I just read a disturbing news article about a Texas man, Jacob Lavoro, who has been arrested for making and selling pot brownies and cookies. If convicted he is facing the same sentence as many convicted murderers because both crimes are first degree felonies in Texas. That’s 5 years to life for selling pot brownies.
I find this extremely upsetting.
If this was just one man, it would still be incredibly upsetting. Every human being matters and deserves sympathy. For even one person to so deeply suffer needlessly for years or a lifetime in the terrible, disgusting, inhumane environment of prison is unacceptable. The conditions of prison are so inhumane that in Texas, for example, prisoners are known to be dying from the heat in prison. Nationwide, it is estimated that up to 23% of prisoners are sexually victimized in prison by staff or other inmates.
But this isn’t just one man.
Jacob Lavoro is just one interesting story taken from the news this very week. The majority of the over 2 million people incarcerated in the United States–which has the highest incarceration rate in the world–are there for consensual activities (a.k.a. victimless crimes) like drug possession, prostitution, or feeding the homeless without a permit. In fact, only about 8% of the prison population is there for violent crime.
While that expensive procedure of so inhumanly incarcerating millions of non-violent people makes lots of money for the wealthy special interests who receive that money and who control the government with lobbying and campaign contributions, it puts the rest of us in a lot of danger.
If you wonder why violent crime rates are out of control, this is why.
If you wonder why an untreated dangerous sex offender moved in next door to your family, this is why.
If you wonder why your taxes are so high and where your tax money is going, this is why and this is where.
If you wonder why dangerous ghettos filled with a disproportionate number of black and brown children has ruined the dream of equal opportunity in this country, this is why.
But, perhaps most importantly, my heart goes out to Jacob Lavoro and each and every person left to rot in these awful prisons. We cannot go on treating each other like this and turning a blind eye to suffering. We are not only so foolish now, but cruelly so.
What do you think?
Thursday, May 15th 2014 at 10:17 am
Yo man good story but you lost me even you went to say “Dangerous ghettos filled with blacks and browns, destroying equal opportunity”.. That’s BS you have more ghetto whites like yourself trying to focus all the bad toward the other races the guy you’re talking about is probably hispanic. And you have more whites in the work place in charge. Browns and blacks do the jobs you whites are afraid of you think you all are master race but all you are is weak paranoid people. Let you not forget whites brought blacks to America and the brown people Eee already here.
Thursday, June 5th 2014 at 1:23 pm
Valente, I understand your concerns about the sentence of mine you quoted. However, I have two points on which to respond.
Firstly, I think you misunderstood me–meaning I may likely have worded myself poorly. I don’t mean to focus “the bad” on other races. I disagree with racism. What I meant was that the war on drugs itself is a big part of the institutionalized, state-sponsored racism that perpetuates the unfair racial income gap. The war on drugs is of course just a war on some drugs. And even on those illegal drugs, whites and wealthy people in the U.S. use the drugs as much as minorities and the poor, but the minorities and the poor are disproportionately actually arrested and imprisoned for it by the racist, classist law enforcement and so-called justice system.
Secondly, I think your racist comments like, “you whites are afraid […] you are is weak paranoid people”, are utterly incorrect, offensive and out of place.
With that said, I do appreciate you taking the time to read my article and post your feedback.