in a big debate. I do, however, feel that some statistics, when compared white vs black, are somewhat skewed just because there is a much higher probability a black person is poor and won't be able to properly defend themselves compared to a white person. A poor white guy and a poor black guy with the same charge will likely get equally fucked by the law. I emphasised likely because I do know there are instances where this isn't true.

I'm not at all saying America is color blind, nor is the justice system, but I feel racism stems from class inequality, and bridging the gap between rich and poor is step 1 in ending racism.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
I won't argue against the justice system being systematically racist, I completely agree, and I'm also at work so I shouldn't engage in a big debate. I do, however, feel that some statistics, when compared white vs black, are somewhat skewed just because there is a much higher probability a black person is poor and won't be able to properly defend themselves compared to a white person. A poor white guy and a poor black guy with the same charge will likely get equally fucked by the law. I emphasised likely because I do know there are instances where this isn't true.

I'm not at all saying America is color blind, nor is the justice system, but I feel racism stems from class inequality, and bridging the gap between rich and poor is step 1 in ending racism.

From my first link: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/17/opinion/sunday/unequal-sentences-for-blacks-and-whites.html?_r=0
The war on drugs weighs particularly heavily on black defendants. The police target their neighborhoods, herding people into a court system where judges are demonstrably harder on black offenders. The report found that nearly half of the counties in Florida sentenced African-Americans convicted of felony drug possession to more than double the jail time of whites — even when their backgrounds were the same.

rosecutors and defense lawyers have come to accept this racist system as a fact of life. The Herald-Tribune cited two teenagers who were charged with armed robbery in the same county. Prosecutors and the defense lawyer, with the approval of one judge, ignored the sentencing guidelines for the white teenager and struck a plea agreement for probation with no jail time. The black teenager was sentenced to four years, as recommended under the guidelines, and was told by his lawyer that it was the best deal he could get.

The Florida system is inflicting a form of racial persecution that is strongly reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. The state's sentencing structure is obviously in need of reform. Part of the solution may be for the courts to issue regular public reports detailing the sentencing decisions of individual judges and showing how they relate to guidelines. That would throw a spotlight on what is clearly a festering injustice.
 

charsace

Member
This fucking guy should be in jail awaiting execution. Can't believe a fucking traitor has such a huge say on how our justice system runs.
 

Cyframe

Member
Didn't the white house hire Chris Christie in some capacity to address the drug problem? I wonder what his statement would be after hearing this?

Still, Coretta Scott King warned us, and we got what she explicitly told us about Sessions.

I'm not at all saying America is color blind, nor is the justice system, but I feel racism stems from class inequality, and bridging the gap between rich and poor is step 1 in ending racism.

It's not about class inequality. And the sooner we move past this thinking and treat racism with the complexity is deserves, we'll be better for it when it comes to addressing structural racism.
 
Fingers crossed this hits heroin-infested areas - nothing pushes back for legal reform like when white people are affected

That is the opposite reason for why Sessions was appointed. Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions dont give a shiiiitttt about drugs. They care about black people voting. Black people voting is REASON NUMERO UNO that Sessions has the job he has.


Gaf will figure that out sooner or later. Later I guess.
 
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