"While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionately higher rates."
Said Joe Biden, quoted in "Biden Pardons Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Possession Under Federal Law/The move represents a fundamental change in America’s response to a drug that has been at the center of a clash between culture and policing for more than a half-century" (NYT).
Look at that quote: Did Biden say the government is guilty of illegal race discrimination?
I don't think he did! The rate of use of marijuana could be the same among the different races, yet if the decision to bring charges is not based on use, but some other factor, then we need more information. If the people charged with possession are the ones caught with quantities of marijuana that imply drug dealing, then the question would be whether "white and Black and brown" people deal marijuana at similar rates.
There's still potential racial disparity that ought to concern us. Who chooses a career in drug dealing?
But Biden isn't talking honestly about any of that. The racial element is thrown in confusingly and for political gain. Where is the serious and effective program of reconfiguring the embedded patterns of racial disparity?
Posts
96 comments:
Scott Adams (?) just said that there are zero people in jail for only possession.
Is it true that this EO will only affect less than 7000 federal prisoners? If so the racial makeup of the group matches Joe’s rhetoric and let’s analyze the type and severity of offenses for which they were imprisoned. If only we had an institution or several dedicated to finding and publishing facts on a daily basis. Then they could print it for distribution. Daily.
"The rate of use of marijuana could be the same among the different races, but if the decision to bring charges is not based on use, but some other factor, then we need more information."
I suspect a contributing factor is that marijuana possession is likely to be discovered during the investigation/apprehension of other law-breaking behavior.
Many serious drug charges get plead down to possession.
When Biden tells the truth, it is purely by accident.
Here is the hard truth- you don't get sent to federal prison for marijuana possession unless it is part of a plea deal that tosses more serious charges, like drug dealing or more serious felonies that the government didn't want to go to trial for any number of reasons.
Althous is right to doubt Joe Biden on this issue because Joe Biden is lying.
Battlespace prep for Hunter.
Freeing black people (who let's remember disproportionately commit most of the major crime in our country) from prison, for whatever reasons they dream up, is the price for continued black political support required to keep Democrats nominally in charge, thus Democrats from joining their black co-conspirators IN prison.
Everything else is just rope-a-dope.
But Biden isn't talking honestly about any of that. The racial element is thrown in confusingly and for political gain.
I’m sorry, Althouse, but politicians being selective with the truth for political gain goes back thousands of years, at least to Athens in its golden age if not millennia before that. I don’t like Joe Biden because his lies are egregious and I thought he was stupid even before he started displaying signs of dementia, but he’s pretty typical of a certain type of politician. That type is more apt to be a Democrat these days, but I suspect only because a Democrat-leaning press stands ready to nitpick every utterance of any Republican.
This illustrates the problem with one man rule by Executive Order. There is no debate, no compromise. Biden's EO on student loan forgiveness is messed up because it was never examined by hundreds of legislators & their staffs. The student EO is basically a work in progress, it changes as legal challenges to it are raised. This is exactly what is NOT supposed to happen in a representative democracy where you have rule of law, not rule of personality.
Issues that should be settled so we can move on.
1) Legalize Marijuana.
2) Set a 15-week limit on legal abortions.
Let the pot smokers out of jail, and make room for the "Doctors" performing 8th and 9th month infanticides.
is the Federal Government arresting people for possesing MJ? I doubt it. They're getting arresting for MJ trafficking. Possession with the intent to sell. According to the official webssite drug trafficking charges can be filed at the federal level for the following quantities: 1,000 kg of marijuana, or 1,000+ marijuana plants.
People need to know the fix is in. Large Corporations are now involved in growing and selling MJ and its derviatives. Naturally, they're lobbying (aks bribing) Congress and using people like POS John Boehner to get rid of all penalites against its use. Pardoning drug dealers is one way to do it. Biden is on board, because he's a soul-less machine pol, who'll do anything the Establishment wants. His son is Cocaine addict. Like most leftists, he has no moral problem with Drugs.
This is all about greed. Its not about "helping poor black folks". LOL!
There are no minor drug charges in federal prison.
Pardoning swaths of unknown people?
This is an abuse of the power to pardon. but then - it's mob-boss Crook Biden and his band of corruptocrats - and Soros $$$ assholes.
Blacks disproportionately do the dealing and then plead down to possession.
Everybody knows that.
=====
How come only "Black" is capitalized --not likewise "white" and "brown"?
Is this a bigger plan to empower these crooks to commit election fraud?
"The racial element is thrown in confusingly and for political gain."
It always is. Democrat 101.
It is highly unlikely that whites and blacks use marijawoozy at the same rate. This is a species of the old canard that blacks and whites commit crimes at the same rates. This is untrue across all forms of crime, but especially drugs and violent crimes.
Nobody goes to federal prison, or even state prison, for mere marijuana charges. These are all pleas down from serious trafficking and violent crimes and prolific recidivism.
All of them.
Of the people in FEDERAL prison, that were ONLY convicted of "marijuana possession"..
What OTHER crimes were they CHARGED with? What happened to Those charges?
Were they found innocent? Or, did they plea bargain them away?
Also, how much did they possess? 1gram? 1 ounce? 1 pound? 1ton?
"Scott Adams (?) just said that there are zero people in jail for only possession."
I would search for sources of information other than Scott Adams to ascertain if this is true or false. (I suspect it is false.)
There is no good reason for marijuana being illegal.
Alcohol is far more destructive to society in every objective measure.
That being said I don't think there are many people in jail for mere possession or use of marijuana. It is socially acceptable to have and use it.
The only use of marijuana laws is to put people in jail for other things.
It is a disgusting use of the justice system.
I suspect a contributing factor is that marijuana possession is likely to be discovered during the investigation/apprehension of other law-breaking behavior."
Sometimes, the "other law-breaking behavior" is being black.
Why are you questioning Biden on this? He knows from first hand experience, since he grew up in a black family.
What Yancey Ward said.
Obama pulled this same shit when he released "non-violent" drug criminals.
Here are the facts:
"Plea bargaining in the United States is very common; the vast majority of criminal cases in the United States are settled by plea bargain rather than by a jury trial.[1][2] They have also been increasing in frequency—they rose from 84% of federal cases in 1984 to 94% by 2001.[3] " --wikipedia
Here's an admittedly old article on the subject. Since then, simple possession has been treated even more leniently.
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/whos-really-prison-marijuana
"At the Federal level, of the drug defendants sentenced for marijuana crimes in 2001, the overwhelming majority were convicted for trafficking; only 2.3 percent (186 individuals) were sentenced for simple possession; and of the 174 individuals for whom sentencing information is known, only 63 were imprisoned. The expanding number of drug courts have helped ensure that the vast majority of those arrested only for possessing and using drugs are sentenced to mandatory treatment under close monitoring rather than imprisonment."
So this is simply another example of the despicable pandering and lying by the MFers we are forced to call "the government."
I look forward to next month's election, when I hope to see a Leftnado of progs plummeting ing from the sky.
Robert Cook said...
"Scott Adams (?) just said that there are zero people in jail for only possession."
I would search for sources of information other than Scott Adams to ascertain if this is true or false. (I suspect it is false.)
*************
I searched, and it's YOU who are full of shit---as usual.
So if almost no people are in federal prison for simple possession, your gratuitous snot-flinging about racism being behind their incarceration is nonsense.
"There's still potential racial disparity that ought to concern us. Who chooses a career in drug dealing?"
Hmmmmm, tough one. Stupid people with poor impulse control and few other options for making money? Guess it probably helps if you are comfortable with violence.
"Althous is right to doubt Joe Biden on this issue because Joe Biden is lying."
To lie, you have to know that what you are saying is not true, and that requires that you know what you are saying. Joe Biden is not guilty by reason of imbecility.
Perhaps if we focused on penalizing importing or selling fentanyl or mixing it in other drugs we could get a standard that will not have a race bias. Even small amounts of fentanyl will kill and so the immediate seller of even a small amount of a drug mixed with fentanyl could reasonably be arrested and prosecuted. This would move arrests from the inner city where large amounts are sold to the suburbs where it's all used and it would be meaningful because the immediate seller in the suburbs quite likely will kill one or two people. This was not true even just two years ago before it became common to mix fentanyl into any and all of the other drugs. We could call it the George Floyd law because one of the causes of his death was that his druggie friends told him to swallow the fentanyl they had in their car as the police approached and he did so.
Yeah, lets legalize all drugs and the Devil take the hindmost. Will result in increased deaths due to OD's and Driving accidents. But as long I don't get hurt, does it really matter?
Some Kids will get hooked and develop medical problems, ER visits will increase, medical premiums may rise, but I can afford, so who cares?
Let individuals and families deal with the blowback and downsides of addiction. If they can't handle it, so what? I'm doing fine.
"Sometimes, the "other law-breaking behavior" is being black."
Maybe. I bet not anymore. But in any case, a lot of times it isn't. Sorry, Cookie, but blacks commit crimes at a higher rate than whites.
If were going to fix anything, we have to start by being honest.
My theory is that the admin is doing this in order to give cover for dem governors to issue pardons as well.
In practice, this isn't going to do a while lot. Few people are in jail solely for simple possession at the federal level. Furthermore, getting a change to marijuanas classification will be difficult. The DEA won't until the FDA says that MJ has some medicinal uses and reevaluates the potential for addiction or psychological damage. The FDA will likely slow walk any such studies, hoping that Congress does its job instead and simply legalized it.
Joe would know. See his crack cocaine law. (He did the typical Biden 180 and now "disavows" it.)
BTW Trump made a big deal of pardoning lots of Black and White people who were given long sentences for relatively minor drug offenses (allegedly). Does he get any credit from the libs? Ha!
Yes, the immediate decision is a political stunt. The Dems are in danger of losing both houses of Congress. More broadly: I am amazed at the extent to which no one talks any more about actually improving life in the inner city or similar areas (some of the Appalachians?). Crime, schools, the justice system, incentives to attract employers; these were the hot topics of many campaigns in the past. Republicans may be merely indifferent, Dems are more likely to be actively progressive: de-fund the police, no bail no jail, set up obstacles to getting a conviction. Keep out charter schools.
I've been reading Mandeville, "Fable of the Bees," most famous for promising "public virtue [somewhat coincidentally] resulting from private vice." Self-interested people contribute to economic growth, and so on. In another work he recommends legalized brothels to help with public health and even chastity (better for marriages?). It is fair to say he wishes both prostitution and abortion to be safe, legal, and rare. What about murder? The abandonment of the inner city amounts to telling the gang-bangers: this is your enclave, into which a certain amount of government money will be pumped. Kill each other, and sometimes kill people who might be witnesses in cases there is a criminal trial. We hope you get it out of your system, and the number of murders doesn't go up. To the extent that a large number of violent people are replaced, as it were, by a smaller number, there may even be fewer murders in total. The successful gang-bangers may actually opposed murder in their turf.
I would search for sources of information other than Scott Adams to ascertain if this is true or false. (I suspect it is false.)
----
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/biden-marijuana-possession-decriminalization-convictions-pot/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h
"Officials said there are currently no Americans serving prison time solely on federal simple marijuana possession charges. But they said the number who had been charged with that crime was north of 6,500."
Biden does not speak honestly about anything. These days, he either just repeats what he is told, including the stage directions on the teleprompter, or he just makes up some BS like he has done for his entire life because he apparently believes his own lies and is desperate for attention. Then he wanders off in some random direction.
Trying to understand Biden's thought process is a futile exercise. It is a snarl of stupid, senility, corruption, and sociopathy. It is not for the faint of heart.
To repeat some other commentors, the feds typically do not waste their time on simple possession charges. Probably 95% of them are either plea bargains for much more significant charges or consolation prizes for failed convictions on much more serious charges. There are almost certainly some in that group that deserve a pardon, but for the most part Biden is enabling criminals. I seriously doubt that there was an effort to try to filter the beneficiaries. The announcement feels very much like a rush job desperately pushed out before the midterms.
Hyping the racial angel on drug busts is an old Lefty favorite. See also: Convictions for Crack (black users) v. Cocaine (white users).
It always seem obvious to me that:
1. Black pot users would be busted more because they are more like to live in high-crime areas with more police around.
2. Crack penalties were more severe thank coke penalties because of the horrible, ancillary crimes people committed to feed their addiction (worse than coke.) Different drugs, with different effects prompted different laws created in different times.
Also, some of the most vocal proponents of crack laws were black legislators.
Sometimes, the "other law-breaking behavior" is being black.
Cook demonstrates his intelligence by informing us that being black is a behavior.
Sometimes, the "other law-breaking behavior" is being black.
Statistically, this isn't true. But, anecdotally, it's the perfect response.
Post facto Changing of the rules again. In the mid 1960s when drug culture fell upon us like an asteroid from space the young people were presented with the choice between enjoying ourselves in the useless stoner druggie life and OR not taking illegal drugs that would block the careers that required no criminal record. Guess us self controlled stiffs missed out for no good reason. We demand reparations.
"Blogger Mr Wibble said...
My theory is that the admin is doing this in order to give cover for dem governors to issue pardons as well."
Minnesota's Tim Walz is already on board:
https://twitter.com/peggyflanagan/status/1578192195919941632
Walz is running for re-election this year. The polls say that he is ten points ahead of his GOP opponent, but he is behaving as though the race is neck and neck.
I would search for sources of information other than Scott Adams to ascertain if this is true or false. (I suspect it is false.)
I suspect if you really thought it were false you'd have done the search yourself.
"President Joe Biden has pardoned all Americans who have been convicted at the national level of possessing small amounts of marijuana. Officials estimate about 6,500 people with federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana will benefit. No-one is currently in federal prison solely for possession of marijuana." -- BBC News
Biden issues federal pardons for 'simple possession' of marijuana
Like Drago, I think Hunter Biden is about to plead down to marijuana possession to escape tax evasion and influence peddling charges.
People don't realize that is truly HARD to put someone in prison. Plea deals hide the true nature of the offence.
Crack cocaine is nearly immediately addictive as it works intensely on that part of the brain.
Libs also won't believe in "Gateway Drugs". Talk to a counselor at Harbor Light, they know.
Willful ignorance is the Original Sin of Liberals and it is ruining America.
See Also:
I won't grow up, I don't wanna go to school.
"Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs."
Executive action. Stroke of a pen. What justifies waiting until now, Joe?
@effinayright:
"I searched, and it's YOU who are full of shit---as usual.
"So if almost no people are in federal prison for simple possession, your gratuitous snot-flinging about racism being behind their incarceration is nonsense."
@Mr. Wibble:
"https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/biden-marijuana-possession-decriminalization-convictions-pot/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h
'Officials said there are currently no Americans serving prison time solely on federal simple marijuana possession charges. But they said the number who had been charged with that crime was north of 6,500.'"
It appears there are 149 persons in federal incarceration for simply possession of cannibis. This is not many, but it is also not none.
According to Mr. Wibble's linked article, 6,500 persons were arrested for simple pot possession. The article doesn't provide the span of time in which these arrests occurred. One year? A span of years? Even if they were not incarcerated, they were arrested, which is itself a pretty disruptive thing to have happen to one. Of those arrested, did any spend time in jail before being released? If so, how many, and for how long? How many of those arrested were also guilty of being black?
I drink. A friend of mine drinks too.
She got a ticket for having an open bottle of Vodka in her car...even though she was completely sober. It was after getting pulled over for a broken tail light. Bottle was from the night before or something. She thought it was unfair since she was sober.
I asked, "why would you risk having an open bottle of Vodka in your car"? My question was was completely lost on her.
If you smoke pot, don't have it in your car. Of course you have to transport if from the dealer or the dispensary to get it home...but after that...don't have it back in your car.
Oh, and wait until you get home to smoke any. I would bet most possession charges are from being pulled over for minor traffic offenses, and it's like Cheech and Chong rolling down the car window.
That way, whatever your skin color, the odds of getting busted are greatly diminished. There are smart ways to get drunk and high. And there are stupid ways to get drunk and high.
I remember a statistic from a while back that said 75% of convicts were high when busted. Same stat for when they committed the original offence.
They will, however, become librarians upon release.
A few people have already noted, simple possession is highly unlikely to be what actually occurred. Based on my highly limited (thankfully) of such a situation, I really doubt that ‘simple possession’ is what sends them to jail.
dat honey sauce!
https://youtu.be/GchgAvD1fxA
Are we using the word ‘black’ now and not ‘African American’? And what is meant by saying ‘black’ and ‘brown’ as apparently separate identities?
As a side note, is saying someone has an Afro hair style racist? On a white guy? I can’t keep up. Makes me not want to associate with anyone not like me.
Intoxicating blasts of Stupefaction ?
or
Stupefying blasts of Intoxication ?
I was thinking along the same lines as Althouse on the dealing v using difference in prosecution and am fairly certain that Biden threw it in to strongly imply that the law is intended to disfavor blacks. Whether this truly disfavors blacks could be looked at in the opposite way: If we assume that laws are the will of the people and that they are intended to do good, then higher prosecution is favoritism. Blacks are being protected from the scourge of drugs and whites are being neglected.
On a separate note. If we want to change laws, it should be we the people, as represented by our legislatures, who change the law. Having one man just decide which laws to enforce and which ones to ignore is tyranny.
People do go to jail for mere possession, but that's exceedingly rare. For decades, defendants have been permitted to plead down to drug charges, often because it's far easier to produce evidence of that than prove acts of violence or coordinated trafficking. And our court system deliberately and increasingly fails to record and disclose the real offenses it lets people get away with. Pro-criminal activists at every level of the criminal justice system (except police) are more interested in not addressing crime or affording victims and communities real justice -- or facts about their choices. The only people with rights in the system are criminals. And once released, "ban the box" and other pernicious lawsuit schemes give offenders more privileges and opportunities than people who don't commit crimes.
Nice to know this administration has the right priorities. I mean, it's not like anything else is going on.
“Scott Adams (?) just said that there are zero people in jail for only possession.”
The only impact of this is supposed to be clearing the records of people who are already out of jail. However that won’t work for jobs as the question on the application is were you ever convicted of a crime, not were you ever pardoned. A person who went to jail has a break in work history that will prevent professional employment even if pardoned. And background checks are allowed.
So getting a federal conviction is going to be life changing for most people.
Biden seeking the stupid and druggie vote just before Mid-Terms.
I love how some people sperg out about the difference between absolute zero and 169. OF course, Biden is lying. but what else is new?
1. Thousands are NOT in Federal prison for merely "possessing" MJ, unless by "possessing" you mean having say 1,000 lbs.
2. Why aren't the states taking care of Drug use? I know the Federal Government is needed to arrest drug Traffickers since they rarely obey state boundries. But shouldn't the rest of it, be on the state? Like Court trials?
3. I wonder how many Big corporations involved in selling MJ, put pressure on biden to do this. He led "tough" drug laws in the 90s, when he got some political capital out of it. Certainly, he's not getting much political capital out of the Pardons, blacks and white criminals already vote 80 percent Democrat. It more likely the Big MJ companies are giving him and DNC lots of $$$.
I should have considered the third option: the person was convicted of a series of crimes, with simple possession being one on the list. You see this all the time when someone is charged with a list of crimes, some being very serious (murder, rape, etc.), some more middling (burglary, theft, etc.), and some minor (drug possession, gun charges, etc.) It's a common gag in comedic crime movies, but it happens in real life. Sometimes proving the minor crimes are necessary to get conviction of more serious crimes, especially when a gun is involved.
""While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionately higher rates." Look at that quote: Did Biden say the government is guilty of illegal race discrimination? I don't think he did!""
I looked at it and I think he did. He talked about use. He said disproportionately. He didn't refer to some "other factor."
"If the people charged with possession are the ones caught with quantities of marijuana that imply drug dealing, then the question would be whether "white and Black and brown" people deal marijuana at similar rates."
Of course. Not that progs want to go there. But if you don't think use or possession should be illegal, why worry about production and dealing?
"There's still potential racial disparity that ought to concern us. Who chooses a career in drug dealing?"
It should concern us because it means a minority of a minority is undermining the system and causing disorder in minority communities. People who can make more money and get more status from drugs than from their modest marketable skills choose a "career" in drug dealing, always assuming that the chance of bad outcomes is low compared to the payoffs.
"But Biden isn't talking honestly about any of that. The racial element is thrown in confusingly and for political gain."
Of course not, and of course. Good to see you getting just as cynical as the rest of us.
"Where is the serious and effective program of reconfiguring the embedded patterns of racial disparity?"
That's funny. But the deeper question is whether, even if progs sere serious in the prime drug territories, most controlled by Dems, such a program is possible. Sure, crime declined in the 90s and 00s, but the disparity is sticky.
Did not our VP make her bones as a no nonsense prosecutor by imprisoning (often black) people for pot?
Wasn’t Kamala’s big claim to legitimacy that she, as SF DA and CA AG, pushed back hard to keep simple
Marijuana possession convicts in prison?
This could be a fun “monkey shit flinging spat” to watch between the Biden part and the Harris part of the Biden-Harris Administration…
Such a horseshit argument.
How many of those pardoned include hardened recidivous criminals who pled down to “possession” when in fact they were in for committing harsher offences.
Biden and Harris both did all they could to put black people in prison for drugs, and keep them there.
Interesting that the press never points this out.
Joe says, "It's good to be King".
"Scott Adams (?) just said that there are zero people in jail for only possession."
Not zero, but, according to WaPo, only 92 people out of 20,000 drug convictions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/live-updates/general-election/fact-checking-the-first-democratic-debate/how-many-people-are-in-prison-on-marijuana-charges/
Who chooses a career in drug dealing?
I guess that I was under a false impression that presidential pardons were issued on an individual basis, pursuant to a defined executive protocol for investigating the individual's, let's call it, worthiness.
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon-information-and-instructions
Have we ever before seen an entire "class" of persons pardoned like this?
What cannot this president do, of his own volition, via EO, subject to no check, balance, or oversight?
" I wonder how many Big corporations involved in selling MJ, put pressure on biden to do this. He led "tough" drug laws in the 90s, when he got some political capital out of it. Certainly, he's not getting much political capital out of the Pardons, blacks and white criminals already vote 80 percent Democrat. It more likely the Big MJ companies are giving him and DNC lots of $$$."
My understanding, from speaking with DEA personnel, is that the tobacco companies are primed and ready for pot legalization. Once it happens they'll switch their industry over.
Isn't it cute how Cookie calls for corroborating information then makes an allegation of his own two posts later with no corroborating information.
Simple possession of a small amount?
Or a large amount for dealing?
Or was it a plea bargain for someone who should have had a trial for a larger charge (e.g. robbery, assault, DUI, child abuse) where conviction would take time and effort in an overburdened justice system, and maybe be hard to prove because the witnesses are afraid of testifying?
Why are we not encouraging more young white males to choose a career as a drug dealer?
Wouk that be a good way to reduce the disparity?
This is impeachable, and Biden should be convicted and removed for this.
It is not a president's function to declare a law void.
Congress can do this, by repealing the law, or never enacting it. Courts can do this by declaring a law unconstitutional.
The President's job is to see that laws are faithfully executed.
The pardon power is properly used in individual situations, where the application of the law has resulted in injustice.
Another case of us knowing, and them knowing that we know, and they just don't care.
When first your exercise liberal license to indulge the Pro-Choice ethical religion. Diversity [dogma] (e.g. racism) breeds adversity.
Cook, you changed your argument from "being imprisoned" to being arrested.
Others have reported on the actual stats, and they utterly falsify your snot-flinging.
It's chickenshit....chickenshit all the way down.
Boulder now has MS13 gang members. Thanks Biden!
"While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionately higher rates."
Well, when you draw attention for X, you increase the inadvertent attention to Y.
I have hardly any awareness of pot use, except in Madison and Milwaukee where I smell the smoke pouring out of the cars of b/Black/African American folks. Sometimes just while driving by. That's pretty concentrated.
I wa working a gig in a Milwaukee innner city school and watched a (perhaps) dad bringing his daughter into school, yanking her around, scolding her and reeking of pot.
All coincidences, I'm sure.
Boulder now has MS13 gang members.
ooo - and a missing 9th grade girl. And messages on local boards on strange men attempting to lure your girls out of front yards. Not to mention the genesis of Portland-like permissive on crime progressives allowing drug transient camps on our civic and shared spaces and theft - and raising their paddies at city council meetings when asked if they want to defund the police.
Thanks to Soros and Mob Boss Biden.
So now the president can pardon unnamed people in a blanket manner. So with the stroke of a pen he could release all federal criminals. One stroke of the pen and it is done. Seems like a tremendously unconstitutional thing to do.
Next all pedophiles.
All kidnappers.
All bombers.
All terrorists ( except white people and republicans ).
Can he pardon only black people? I mean his power is God-like, right?
BLM - the greatest lie ever sold.
Of course, Biden was going to say that. I was more disappointed with Harris taking the racial angle on hurricane relief. She's not an old White guy trying desperately to prove he isn't bigoted and to hold on to Black votes, so she could have risen to the occasion and been above racial pandering ... but I guess she couldn't.
Dude1394 said...
So now the president can pardon unnamed people in a blanket manner
**************
Yes, yes he can.
Go look up what a "plenary power" in.
The POTUS has always that power.
Perhaps you should introduce yourself to the Constitution of the United States.
The polls must be really bad if the dems are buying the votes of black prisoners.
They usually have that crowd in the bag already.
I do believe that simple possession of marijuana ought to be decriminalized. My question on the people in prison is: how many were charged with more serious crimes and plea bargained down to simple possession?
MarcusB THEOLDMAN
Cook is a perfect example of Reagan's maxim: "Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.”
Only there's nothing liberal about today's Leftists.
For the record this is far from the first blanket pardon of an entire class of people convicted of a crime.
"Who chooses a career in drug dealing?"
Someone with a criminal record, no skills, little education, and an aversion to work.
In fairness, the criminal record part is a lot of it. A guy who does something stupid at 18 can find himself unemployable for life.
Let's see, an idiot chooses to not get an education and his/her parent(s) acquiesce, chooses to learn no marketable job skills and lives off of government, i.e taxpayer, largess and makes/chooses a raft of stupid lifestyle choices. Said idiot ends up incarcerated because of any or all of the above and folks think he/she deserves compassion . Yea, not happening. Until recently pot was illegal in most of the country. You play stupid games and you win stupid prizes. Let them take responsibility rather than excusing their stupidity over and over again. Christ, stop with all of the " race " bullshit. Stupidity doesn't have any racial component. Joey bidet is a pig, always has been. If you change your vote because of this pandering you're just stupid as the incarcerated idiots and deserve to get to enjoy the consequences of your stupidity....good and hard.
Let's see, an idiot chooses to not get an education and his/her parent(s) acquiesce, chooses to learn no marketable job skills and lives off of government, i.e taxpayer, largess and makes/chooses a raft of stupid lifestyle choices. Said idiot ends up incarcerated because of any or all of the above and folks think he/she deserves compassion . Yea, not happening. Until recently pot was illegal in most of the country. You play stupid games and you win stupid prizes. Let them take responsibility rather than excusing their stupidity over and over again. Christ, stop with all of the " race " bullshit. Stupidity doesn't have any racial component. Joey bidet is a pig, always has been. If you change your vote because of this pandering you're just stupid as the incarcerated idiots and deserve to get to enjoy the consequences of your stupidity....good and hard.
What about those that get ensnared with federal gun laws but had no Mens Rea (evil intent?)
Hell what about ANY conviction where there was no mens rea????
There are millions of laws on the books... can anyone know them all?
Minority Report, including inferring intent, progress, etc. with, perhaps, diversity motives.
The marijuana available today is not the marijuana of 40 years ago. It's a lot stronger, with a higher THC content, and it's causing real mental health issues among users.
We must take back the streets. It doesn't matter whether or not the person that is accosting your son or daughter, or my son or daughter, my wife, your husband, my mother, your parents - it doesn't matter whether or not they were deprived as a youth. It doesn't matter whether or not they had no background that would enable them to have, to become, uh, to become, uh, become socialized into the fabric of society. It doesn't matter whether or not they're the victims of society. The end result is they're about to knock my mother on the head with a lead pipe, shoot my sister, beat up my wife, take on my sons.
So I don't want to ask, "What made them do this?" They must be taken off the streets! That's number one. There's a consensus on that! The Democratic Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Democratic President of the United States of America, the Democratic Attorney General, the Republican Leader, the Republican leader of this effort, Senator Hatch, the Republican Senator from Texas, we all agree on that.
Now we can find some “fringe folks” in the study groups on the right wing and left wing, Libertarians and, uh, uh, and “left wingers” in my party who say, "No. That's not what we should do," but politically that consensus has been arrived at. I acknowledge there was not that consensus in the Sixties. There is today.
There's a second thing that we all have agreed upon, and that is:
Unless we do something about that cadre of young people - tens of thousands of them - born out of wedlock, without parents, without supervision, without any structure, without any conscience developing because they literally (I yield myself three more minutes) because they literally have not been socialized. They literally have not had an opportunity. We should focus on them now. Not out of a liberal instinct for love, brother, and humanity - although I think that's a good instinct - but for simple, pragmatic reasons.
If we don't, they will, or a portion of them will, become the predators fifteen years from now - and Madam President, we have predators on our streets, that society has, in fact, in part because of its neglect, created. Again, it does not mean, because we created them, that we somehow forgive them or do not take them out of society to protect my family and yours from them. They are beyond the pale, many of those people, beyond the pale, and it's a sad commentary on society. We have no choice but to take them out of society, and the truth is we don't very well know how to rehabilitate them at that point. That's the sad truth.
Joe Biden - 1993 Biden/Hatch Crime Bill speech.
This has been extensively studied. There are few if any people in prison just for possession. Usually dealing plea bargained down to possession.
Those who think marijuana is no big deal should look at the evidence that marijuana is a contributing factor to mental illness. Also just published was a study examining in utero exposure and subsequent effects as they grow up.
I'm an attorney in southern Arizona, 60 miles from the border. Since Biden is doing the pardoning, we're talking about federal cases. Last I heard, even on smuggling, the feds did not bring charges unless some huge quantity of pot was involved -- I have forgotten the amount, but it was over a hundred pounds. I've never heard of a case where they went after someone for simple possession of a personal supply. I doubt whether the pardon applies to anyone in real life.
Let's effectively abolish plea bargaining.
Post a Comment