According to the Federal Bureau of prisons 45.7% of people in jail are there for "Drug Offenses".
I've sat on juries where I and the majority of the jury felt that the person on trial was guilty, but a jury's decision must be unanimous, if it isn't a mis-trial is called and the person goes free. In the trial I was a part of the District Attorney was trying to send a young man back to prison for a parole violation. Three of the AA, female members of the jury were convinced that the police were "picking on him" and refused to convict.
Now I can relate, the young man *said* he was on his way to What-a-burger to turn in a job application, and when offered a ride on the chilly rainy day he got in the car, not knowing that the driver sold drugs and had a gun.
Sounds pretty cut and dry... police profiling, keeping someone from doing the things that would get them back to being a productive member of society.
Now, what if I told you the young man was white? Well, that shouldn't matter the AA ladies decision shouldn't be based on race. What if I told you he was a White Supremacist that had Nazi tattoos hidden under his long sleeves? What if I told you that even though there was a mis-trial and he wouldn't go to prison for that crime he still wasn't going home that day because he was going to be waiting in jail for another trial, this one because he was found in a trailer with drugs, stolen goods, and identification that he'd stolen?
It's hard to convict someone of a crime.
I guess the argument could be made that it was "white privilege", but it surely wasn't because "the good ole boy network" let him go.
I have to admit, I break the law all the time. I live in a rural area, I frequently drive down long straight empty roads. I speed so frequently that when I do see a cop-car I struggle to remember exactly what the speed limit is. I frequently run red-lights and stop signs on roads that have no other cars on them for miles. I'm a menace to society, and yet, nobody notices, and I've never (knock on wood) had an accident in the area. Years ago I got caught, rolled through a stop sign didn't notice the cop sitting in the dark parkinglot a block away. Cop had every right to stop me, but really, what was he doing in this deserted industrial area late at night? Protecting and serving the unpopulated warehouses? Taking a nap? Did I get stopped because there was a possibility that I might be drunk, or because he wanted to justify being out taking a nap? Yeah, I paid the fine.
45%, approaching half of the prison population is there for drug offenses. The next two closest are "Weapons, Explosives, Arson" at 19.6%, and "Sex Offenses" at 10.5%. I'm kind of a big fan of someone who isn't allowed to have a weapon getting caught with a weapon going to jail. Sex offenses... why is that number so low? Are we that much better at getting stoners off the streets than rapists? I mean I know people who are habitual drug users, and I know some people who have been raped... I'd rather spend the money making sure a rapist never gets the chance to rape someone ever again. With COVID running through the prison system I'm OK with rapists dying, not so much for someone who got caught with drugs.
I have to admit, I'd like to see people stop doing drugs. Especially the "hard drugs", but I'd also like to see people drink less, and not get addicted to prescription medications. Heck, I wish I didn't have to take Zyrtec and Glucosamine every day... I wish smoking wasn't addictive, and I wish I didn't get a headache and feel like I'm not awake if I don't have morning coffee.
The best argument I've heard for "stop and frisk" is that it prevents crime. The beginning of "stop and frisk" also known as "Terry stops" is the supreme court case "Terry vs. Ohio". You're welcome to read all about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_v._Ohio but the gist of it is that the Supreme Court decided that a police officer doesn't need "Probable cause" they just need "reasonable suspicion". In that case "John W. Terry" was observed along with two other men looking in a store window to see if there were people there as they got ready to rob it. The three did this about a dozen times and instead of the police officer waiting for them to actually rob the store he stopped them, patted them down and found they were carrying pistols illegally. The case went to the Supreme Court because their lawyer called it unlawful search, and asked that the case be thrown out.
Yay for Justice! Armed robbery prevented, right? The ruling also says "reasonable suspicion must be based on "specific and articulable facts" and not merely upon an officer's hunch." fast forward decade, Reagan declares war on drugs, inner cities are full of illeagal drugs, by 2010 1/3rd of AA men have had a felony conviction. ...if you're a black man in an iner city, there's a 1 in 3 chance that you've been to prison... that's just the ones with a conviction. If you know this statistic and you're in law enforcement, it means that if you observe a young black man in an inner city there's probably a 50/50 chance that he's carrying drugs. It's the inner city version of speeding.
See the evolution of thought? Do you understand WHY we can't say "Oh, it's OK in this situation." when it comes to civil rights?
I'm all for staying at home during COVID. I don't like crowds, I telecommute, there are times when I feel germophobic. Sending people to jail for not complying with a order that is against "The right to peacefully assemble" (1st Amendment to the constitution). Not so much. The Governor of Texas rescinded his order to say people can't be sent to jail for violating the order. The Texas AG paid the fine of someone who did. The backlash of this brought hundreds of people together in a protest in Dealy Plaza in Dallas, and we had a 2% jump in deaths days after. Maybe that's a coincidence, maybe it isn't. The "order" never should have been given in the first place. Close every government building, arena, public transportation, and building. Send people to work from home if they work at a computer. Use this time to fix roads (that always slows down traffic), but don't demand that people close small business' that have 30 customers a day and keep open big box stores where hundreds of people stand in line for toilet paper.
References:
https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_v._Ohio
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