It’s been 20 years since Maxine Waters coined (or at least popularized) the phrase “No Justice No Peace”. The time was after the LA Riots in 1992 when the freshman Congresswoman from Los Angeles was defending looters as simply “women who wanted shoes for their children and bread”. Of the violence that eventually claimed the lives of 53 people, Waters said: “The anger that you see expressed out there in Los Angeles, in my district this evening, is a righteous anger, and it’s difficult for me to say to the people, ‘Don’t be angry.’” She even went on use the threat of further violence around the country to try and extort action of some sort out of the White House. “Many other cities could go the way that Los Angeles went last night unless the president is willing to step in and take some strong action in terms of letting people know that he cares about this issue.” The White House listened and indeed a new trial was brought about, double jeopardy be damned. This time two of the officers were convicted. Finally some justice! For those Constitutional sticklers out there… The argument was that double jeopardy didn’t really apply as the four were charged with civil rights violations the second time rather than assault and excessive force, so, no problem at all.
So now here we are, two decades later and again race and crime intersect to put American cities on edge. “Justice for Trayvon” has been the ubiquitous call for much of the last year. This is easily one of the most high profile – and consequently political – trials in decades. The original prosecutor declined to press charges, believing there was not sufficient evidence for conviction. Enter race pimps Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson and judicial frivolity ensued.
While one’s heart has to go out to the parents of Trayvon as their grief and sadness is very real and they have comported themselves with dignity in the most trying circumstances a parent will likely ever face, the “Justice for Trayvon” signs across the country have little to do with what went on that fateful night last year or what went on in that Sanford courtroom over the last month.
But then that doesn’t really matter because in America of 2013 the only thing that does matter is satiating the demands of raucous mobs or favored demographic groups. Just on cue, now that the verdict is in the demands for federal civil rights charges have already started. Prior to the verdict, as the Miami and Sanford police departments prepared to deal with the consequences of a potential not guilty verdict, one couldn’t help but wonder how we had arrived here in the first place.
I remember watching the OJ trial and verdict as it was read aloud. To say I was dumbfounded is an understatement. More stupefying however was the scene from a college student union filled with black students who erupted into joyous pandemonium when the verdict was read. How was it even possible that anyone could cheer a ruthless murderer getting off, just because of his skin color?
One has to wonder how did race affinity ever come to replace common sense, or self preservation among so many people? The perfect example of the latter is the movement in New York City to ban “Stop and Frisk”. Stop and Frisk has been a tremendous success in helping to drive down and keep down crime rates in crime ridden neighborhoods of the city. Nonetheless, many blacks have objected to the policy because blacks are disproportionately stopped. Perhaps, but those neighborhoods have a disproportionate number of blacks and black lives are disproportionately saved as well. And the neighborhoods in which many of those black citizens live are safer than they might be without Stop and Frisk. Safer neighborhoods help with jobs, schools and quality of life. But let’s get rid of it, regardless of the lives saved or improved.
Just as knee jerk white racism a half a century ago was irrational and ignorant, so too is the knee jerk black racism of today. The difference is, the black racism of today is part of the liberal & media fiction that the state of black America is the result of white racism. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Blacks may indeed be victims, but they are largely the victims of other blacks, not whites. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics points out – via Walter Williams – that between 1976 and 2011 279,000 blacks were murdered in the United States, 94%, or 262,000 of them, by fellow blacks. That compares to a 3,446 blacks being lynched by whites in the 86 years between 1882 and 1968!
This irrational focus on the relatively insignificant (not to be confused with nonexistent) white racism at the expense of a focus on the far greater danger to members of the black community, the black predators preying on them, is an extraordinarily expensive mistake. By focusing on the mirage of widespread white racism, many blacks cease to address the dangers and issues within their own communities, with devastating consequences. It has led to over a quarter of a million dead young black men over the last four decades. Perhaps even more damaging more is the fact that tens of millions of black Americans live in poverty, 45% of black teens cannot find a job and over 75% of black children are born out of wedlock.
If the so called black leaders of today were really concerned with the state of black America, and young men like Trayvon while they are still alive, they would put down their “No Justice No Peace” posters and turn their focus on saving black America from itself. Stop supporting murders like OJ Simpson and Mumia Abu-Jamal and start honoring men like Herman Cain, Dr. Ben Carson, McDonalds CEO Donald Thompson, American Express CEO Ken Chenault and US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, all of whom chose to build successful lives for themselves rather than bleat about the oppressive nature of a majority white society.
Instead of clamoring for never ending government programs, special dispensation in jobs and college admissions or seeing every crime or political issue through race tinted glasses, they should instead focus on reducing unwed and teen pregnancies, demanding quality education for their children and seeking relief from government regulations in order to make black communities compelling places for businesses to invest.
Don’t hold your breath however, because leadership in solving real problems is much harder work than just picking up the racism flag and waving it about so that people pay attention to you and call you a “black leader”. The civil rights movement helped destroy the scourge of white racism that had constrained the lives of blacks in America for centuries. One wonders what it will take, or how many more dead young black men it will take to remove the shackles of black racism that keep so many black Americans from enjoying the fruits of liberty that that people like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and Medgar Evers fought so hard to give them access to?
See author page
Very good post.
When I was coaching young men in soccer and basketball, I think I made a few young black men see this. My son went to college with a few of the same kids he played sports with in high school. My son wanted to relive the success in sports he enjoyed in high school by trying to put together an intermural basket ball team. The black kids told him they would be ostracized if they played on a team with white kids. My son had a wake up! Both white and black kids had entered the twilight zone of adult racism they were able to ignore as school kids.
I watched the OJ trial gavel to gavel.
Two major problems I saw.
1. The DNA lab was a shambles – discount that evidence
2. It looked to me like the police were planting evidence – well proven in the Rampart scandal three years later – discount all the forensics and a lot of the evidence
What do you have left? Not much.
The major cause of Black discontent is Drug Prohibition. The prohibition law are applied unequally according to this former DEA agent:
And this book:
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
If you search for the whole 9 minute post verdict interview of O’mara and West then start up at the 8 minute mark you learn why so many black defendants end up behind bars.
Sure the prosecution is just as shoddy for all cases as it was in the Zimmerman case.
And sure the prosecutors ”forget” to turn over ALL the evidence to the defense, as required by law.
BUT the difference it that O’Mara and West were not overworked, underpaid public defenders!
They saw through all of the prosecution’s holes.
They fought for all of Zimmerman’s evidence, exculpatory or not.
Had Zimmerman had one of these public defenders, he, too, would be behind bars today.
Blacks need to network with lawyers from the liberal and/or black colleges to volunteer to take their accused through their trails.
IF enough good lawyers did this, blacks would be represented behind bars in the same proportions as everybody else.
And isn’t it interesting that so few black and liberal lawyers haven’t already picked up this mantel?
Very good post.
“45% of black teens cannot find a job and over 75% of black children are born out of wedlock.”
My little waitress friend is a 19-year-old black girl. Yep, a black teenager. with two jobs, no children, and a bright future ahead of her. No piercings, no tats, no hoodie, clean and well-groomed. Oops, am I a racist for saying that?
She’s also a virgin. How do I know? She told me. Why do I believe her? Because she’s never given me any reason not to.
She is in more danger from young black men than from white or hispanic men.
They call her an “uppity nigga” and accuse her of acting white. And threaten her.
My mossberg 500 resides at her house.
I’m paying for her martial arts courses.
I time my visits to the range for her rare days off. She’s very, very good. Viper speed. As her martial arts instructor (my girlfriend, DISCOUNT!) put it once, she isn’t small, she’s concentrated.
I just wish that she could get a special exemption for a CCW permit at her age.
She loves my little Ruger LCR .357, and we both know that it will be her 21st birthday present.
But even with the martial arts, the shotgun in her house, her intelligence and her can-do attitude…
Small, black, female, smart, attractive, ambitious… a prime target for thugs.
I’m so afraid for her.
What does this have to do with Trayvon?
Not long ago, she was spending the weekend at my house. While walking to the convenience store, one of my neighbors asked her if she lived around here.
She was polite, explained that she was visiting. After she walked on, he called me to verify what she’d told him.
No harm, no foul, nobody beaten, nobody dead.
That’s the way to do it.
It’s not just her. I know several other black teenagers, all of whom have jobs. One of them started his own lawn care business, and has two others working for him now. Another is solo, with a pressure washing business.
Jobs are out there for black teenagers, even if they have to create them for themselves.
One of my friends, a business owner, tells me that the two most common reasons for teenagers to fail to get hired are:
Poor demeanor during the interview.
Failing the drug test.
Self-inflicted unemployment.
Another is the cost of employment.
Government-inflicted unemployment.
Drug tests – a total sham. It only detects pot (for the most part) because pot metabolites are stored in the fat – detectable amounts can last up to 30 days.
And pot is one of the least harmful drugs out there.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/healthprofessional/page4
And where are the Black men? In the criminal justice system due to unequal application of the laws according to this former DEA agent:
Either we enforce prohibition equally (which will end it – whites will not stand for what is done to blacks) or we end it.
Also read: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Vince
thank you, for a very interesting POST as usual,
and look at who you brought to comment the best,
the only one who are not taking the verdict for truth are the misfit big mouths who must find the speckle in the haystack, and the problem they have is to take their self madness to destroy other people’s property,
and yell like animal, the animal would not go so far unless they are hunted, but those human are not even hunted, they are allowed to let their steam burn, and those onlookers can think how dangerous they are, and remember the OLD VET BEATEN BY MORE THAN ONE OF THEM THEY WHERE 6 KICKING HIM,
AND GOT FREE FROM IT NO ARREST, IS THAT JUSTICE FOR THE INNOCENT WHITES PEOPLE?
HOW ABOUT THE WOMAN THROWN OUT OF THE 3RD FLOOR AFTER BEING RAPE BY A COUPLE OF THOSE CRIMINALS, DID THEY GOT THE MEDIA ATTENTION? NO THEY ARE FREE,
AND THERE ARE MORE FREE AS BIRD WHO GOT AWAY FROM JUSTICE,
SO THEIR ACTIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTED AS JUSTICE, THEY CANNOT FOOL US, ANY MORE
THE PEOPLE OF ALL RACE AND COLOR ARE LOOKING AND JUDGING THEM SEVERELY,
AND THEY HAVE NOT WIN ANY POINT WITH THE PEOPLE, WE KNOW OF WHAT THEIR YELLING FOR
HAS INSTIGATED MORE CRIMES ON LONE whites who they will target like they already done before,
so a good advice for the whites is keep away from them which you don’t know, and keep your gun ready.
that is what message they convey to the public,
and for those hater don’t even think of attacking a WHITE PERSON AND BEAT HIM OR HER, because they will be ready this time.
@M. Simon:
I suggest you read the reviews of this book by FireStarter, a black American who refuses to accept the position of victim of whitey.
When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wearing a suit and tie (dressing for success) was marching against the real oppression blacks then suffered, he did not demand that blacks be cut slack for the bad things they do simply based on the color of their skin. Nor did he ask for any special treatment. Dr. King was a firm believer in meritocracy. The content of their character would be the reason they should be treated as equals, not the color of their skin. Dr. Abernathy also followed that policy. There was a young hanger-oner that neither King, nor Abernathy, trusted as they felt he simply wanted notoriety and was self promoting, caring more about his own fame than equality for his race. His name was Jesse Jackson. Had Dr. King lived, Jesse Jackson would not even have been regulated to the foot notes of the Civil Rights movement.
History has shown why Dr. King and Dr. Abernathy held such feelings. Add to that the poverty pimp mentality bandwagon that Al Sharpton jumped on. If you convince people that they are victims, and that you can help them escape their victimhood, you are considered some form of leader. But basically that message is nothing more than “You’re too stupid to help yourself, so I’m here to help you in your stupidity.” Books, like the one you linked, contribute to that stupidity.
I suggest you read more Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, both who have looked at the history and statistics of black Americans. And they are appalled at what they have found. After the Civil Rights movement, blacks had stronger families, less divorce, fewer unwed mothers, committed less crime and were more religious than their white counterparts. But that wasn’t good enough. Liberal politicians, wanting to garner votes from the black community, propagated the lie that blacks were victims and they needed to be rewarded for that victimization. LBJ, with his “Great Society” that was sold as the end to American poverty, told young black women that they no longer needed a husband to help raise, and support, their children. Uncle Sam would be their baby daddy. Working would no longer be required to support their children, and if they needed a raise, they needed another fatherless child.
Enter Margaret Sanger and her blatant racism. Here was the answer to the growing population of children of all races, especially black, that were costing American taxpayers beyond what was ever comprehended by LBJ. The number of children being supported by the government was growing, and abortion was the answer to that problem. Abortion became legal, abortion clinics were built in the ghettos, and the problem would be solved of the ever multiplying fatherless minority children. The result? The race of Americans that was 20% in 1865 is now 9%. Most black children, those that are born, are fatherless. We now have generational welfare, having taught that work is not necessary, being personally responsible is not necessary, and if you do decide to go down the wrong track, selling dope, robbing houses, joining gangs, well, someone will write a book pointing to the fact that you are, once again, being victimized by whitey.
Take a look at every major school district where black children are failing miserably and dropping out of school before graduation. Everyone of those districts are run by Democrats. Take a look at Democrat strongholds like Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles. Check the graduation rates for minorities in those cities. Ask yourself why, when someone like Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and Bill Cosby tell blacks to stop feeling sorry for themselves and take control of their own destiny, they are labeled “Uncle Tom,” “Oreo,” and other pejoratives that diminishes their message of personal power.
Then you say:
But you cannot claim, with honesty, that it is not harmful. If you think it is, then you ignore the fact that pot is a gateway drug. You ignore the dead on both sides of the Rio Grande over such a [harmless] drug. You ignore the crime attached to pot that will not end if made legal. There is a human cost to marijuana that will not go away if it is legalized. And only those who use that drug make the claim that it is “harmless.”
(Comment as seen at MOTUS)
buzzsawmonkey • 3 minutes ago
Let’s Not Talk About “Race”
—apologies to Cole Porter, and “Let’s Not Talk About Love”
My neighbors all spout the same drivel-idge
About how I’m enjoying “White Privilege”
I could talk about “race”—the topic’s hot
But some other things shouldn’t be forgot
So, let’s talk of Solyndra, and “green energy”
How investors robbed the public and then got off scot-free
Or how the President could be such a dolt
To underwrite production of GM’s Chevy Volt
Let’s fly into some rages ’bout Obamacare’s stages
And all the many thousands of its regulation pages
And think of how its ill effects will weigh on us for ages
But let’s not talk about “race.”
Let’s talk about “Fast,” “Furious” as well,
Holder walking automatic weapons to the cartels,
Let’s speak of our last Secretary of State,
The death of the Ambassador she left to his fate.
Let’s all of us get giddy-oh, ’bout what al-Qaeda did-eo—
Susan Rice flipped her lid-eo trying to blame a video
It’s true we still have no clue to what they are keeping hid-eo
But let’s not talk about “race.”
Let’s talk about jobs, and how they’ve declined—
How each month’s glowing report one week later unwinds.
Let’s talk of increased government giveaways
While we borrow from the Chinese at an increasing pace.
Why not discuss ascendancy of government dependency
And what the likely end will be continuing this tendency
Of over-regulation,
Unrestricted immigration,
“Comprehensive” legislation,
Executive usurpation,
Official dissimulation—
It makes one fear for the nation,
So let’s not talk about—
(Sigh)
If you drive a car, and fear new gas lines
Let’s discuss the stonewalling of the Keystone pipeline.
Or, if you wonder why more folks don’t protest
Let’s discuss the biased policies of the IRS.
My friends, the time at last has come
To leave low-info voterdom
And so instead of dwelling in
A world defined by melanin
Let’s talk of how there’s hell to pay
With OFA and the NSA
Data-mining every which way
Or how we cannot guarantee
Any election’s honesty without proper voter ID
Of topic’s there’s no dearth, you see
So let’s not talk about “race.”
@retire05:
Yeah. I don’t claim it is not harmful. I claim it is helpful.
Endocannabinoids about the body’s own cannabinoid production system. There are more endocannabinoid receptors in the body than any other receptor type. The endocannabinoid system is a major regulator in the body implicated in almost all diseases including cancer.
http://www.endalldisease.com/harvard-study-says-marijuana-cures-cancer/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/23/health/time-marijuana-diabetes
http://israel21c.org/health/marijuana-could-alleviate-symptoms-of-ptsd/
I could fill the page up. But I think we should do what this DEA agent says. Enforce the laws equally (about 3 minutes into the video).
or quit enforcing them altogether.
Or what these Police officers suggest: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
======
Now who exactly are the Drug Gangs in America sending their political contributions to? And they do contribute. Look up Jeff Fort – he supported the Chicago Machine. Until he got to be inconvenient.
Well OK. You like supporting gangs and think the Democrats should get their political contributions. Or is that just your result vs your intent. I guess you can be forgiven because you have good intentions.
Prohibitions typically last 50 years historically. This one is almost over. You will note that Republicans supported Alcohol Prohibition in 1932. You might want to look up the results of that election.
And I might add that if you put as much study into cannabinoids as you have done for the Zim trial you may come to a different conclusion. BTW has it occurred to you that you are being lied to? About everything? You know what the press did to Zim. What makes you think they are any different on any other subject?
Drug Warriors and Their Prey: From Police Power to Police State
They can bring it. There have been over 60 million firearm sold in America since Obama was first elected and I’m pretty confident about 90% or so were purchased by people other than blacks. If they want to commit suicide by attacking white suburbia, it’s their funerals.
You can lay the entire reaction of the verdict at the feet of the President. He has not brought the races together but divided them further that they have been since the 60’s. He makes the statement and the masses follow. His statements are for division not reconciliation.
@M. Simon:
You are ASSuming I haven’t. You seem to think that only you pro-pot people are educated about the drug.
Well, I do have a friend who thinks there are black helicopters flying over our houses late at night with their x-ray goggles checking out what we do.
So you want to legalize pot. Fine. Where do you end it? Do you legalize coke, PCP, crack, heroine, prescription drugs like pain killers and anti-depressants? No rules. If you want to get high on Rx diet pills, just walk into your friendly Walgreens and buy them?
I would warrant that the majority of those who call themselves “journalists” support the legalization of drugs.
“honoring men like Herman Cain, Dr. Ben Carson, McDonalds CEO Donald Thompson, American Express CEO Ken Chenault and US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas”
Rather than honoring or making examples of these successful and stereotype-crashing men, the left wing so-called “leaders” dub them “Uncle Tom” for not conforming to the race-baiting ignorance that keeps blacks in poverty and dependent on (and, thus, a mere utility of) the federal government and Democrat party.
I see M. Simon is in the excuse making rather than the problem solving business.
plainjane31
wow am I impress yes very much
it’s keepsake for all of us,
thank you for the gift,
@Bill:
I see M. Simon is in the excuse making rather than the problem solving business.
How did we solve the crime wave cause by the law that lasted from aprx. 1920 to 1933? If it worked once it can work again.
Of course if you are calling for the return of Alcohol Prohibition….. Or are you making excuses for its ineffectiveness?
Well anyway – once upon a time ending Prohibition was thought to be a solution to a problem. Evidently some of our ancestors were smarter than some of us currently. It is a wonder.
In any case the left has plans to take advantage of the right’s intransigence on the matter. Just as they did in 1932. And with at least 52% opposing Prohibition (with numbers increasing as we speak) by 2016 they should have the wind well at their back on the issue. You see – I am somewhat fond of the right and would hate to see the left get in power from so obvious a maneuver. Whatever.
It seems to me that the right falls as easily for words as the left does. The right thinks “prohibited” means “unavailable” when the real meaning is “distributed by criminals.” Didn’t Alcohol Prohibition teach the right anything?
Well I won’t convince you I’m sure. But maybe I can catch a lurker or three.
one thing for sure is they arrest the CARTEL BOSS WHO BOIL HIS VICTIMS SINCE 2006,
CAN YOU BELIEVE A WORSE BEAST? ALIVE HE SHOULD BE BOIL ALIVE TO FEEL THE SAME, HOW JUSTICE IT WOULD BE
@Randy:
@Petercat:
Very good comments.
@retire05:
Just to be clear, did you mean before the Civil Rights Movement? Or right after (before things started to spiral downhill with LBJ’s War on Poverty, etc.)?
@Wordsmith: . Can anyone seriously believe blacks were better off before the Civil Rights movement and the commitment of men who gave all like MLK and RFK?
The real ‘plight of America is any loser can profile, stalk and attack an innocent kid. And anyone can provoke a fight and then kill the person if they try to defend themselves.
This one
you like to twist the event to accommodate your reason which is twisted,
The sad thing is that the plight of the African American has only gotten worse under Obama. Under the chosen one’s leadership, there is an increase in poverty, unemployment and food stamp/disability usage. Numbers talk while the media’s and Obama’s rhetoric can walk.
@Wordsmith:
In the immediate years following the Civil Rights Movement, before LBJ’s intentional destruction of the black family began.
Isn’t it odd that the things freed slaves wanted were the right to learn to read and write, the right to have a job where they were actually paid for their labor, the right to take those wages and purchase land that would be their own, the right to see their children, who bore their name, educated and above all, the right for black families to stay together.
Now many of them are functionally illiterate and can barely read and write, do not have a job, and don’t want one, live where the government tells them to live, could care less about their children’s education and black men, once the foundation of the black family, are nothing more than sperm donors. Yeah, I would say that in 50 years, LBJ achieved his goal of destroying the black family all in the name of “civil rights.” Never mind that LBJ was one of the biggest racists this nation has ever put into the Oval Office.
It’s heartbreaking.
@Petercat: I admire you for the difference you are making in someone’s life. You are probably helping not one, but many more indirectly, people you don’t know or see.
Someday, I hope to make a difference, but right now, I am struggling to stay above water.
Outstanding, my friend, outstanding, I appreciate your efforts, may God bless you in some small way in the future.
@M. Simon:
Here’s the difference, MS; pot is not now legal, so making it illegal is not an issue and is not generating crime. Breaking the LAW is generating crime. Stop using illegal and harmful drugs and the crime goes away, completely. No one killing anyone over something no one is using.
You seem to imply that the illegality of pot or other mind-killing drug causes ALL crime? Well, in the case of Zimmerman/Martin, you could very well have a valid point. Perhaps if Martin had not been a pot head and stoned at the time of his confrontation with Zimmerman, he would not have been induced to assault a man armed with a semi-automatic pistol and wind up dead.
@Wordsmith:
In 1965 we had about 17% living in poverty. Today, we have about 14%. In 1965, there were, I think, about 165,000,000 living in the U.S. Today, it is 325,000,000. Do the math; for a mere $17 trillion we created MORE people living in poverty. Another left wing social engineering success story!
@This one:
Perhaps you watched the wrong trial.
@bburris:
And the people who broke the law during alcohol Prohibition? They were ALL criminals weren’t they? Evidently we are a nation of criminals.
You can do anything with laws except get Americans to obey them.
BTW you are aware that the Prohibition idea was a Progressive initiative. Now fully embraced by the Progressive Right.
I AM amused.
============
You might find this comment I left at another site of some amusement. Or not:
http://fyre.it/1NMp
M. Simon:
Abolition was a progressive Republican idea now embraced by the liberal left.
Here is where I stand on Martin – he was a violent thug and a thief. And from the evidence he got what he deserved. However, I consider his violations of the Prohibition laws totally inconsequential. Hardly worthy of a mention except for “stupid law”.
I’m a Jeffersonian –
“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” — Thomas Jefferson
M. Simon
I would think that the drug is more dangerous for a younger person , and even more
fatally dangerous if the young had an event to make him furious,
his brain must be exploding,
what is your opinion? you seem to know about drugs and alcohol,
bye
@Petercat: Thank you for being the Guardian Angle for this young women….a word of advise…I’m from AZ and buying and packing is the law as long as you have the permit….get this women (1) Tazer/Stun gun-one that will make the bad guy go into a coma…(2) Mace…there are one’s that will stop a BLACK or BROWN BEAR…ARM HER WITH ANYTHING that she could apply and then escape…T Martins WRONG CHOICE he could have run (escaped)…decided to stand his ground and fight…AGAIN…WRONG CHOICE…and for “ALL” the mothers and fathers worried about their children having to sleep in their beds to stay safe…there is a NEW BACK-PACK w/loud alarm and flashing light built into it….Good work Petercat
JERSEYfLASH
yes I like Petercat ALSO, A GOOD MAN MAKING THE DIFFERENCE,
I bet he does a lot more good for his community also,
bye
those who attack strangers because they are white should be shot on the spot
they are cowards ad use their number together to commit their crimes,
@Jacob McCandles:
“Divide and conquer.”
@M. Simon:
I have no problem with the repealing of drug prohibition laws for adults. It takes the money out of the drug trade, which removes the profits for the gangs & cartels. However there will need to still be laws on the books outlawing providing drugs to children, driving while under the influence, and the right of employer’s to fire workers who are under the influence. Not only should they be legal, but they should have comparable taxation, legislation and regulations as tobacco and alcohol. (Note: you can grow tobacco or brew alcoholic beverages for your own use, so the same would likely apply towards marijuana.) I also have no problem with the legalization of adult prostitution. With similar legal considerations. Prohibitions should continue regarding minors.
That removes two of the illicit trades that criminal gangs profit by. Lift all gun bans and that will remove that as a money making black market trade. There will of course, continue to be such criminals who will sell drugs to children, force them into prostitution, and who will sell stolen firearms and other illegally acquired goods, but this will be a heavy hit that will drive most of these black marketeers out of business.
Now if we can just drive the racism & propaganda hucksters out of business and teach children (and adults) to treat each other with respect and good will. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening until we get the “Divider in Chief” and his cohorts out of office.
@Ditto:
Then do you think that other narcotics, such as pain killers, mood elevators, tranquilizers and the like should be available to anyone who wants to buy them, as long as they are legal (over the age of 18) adults?
@retire05:
I’ll note that you did not include the section I wrote with the relevant requirements: legislation and regulation. Many drugs require prescriptions, while others only require the purchaser be an adult. Some can be bought by children. The necessary legislation and regulations can certainly be worked out. To be frank, casual marijuana use is on par with recreational drinking, just as heavy use is equitable to heavy drinking. Many of the other illegal drugs can destroy the user just as the over use and over-proscribing of prescription drugs or any other risky behavior. You can neither stop someone from destroying themselves with drugs, any more than you can with other self destructive behavior. Such dumb risk-takers are bound and determine to remove themselves from the gene pool (often quite inventively), no matter what anyone else tells them.
@Ditto:
It is actually worse than that. The evidence shows that Prohibition as practiced in the US is actually an attractant to drug use. The less restrictive the Prohibition regime the lower the drug use in all categories where the restrictions are reduced.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/
Counter intuitive, huh?
Does it go to zero? Of course not. There is no such thing as utopia. Your choices are “better” and “worse”.
BTW back when police gave such estimates they estimated that they captured about 10% of the flows. That is a pitiful result for all the effort.
One correction though – the ratio of intoxicating dose to lethal dose for alcohol is about 4 to 1. For pot it is estimated to be >40,000 to 1. No one has ever died from an overdose of pot in something like 5,000 years. Which is why the number is an estimate.
And switching people from alcohol to pot has lowered traffic fatalities :
And then there is the medical benefit: Endocannabinoids.
In any case prohibition is ending and if the right doesn’t get in front of that parade they will get marched over. Remember 1932. I’d hate to see that repeated. I’m not too fond of the Right. But the Left is a Total disaster. So how do they win? Well they pick an area where the Right has it wrong and pound it hard to avoid having to discuss their errors. Well they have a LOT of other tactics. But that is a big one.
@M. Simon:
Driving while intoxicated, even under the influence of Pot, should remain illegal above a certain level. Besides, who wants to drive 25 MPH on interstate because of pot smoker rolling road-blocks. I have no doubt you’ll soon provide us with the revitalized revenues of fast food restaurants and junk food producers.
Whilst agreeing with much of what was written by the author I have to take issue with the phrase
I think you are confusing racism with extreme violence. The measure of racism has little to do with the number of black citizens murdered by white citizen and much more to to with the respect and diginity that people are treated with.
@Tom:
How do you measure that? I would love to see some numbers that show a level of disrespect between the races…..black to white and white to black. Do you have something that shows this statistic?
@Petercat:
If the Bell Curve applies then half will be above the mean.
@Ditto:
There are actual numbers on that. IIRC above 10 ng/ml THC the driving gets worse than for unstoned drivers. Below that the driving is actually better. And yes. Pot stoned drivers go slow. OTOH alcohol intoxicated drivers go fast. What happens is that pot intoxicated drivers overestimate their level of impairment. The alcohol impaired underestimate.
Endocannabinoids do regulate the appetite.
Watch the video at the top of this post. It is about 7 minutes. It explains how endocannabinoids regulate appetite. http://rockford-for-safe-access.blogspot.com/2013/04/endocannabinoid-videos.html
But we are really early days into this research. And the prohibition laws are not helping. Most of the research and much of the best research is done outside the US.
Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a leader in the field. You should look up his work. Also Dr. Robert Melemede – http://bakerinstitute.org/files/pubs/dtn/dtnEventhtml4261.html – BTW if you are not familiar Baker the namesake of the institute is a Republican.
If people put as much effort into endocannabinoids as they did into the Zim trial prohibition would end in short order. These systems are far too important to body health to let Prohibition interfere with the research.
The most important point from this link:
http://bakerinstitute.org/files/pubs/dtn/dtnEventhtml4261.html
ROBERT MELAMEDE: First of all you have to understand that all humans from the time of conception until the time of death everything in their body is homeostatically regulated by the endocannabinoid system – meaning that every one of us makes marijuana-like compounds and they regulate your immune system, your digestive system, your cardiovascular system, your endocrine system, your skeletal system, your muscles, your skin, every reproductive system – everything in your body is regulated by the pot that your body makes.
If you go to any doctor and say, “Should I take omega-3s? Are they good for you?” They all say yes but then you ask them why they are good for you and 99% of them will not really understand why.
The reason is that they make your endocannabinoids so they are the source of how your body makes its pot. How profound that is is if we look at mother’s milk it has psychoactive cannabinoids in it which, of course, leads me to have a nice joke…Should we start arresting nursing mothers for giving their infants psychoactive cannabinoids? Maybe we should just arrest all women for walking around with paraphernalia.
=======
I have always been a big fan of paraphernalia. LOL.
@Petercat: May GOD bless you and your friend.
@Aqua:
Looks like we have two Toms. Or a Tom parody???
I will throw in my 2 cents. I think the original post is well written and well meaning. But I also find it to be overly simplistic, only addressing one side of the issue (personal responsibility), while ignoring the institutional issues. It’s also infected with a brand of paternalism that i find all too common in the Right; and somewhat insulting generalizations about blacks being a homogenous group easily led by the nose.
This is the point where most people stop reading and call me an ignorant racist, but I’ll forge on regardless. The concept that everyone is the master if their own destiny is true on an individual basis certainly; but to twin that with the idea that any black who does not achieve the author’s conception of success is a victim of himself or “black racism” is unsubstantiated. Underlying this stance are the fictions of the level playing field and zero institutional bias. Now if I told you that the children of Bill Gates have a far likelier chance of being successful and wealthy than the children of your mailman, would you accuse me of being ridiculous or of hating wealthy people and making excuses for the children of mailmen? I assume no. The world isn’t fair, but we deal with it. But the crucial difference is that we don’t say to the child of the mailman, “you’re a failure if you don’t make it big like Bill Gates Jr.” Americans, for the most part, seem to acknowledge and endorse a tilted playing field when viewed as advantages accruing to a lucky few. We live in a culture that’s obsessed with celebrity and wealth after all. It’s when you point out that there is also a tilting that is disadvantageous to others that you get incredulity. Obviously, it’s correct to fill everyone with ambition, but also it’s damaging to cast shame and attach blame en masse to those who don’t attain unrealistic goals. When we ignore the costs of institutional biases that impact the African American poor of this country, we are doing that very thing, blaming people for not overcoming obstacles that we won’t even acknowledge exist.
I don’t know how many of you have applied for a corporate job in the last five years, but the background checks can be extensive. They can check your school transcripts, your criminal record, your driving record, your credit score, give you a drug test, and you can be disqualified for anything that you’ve done in the past, even as a young adult. There is no more escaping your past in America, not if you want to work in a large swath of the economy. Now have you ever wondered why so many African Americans are concerned with how the criminal justice system impacts their lives? Take stop-and-frisk. It’s been found to be an effective quality of life measure, and often it results in little more than a pat down. Measures like these that can be effective, can even have beneficial impacts on those neighborhoods, but can also hurt that community long-term if they’re resulting in young men entering the criminal justice system for non-violent crimes, like marijuana possession. So here we have a police meaure that is successful in one regard, but costly in another. Do we adjust stop-and-frisk, or do we adjust sentencing? It’s complicated, and that’s my point.
One mistake, one arrest can potentially close the door to employment in that large section of the economy discussed above. Now can you see how this might be frustrating to black parents, knowing that an upper-middle class white kid has almost nothing to fear about walking down the street to a party with a joint in his pocket? This is just one example of how the choices we make as a society in how we apply criminal justice impacts American black males disproportionately. And this leads to the largest institutional reality that many people seem unwilling to talk about: we lock up a hell of a lot of people in this country:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/nov/19/can-our-shameful-prisons-be-reformed/?pagination=false
I encourage anyone who is interested on the real ‘liberal take’ to read the articles above, instead of buying into the fiction presented here and elsewhere that the liberal take is ‘whites are racists’.
So while I say bravo to the original poster for raising some important considerations, as long as only one side of the equation is addressed and the other side completely ignored – or worse, simply said not to exist – we will make little headway. Painting this as a petulant argument between the “white racism” and “black racism” camps misses the point. Institutional problems are often not the result of intentional racism, and the damages they cause are often unforeseen. This is a problem that needs to be attacked from all side, and if conservatives can’t accept the reality that, institutionally, America still needs to make changes, particularity in the areas of criminal justice, non-violent crime sentencing and prison reform, we won’t get very far.
@Skookum: #25
Thanks, Skookum. I’ll give anybody I can a hand up.
I refuse to give anyone a handout.
Something for you to consider:
While I do offer some financial assistance where it will have a positive effect, and when I can afford it, oftentimes the only thing a person needs is a willing ear, sincere encouragement, and helpful advice. That’s something anyone can do, even if they, themselves are barely keeping their heads above water. (HINT!)
Note: I try to do what I can for others because it makes me feel good about myself. I am not a selfless altruist, merely someone who once realized that he had to do something to regain his self-respect.
I haven’t always been a good man, I’m now just trying to counteract what I once was.
@Tom:
Very good Tom. Those are points I have been making here (not as effectively worded) with limited success.
The biggest thing we could do to rectify some of the institutional racism is to end Drug Prohibition. And you covered that very well.
@M. Simon: and Ditto:
You raise some good arguments for legalizing drugs. I’m undecided on the issue. Legalizing them would take a bite out of the profits used by gangs and other organized crime organizations. The question is, will they find another venue to finance their operations like they did after Prohibition? As for justifying legalizing drugs because alcohol is intoxicating as well, two wrongs don’t make a right. The extra taxes collected by the government could be used to help pay down the deficits. That benefit gets cancelled out when you figure that the pols in DC will use the revenue to finance more federal programs which will in turn drive the deficits up even more. They have proven themselves incapable of fiscal responsibility and that applies to both parties.
While I’m all for legalizing prostitution and gambling (Social Security is a pyramid scheme after all), the drug issue isn’t as cut and dry to me.