I think I love the Houston Police Chief, who is sick of busting people for cannabis

[Tsiyu]

He's got it.

I wish the DEA would be abolished, and we could put McClelland in charge of the justice department.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/houston-police-chief-sounds-off-on-pot-arrests/30089220

"We cannot criminalize such a large population of society that engage in casual marijuana use," the chief said in the radio interview. The topics were wide-ranging -- but the chief was largely asked about marijuana use. McClelland made it clear he believes enforcing marijuana laws is wasting time and other valuable resources.

"Taxpayers can't afford to build jails and prisons to lock up everyone that commits a crime," said McClelland. "We must put more money into crime prevention, treatment, education, job training."


The chief also took aim at the decades-long war on drugs, saying mandatory sentencing policies have had a disproportionate impact on young minorities.

"A lot of young men who are minorities in their early 20s have a felony conviction on their resume and now they're unemployable," said McClelland. "We wonder why they don't have jobs, why they're not contributing to society."


The only thing I disagree with: plenty of poor white have felony convictions in their teens and twenties as well.

Other than that, McClelland, you give me hope, Man.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. You don't have to disagree with him.

Yes, plenty of 'poor white folk' also get early felony convictions. But as he pointed out in the paraphrased sentence just before that "...have had a disproportionate impact on young minorities". Ie, relative to the populations involved, and the crimes committed, far more minorities will wind up with those felony convictions. So he's not saying it doesn't happen to whites too, just that it happens in greater percentage to minorities doing the same things.

[Tsiyu]

2. True

damn semantics.


Thanks for clarifying what I meant to say.

[sabrina 1]

3. I wonder how he feels about NYS NEW WAR on Cigarettes. And there are actually people who

support it.

'A lot of young men who are minorities in their early 20s have a felony conviction on their resume and now they're unemployable'

Way worse than that. They have long jail terms which forced them to leave their children with no fathers, mothers too are targets of those monstrous drug laws.

One the of victims of NYS New War on Personal Choices, is sadly, Eric Garner.

Another drug war already started. And we know who the main victims of it will be.

NY leading the way, as they did with the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws, with the new 'Drug War'.

[Tsiyu]

4. It's sad to go to the jails on visitation day

and see all the babies and kids so excited to see their daddies. Most of the fathers are there for non-violent drug possession or violation of probation on the same charges.

Land of the "Free to go to jail" is the New 'Murrica.

The legislators, DAs and judges are animals who divide families up over plants and cigarettes and drug addiction.

We are so medieval in our drug strategy, the true THUGS are in our Congress, in the DEA and wearing robes and suits in our courtrooms.

THEIR kids can drink and drive and go free, Guliani's kid can shoplift without being shot, but they don't see a thing wrong with destroying the lives of OTHER people's kids.

[sabrina 1]

5. Yes, I've been to the prison on visiting day and thought I was in a movie about

some third world dictatorship.

I remember a little girl, about 10, going to visit her dad, some kind of drug conviction. They had a cage like metal detector you had to step through before entering. A scary experience for a child. She couldn't get through as the alarm kept going off.

The female guard with a face like stone, no expression, they don't make contact, ordered to go again and again. T he child was crying by then.

It was obvious why this was happening, she was wearing overalls and the metal on the straps was causing the alarm to go off.

People watching knew if they got up and said anything, they would be ordered to leave or their own loved ones inside would be targeted for some kind of abuse.

Eventually it was just too much to watch and people whispered to each other that someone should tell her, the child, to come back and let them remove the metal fasteners.

Somehow we managed to do that, she was nearly hysterical by then, and she finally made it through.

I try hard not to hate anyone, but that female guard was a cruel, cold hearted woman. She almost seemed to enjoy the power she had over that child.

Our prisons are a disgrace, so are our politicians who have facilitated all these wrongs against the people.

I will never forget that place, or the children who were treated as if THEY were criminals.

I think there needs to be a movement now to end those Cigarette extortionate taxes whose only goal, it appears to me, is to create more bad laws as an excuse to go after more Minorities and extort more from tax dollars to keep this horrible system going.

[Tsiyu]

7. Like you said: the visitors are treated like criminals as well

There IS no humanity available from a lot of "officials." They lost their humanity somewhere along the line or never had any.

In TN, most jails are so overcrowded, a huge chunk of prisoners sleep on the floor in every jail.

This is how we prepare people to join society. We treat them like animals because they broke rules, and then expect them to make it as people when they get out.

How fucked up is that?



I just can't help thinking how vast the stupidity and how infinite the greed that thinks up a system such as ours.

[Eleanors38]

6. Prohibition: Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

The same droll, soul-grinding machinery used in previous prohibitions is transitioning to the new tobacco ban.