Image by James Moore
“The November 9 Supreme Court arguments on whether it is cruel and unusual to impose life in prison without parole on violent juveniles who have not killed anybody understandably got prominent media coverage,” a National Journal column reports.“But a far more important imprisonment story gets less attention because it’s a running sore that rarely generates dramatic “news.” That is our criminal-justice system’s incarceration of a staggering 2.3 million people, about half of them for nonviolent crimes, including most of the 500,000 locked up for drug offenses.” (From -November 13, 2009 National Journal read about it here: America’s Prison Spree Has Brutal Impact)
and just in .. news from Wall Street Journal that U.S. Commission is to Assess Mandatory Sentences
People who drank alchohol used to be the 'bad guys.'
“Congress has ordered the panel that advises judges on prison terms to conduct a review of mandatory-minimum sentences, a move that could lead to a dramatic rethinking of how the U.S. incarcerates its criminals,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The review is a little-noticed element of the National Defense Authorization Act signed into law last month by President Barack Obama. The defense-spending bill calls on the commission to perform several tasks, including an examination of the impact of mandatory-minimum sentencing laws and alternatives to the practice.” November 12, 2009 (Wall Street Journal)
It looks like this has been a big week for the Drug War. Take heed County of Hawaii. The American Medical Association has announced it will review the scheduling of Cannabis as a ‘dangerous drug’ (which it isn’t) and a Commission of Judges is asked to review the practice of handing out harsh sentences for absurd ‘crimes’. 20 million prisoners later.. The Drug War is costing us way too much. The budget for Prosecutions in Hawaii County is 11 million dollars. That is a lot for an island with a population of 177,000 men women and children don’t you think?
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On the big island The police violate the peaceful sky ordnance, use illegal FLIR searches, manufacture evidence, commit perjury, steal, and vandalize property, breaking the law at will in their war on marijuana. If anyone finds this hard to believe they need look no further than the trial transcripts and disciplinary records of former vice officer John Weber. The most disturbing part is this is well known in the police department, prosecutors office and throughout the judiciary. They all choose to cover up these civil rights and constitutional violation knowingly sending residents to prison and continuing to seize property illegally. A direct result of the criminal actions of officer Weber. That is one way corruption manifest itself on a local level, because of the drug war. While they tell themselves the ends justify the means the truth is their actions are criminal acts and should be prosecuted as such. All of their budgets revolve around marijuana bust, so they sell their souls committing crimes that cause more harm to the community than marijuana. How can they get 99% conviction rates. I maintain that is imposable in a constitutional fair trial system, the police and prosecution make mistakes, they are human. They are producing super human conviction rates in marijuana trials, through illegal and unconstitutional methods. This is not unique to Hawaii but the statistical and witness accounts demand an investigation. Thousands of man hours, millions of dollars, and massive intelligence resources are consumed by this. Every county, state, and federal law enforcement agency in Hawaii participate through the DCE/SP task force, with all those trained experts how could they not know what officer Weber was doing? They not only knew they condoned it and covered it up.
See below for this very interesting perspective on what happened to “Public Safety” when the War on Cannabis took hold of California, a State that at one time had decriminilized the posession of Cannabis in 1976:
Police Focus on Marijuana a Danger to Public Safety
by F. Aaron Smith
A frequent claim made by opponents of marijuana policy reform is that hardly anybody is ever really arrested for low-level marijuana offenses. But like most prohibitionist arguments, that’s a lie.
In California, where marijuana possession was “decriminalized” in 1976 and medical marijuana legalized 20 years later, the state Department of Justice reports that law enforcement conducted a record 78,492 marijuana arrests in 2008. About 80% of these (61,366) were for mere possession – not sale or cultivation.
The California-based Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) took a long look at trends for marijuana arrests in the state and revealed some disturbing information. In its recent report to the California Legislature, CJCJ showed that the arrest rate for marijuana possession has skyrocketed in California – up 127% – between 1990 and 2008. But during the same period, arrests for all other offenses in California decreased by 40% – including other drug possession, which sank by nearly 30%. The arrest rate for marijuana sales and manufacturing even decreased 21% during this period.
Picture 2……http://blog.mpp.org/tax-and-regulate/police-focus-on-marijuana-a-danger-to-public-safety/11032009/
You can’t help but conclude from this data that California’s police agencies have developed an almost singular focus on marijuana possession as their top law enforcement priority. This is shocking, not only because most Californians now say they want marijuana legal, but because it’s a dangerous and irresponsible use of limited public safety resources.
Last year, while California’s law enforcement officers were rounding up a record number of marijuana consumers, almost 60,000 reported violent crimes never resulted in an arrest.* Thanks to decriminalization in California, these arrests usually don’t result in jail or lengthy detainment, but they do take real police time and other criminal justice resources.
Anyone unfortunate enough to have been a victim of an unsolved crime should support repealing marijuana prohibition and freeing up police to focus on public safety rather than consensual adult activity that’s no more harmful than drinking beer or wine.
*Source: FBI, Crime in the U.S., 2008