dagblog - Comments for "THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM"

Unfrickin believable. Thanks

Richard Day — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 21:47:10 +0000

In reply to When Good People Do Nothing:

Unfrickin believable.

Thanks for the link.

That makes a lot of sense.

Richard Day — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 21:29:18 +0000

In reply to The reason you still see

That makes a lot of sense.

Hopefully the government makes good money on this project.

When Good People Do Nothing:

Donal — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 20:53:41 +0000

In reply to THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM

When Good People Do Nothing: The Appalling Story of South Carolina's Prisons

On Wednesday, in one of the most wrenching opinions you will ever read, a state judge in Columbia ruled that South Carolina prison officials were culpable of pervasive, systemic, unremitting violations of the state's constitution by abusing and neglecting mentally ill inmates. The judge, Michael Baxley, a decorated former legislator, called it the "most troubling" case he ever had seen and I cannot disagree. Read the ruling. It's heartbreaking.

The evidence is now sadly familiar to anyone who follows these cases: South Carolina today mistreats these ill people without any evident traces of remorse. Even though there are few disputed material issues of law or fact in the case, even though the judge implored the state to take responsibility for its conduct, South Carolina declared before the sun had set Wednesday that it would appeal the ruling—and thus likely doom the inmates to years more abuse and neglect. That's not just "deliberate indifference," the applicable legal standard in these prison abuse cases. That is immoral.

But what makes this ruling different from all the rest—and why it deserves to become a topic of national conversation—is the emphasis Judge Baxley placed upon the failure of the good people of South Carolina to remedy what they have known was terribly wrong since at least 2000. Where was the state's medical community while the reports piled up chronicling the mistreatment of these prisoners? Where was the state's legal community as government lawyers walked into court year after year with frivolous defenses for prison policies? Where were the religious leaders, the ones who preach peace and goodwill?

The reason you still see

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 20:15:16 +0000

In reply to THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM

The reason you still see Kevin Trudeau infomercials is because the FTC confiscated any company he worked with, and now profits from it.

A Judge Rakoff writing for

NCD — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 18:26:58 +0000

In reply to THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM

A Judge Rakoff writing for the NYT, and supported by the NYT editorial board, agrees with you:

...The JPMorgan Chase settlement in the Madoff case also sidesteps justice by relying on “deferred prosecution.” That tactic, wrote Judge Rakoff, makes prosecutors happy because they tell themselves that the threat of prosecution will deter future crime; it makes corporations happy because they avoid indictment; and happiest of all are the executives or former executives responsible for the misconduct who are left untouched.

In addition, he explains, deferred prosecution is “technically suspect” because, under the law, prosecutors should not threaten to indict a company unless they can prove that some company manager committed the alleged crime, and if that can be proved, why not indict the manager?...

It's all about the money. You gotta be a complete utter total fraud to the tune of tens of billions, like Madoff, and do it for 20 years or so, before you go to the slam.

It is called driving while

trkingmomoe — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 17:22:13 +0000

In reply to The county?s district

It is called driving while "black" or "Latino." There is a whole generation of people in the country under the age of 45 that has been stopped, frisked and put through the dogs. I was not surprised at DeBlasio's landslide last November. This has ruined many lives and is a hot issue in many communities. If the Democrats are smart, they will grab on to it, and run with it.

The county?s district

Richard Day — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 08:16:40 +0000

In reply to This article was one of the

The county’s district attorney, a fifty-seven-year-old woman with feathered Charlie’s Angels hair named Lynda K. Russell, arrived an hour later. Russell, who moonlighted locally as a country singer, told Henderson and Boatright that they had two options. They could face felony charges for “money laundering” and “child endangerment,” in which case they would go to jail and their children would be handed over to foster care. Or they could sign over their cash to the city of Tenaha, and get back on the road. “No criminal charges shall be filed,” a waiver she drafted read, “and our children shall not be turned over to CPS,” or Child Protective Services.

AMAZING, JUST FRICKING AMAZING!

Thank you for this.

Damn! Talk about 'speed traps'!

DAMN!

This article was one of the

artappraiser — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 07:06:45 +0000

In reply to THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM

This article was one of the 13 most read of New Yorker articles of 2013, detailing how Many police budgets depend on money from forfeiture:

Taken
Under civil forfeiture, Americans who haven’t been charged with wrongdoing can be stripped of their cash, cars, and even homes. Is that all we’re losing?
by Sarah Stillman August 12, 2013

Warning: there's some pretty horrific stories, worse than any Mexican police scare story you might have heard in the olden daze.

In the olden days I recall

Richard Day — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 04:13:23 +0000

In reply to The grass roots organization,

In the olden days I recall sitting in the back seat of Grampa's car and the old 'highways' would permit 60MPH(?) and all of a sudden there would appear MPH signs that suggested a MPH of 30.

Speed traps is what they were referred as.

The municipalities would find thousands of dollars in setting up these speed traps.

But 'drug traps'?

Damn.

Well nowadays, a drug trap could bring in millions of dollars into some municipality or county government!

We have to do something about this.

Privatized prisons and other practices of our own governments have enslaved millions upon millions of people!

And as I pointed out, a speed trap might cost a driver a hundred bucks, well another type of highway larceny might ruin a person's record forever.

We as a nation must rethink this stuff!

Our system does not work!

The grass roots organization,

trkingmomoe — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 03:35:53 +0000

In reply to THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM

The grass roots organization, Dream Defenders, has made this one of their issues. They are doing all they can to keep the school to prison pipeline in the public's eye. They now have chapters in all the major colleges in Florida. They have been beating the bushes to register new voters in minority communities and stoke political action on the part of young adults who suffer under the war on drugs. The other issue is the stand your ground law. This is not a militant group, but a thought full, determined, organized and have good legal advisors. There are some future political stars in this group. This is a new generation of human rights fighters.

When I was driving truck, I would see small town cops going through cars on the side of the road of out of state drivers. We would call them luggage police because they were looking for pot and drugs. It was very lucrative for these small towns in raising revenue. They could help them selves to your car and put you in jail. Frisk and search is practiced all over the country, not only in NYC.