Opinion: the Drug War is Destroying MLK's Dream

Reason

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. Unfortunately, as Tim Wigmore explains in the U.K.'s Telegraph, many African Americans are not free, having been placed behind bars for non-violent drug offenses thanks to to the United States' morally bankrupt and economically absurd war on drugs.

From The Telegraph:

How would Martin Luther King feel if he were still alive today? Barack Obama may be President, but for millions of black Americans life is shockingly deprived: a black man today is more likely to be imprisoned than in apartheid South Africa.

The mass imprisonment of black people in America today has been described as "The New Jim Crow". Blacks account for 13 per cent of drug users, but 37 per cent of defendants. They receive sentences that are 20 per cent longer than white men for identical crimes. And, while there is little medical difference in the effects of crack and powder cocaine, crack, traditionally associated with black people, has a federal penalty 18 times greater. So it's little surprise thatone in every three black men go to prison over their lifetimes. And punishment doesn't end at the prison gates, as former felons lose access to housing and other benefits of citizenship upon their release.

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Comments

[DJF]

The drug war ruins the dream of as long as you don't harm someone else you can do what you want.

[Nazdrakke]

What about the plight of all the links that are unjustly imprisoned at 24/7?

[kinnath]

Well, the blacks in jail today for drug use probably couldn't read MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. It's not clear who MLK would blame for that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Too bad the civic leaders at the memorials chose instead to focus on their own political agendas rather than something that could make a significant change for the better to their community.

[Tony]

That's what they believe their political agenda is designed for.

[Libertymike]

Ending sentences with a preposition? Where's your sense of grammatical excellence, at?

[Tony]

There's nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition.

[WTF]

That's what they believe their political agenda is designed for.

This is what Tony really believes.

[DesigNate]

It's kind of disturbing how much his character hates minorities and poor people.

[Tony]

Is there some other reason to have a political agenda?

Is this libertarian logic?

Doing nothing is the best way to accomplish things.

Politics is doing nothing.

But politics accomplishes nothing.

[Zeb]

I believe it too. I think that most people (and probably more than a few politicians) really do believe that their agendas are for the greater good. I don't know if that is better or worse than the alternative.

[Dave Krueger]

The drug war is proof that politicians don't give a damn about their constituents and have a stunning capacity to distort logic beyond recognition to rationalize their cruel, self-serving, destructive behavior.

It's also proof that you can make anyone believe 2+2=5 of you say it often enough and get enough people to swear you are correct. This is especially true in a country where most people think celebrity and government authority are synonymous with wisdom.

[Jordan]

Compare and contrast: the British press reports on the NSA and bemoans the Drug War, the American press tells Obombya to go to war in Syria, even if it's illegal.

[db]

The common thread is readership and ratings.

[db]

Supppsed to have been in response to Jordan above.

[FreeToFear]

The article actually linked to: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/n.....ngs-dream/

[The Unknown Pundit]

Thanks.

[Mortimer Sneed]

Opinion: the Drug War is Destroying MLK's Dream

And a good job it is, or you'd likely be looking at a lot more destroying.

http://thosewhocansee.blogspot.....ofile.html

Blacks account for 13 per cent of drug users, but 37 per cent of defendants. They receive sentences that are 20 per cent longer than white men for identical crimes. And, while there is little medical difference in the effects of crack and powder cocaine, crack, traditionally associated with black people, has a federal penalty 18 times greater.

Feature! Not bug!

Drug laws may suck, but getting mugged, murdered or raped sucks even worse. Cry to me about the injustice of drug laws when you can guarantee the otherwise good behavior of your "honor students". I won't be holding my breath.

[Zeb]

Go fuck yourself. The fact that some may have actual criminal tendencies is no justification to lock people up for no reason. And the black markets and general lawless atmosphere created by the drugwar only encourage further criminality.

Is "Human Biodiversity" the new pseudoscientific veneer for racist bullshit?

[DesigNate]

It's a shame that the race baitors and society in general have so misused the term racist cause that's exactly what fuckheads like American are.

[Mortimer Sneed]

Is "Human Biodiversity" the new pseudoscientific veneer for racist bullshit?

Not at all. It's merely another term for "the truth".

[Norton]

Yes, it is the drug war, the policies that make virtually all drug offenses felonies, some with mandatory minimum sentences. These policies allow prosecutors to threaten a low-level arrestee with prison, or at least a lifelong felony record, unless he/she snitches on someone, rarely a major dealer, usually another low-level user who, in turn, is threatened.... you get the idea. The police like it because arrestees do the dangerous work police don't like to do. But it destroys trust, both within neighborhoods and, most importantly, between the police and minority males. It has become the self-fulfilling prophesy that minority males are dangerous, and it led to the death of Trevon Martin. This will not even begin to change until drugs are defelonized, so police cannot force arrestees to snitch on others. Only then will the word "racial profiling" fade away.