Restorative Justice & Moral Relativism = Social Collapse

Tyrone biggums, dave chapelle, crackhead, crack cocaine

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The Obama administration joined a federal judge Wednesday in urging Congress to end a racial disparity by equalizing prison sentences for dealing and using crack versus powdered cocaine. "Jails are loaded with people who look like me," U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, an African-American, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said the administration believes Congress' goal "should be to completely eliminate the disparity" between the two forms of cocaine. "A growing number of citizens view it as fundamentally unfair," Breuer testified. It takes 100 times more powdered cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same harsh mandatory minimum sentences.

Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, said, "Under current law, mere possession of five grams of crack — the weight of five packets of sweetener - carries the same sentence as distribution of half a kilogram of powder or 500 packets of sweetener." Durbin said more than 81 percent of those convicted for crack offenses in 2007 were African-American, although only about 25 percent of crack cocaine users are African Americans. Congress enacted the disparity during an epidemic of crack cocaine in the 1980s, but the senator said lawmakers erred in assuming that violence would be greater among those using crack.

Breuer said the best way to deal with violence is to severely punish anyone who commits a violent offense, regardless of the drug involved. "This administration believes our criminal laws should be tough, smart, fair," Breuer said, but also should "promote public trust and confidence in the criminal justice system." Walton said, "We were mistaken" to enact the disparity. "There's no greater violence in cases before me." He added that jurors have expressed an unwillingness to serve in crack cocaine cases because of the disparity. President Barack Obama had called for such a change while campaigning for the White House.

Breuer said the government should focus on punishing drug trafficking networks, like the cartels wreaking havoc in Mexico, and those whose crimes include acts of violence. The Obama administration is also seeking to increase drug treatment, as well as rehabilitation programs for felons after they're released from prison. Miami's police chief, John Timoney, also favored ending the disparity, commenting, "It's the same drug. It's just manufactured differently." While politicians often support laws lengthening prison terms for various crimes, it is rarer to try to reduce sentences, in part out of concern they may appear soft on crime. But recently, some states have been moving on their own to temper long-standing "get tough" laws. Snort

I have had the sad misfortune to deal much too personally with both crackheads and cocaine freaks, so I know what I'm talking about. This relativistic argument is specious beyond belief. Crackheads use those tiny amounts to get every bit as high as some fat cat nose candy head - in fact, it is my experience that crackheads get higher. But what is most important to bear in mind about this is that BECAUSE crack is so cheap, chronic use is within the budgets of most - while blowing through enough powdered cocaine to reach that level takes more money than anyone has, except rock stars and Wall Street brokers. It is not the drug that causes people to start deteriorating, sticking up liquor stores and mugging their mothers - it is the chronic use of that drug and once a person has reached that point - whether they're torching their high in a crack pipe or sucking it through hundred dollar bills, they are lost. If the coke head has any money, friends or relatives left, he might be retrievable, but crackheads never have anything left, because they have had access to cheap shit for so long their bodies, brains, friends and relatives are all long gone and they will never rehabilitate - never. Prison is the best place for 'em. To draw the distinction between crackheads and coke freaks, the damage done and the resultant harm to society based on race is analogous to blaming cheap fast food for fat black people. I ain't buyin' it because I know better.

This is what's known as 'restorative justice' and it should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

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