Regan’s administration started the war on drugs. Convicting drugs users of a criminal crime has the effect of taking the right to vote away from people who tended not to vote for the Republican party and allowed them to be legally used as slave labour. At least one member of that administration has explicitly stated that this was a strategic decision to win elections.
I think it was John Erlichman who served under Nixon who said that. Whether that’s true is actually disputed though: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs#20th_century
I agree that both Nixon’s and Reagan’s policies on drugs were pretty harmful though.
*Reagan. Donald Regan was Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff for a couple of years.
The logic is deterrence.
I mean it’s stupid, but that’s what the supporters think.
The thing they are missing is that no one commits a crime thinking they will get caught. So ever increasing the deterrence doesn’t help.
Drugs is a public health issue, no really criminal. Prohibition doesn’t work with things done at scales like drugs and alcohol. You’re just feeding the criminal gangs.
It’s not deterrence, that’s not the point. Deterrence does not work.
It’s about sending people to prison so they can do cheap labor. It’s also about racism because it’s disproportionately targeted towards minorities. It absolutely makes sense in that light.
I’m sure that is the motivation of some, those involved, but the vast majority of support will be voters who think deterrence works.
It’s the prison-industrial complex paying the politicians to push this stuff through. Voters don’t matter to the politics being pushed, they just get told later that they wanted them.
Policy at a macro scale is very different than policy at a citizen level. While both inform the other many decisions are made on either side without understanding consequences. Banning drug use at a home or even a town level could make sense and work in the head of household’s favor but that one town or house banning the use could make things worse for another, but from the smaller level makes a ton of sense, unfortunately.
Maybe. But not all police forces and legal systems are like this. In the developed world, the US is a bit of an outlier.
The logic is it also ruins other peoples lives. No one exists in society in a nut shell or as an island. If your choice to use drugs would expose, entice, or otherwise encourage a person to use drugs then it is reasonable in my opinion for the state to protect people from it.
That being said clearly our approach isn’t working. There shouldn’t be laissez-faire drug use all over but there shouldn’t be life in prison immediately consequences either.
The most succesful drug rehabilitation programs are mandatory rehab facilities that are a choice alternate to going to jail for an equal amount of time.
Also housing first models are incredibly effective. But… the entire western world uses housing as an investment vehicle and commodity so it is diametrically opposed to housing first initiatives. If the average citizen is paying 50% of their income for housing and then “junkies” get given free housing the political party that implemented it would be booted so fast.
The logic is subjugation. These laws are applied largely to a specific group of people, and even if they don’t spend life in prison, their ability to build a life for themselves afterwards is neutered, and they lost the right to vote.
rehabilitation instead of prison…
How about if I’m not bothering anybody then don’t even arrest me?
Edit:
How about if I’m not bothering anybody then don’t even arrest me?
I misunderstood that comment above. My bad.
What do you mean? People get arrested for possession of weed for example that they plan to consume by themselves, not bothering anybody. Then they get locked up. You rather lock them away, than try to rehabilitate them? This applies to so many cases. Of course there are cases where the verdict says prison but at least try to keep people out of prison. But wait the prison system is a corporation trying to make money.
Uh did you misread it? That’s exactly his point, people getting arrested when they weren’t even bothering anyone.
Just gonna leave this PDF of Angela Davis’ Are Prisons Obsolete? here.
TLDR?
TLDR: Yes
I believe the legal repercussions are part of that “can ruin your life”, not just the addiction and/or health concerns.
Though that still makes it an entirely artificial consequence that does not need to and should not exist.
It didn’t say what mechanism would be used for the drugs to ruin your life. Prison works just as well as turning tricks for smack as far as life ruining goes.
Conspiracy to enslave the poor.
But the rich also take drugs.
Except they don’t get caught.
Everyone breaks the law, and it is selectively enforced against the poor. System working as intended. System working as intended.
when the rich get caught for drug use they go to rehab
Hey what are you some kind of Russian bo-
…
Checks Constitution
(Yes this is cringe but I want it that way)
I’m from the city this cop was from and if I remember correctly he was shot in the head and survived but obviously not the same. Maybe he died I don’t really remember.
I’m not a fan of the police but on a human level some awful stuff happened to this guy.
Edit: looked it up because I was curious he underwent brain surgery and survived.
Fuck the police as a whole tho
I used to have that same belief but watching “good” cops cover for bad ones made me realize they’re all scummy.
I agree even this guy but life has nuance and I felt this was info that is pertinent to the meme.
It’s the same logic as when Republicans claim Government doesn’t work…
It’s not ignorance or stupidity, it’s a mission statement… Republicans are trying to make Government not work and Cops are actively trying to fuck you over
I’m all for caging money making dealers that kill when they are threatened with prison. I’ve seen too many people get killed because some cunt that already has enough money is scared to get caught.
If only those were the people that US cops actually arrested.
ACAB
Logic is prison slave labor=$$$
If only it was like in Portugal…
Why what you got over there?
Not Portuguese myself but my understanding is that since 2001 most drugs are decriminalised for possession (the rule is like 10 days’ worth or something) but they can still confiscate your drugs and levy fines in rare cases. These offences carry no criminal record and can never carry a sentence of incarceration. Basically kinda illegal but not really.
Wow yeah no way that would fly in the USA. Prisons make too much money.
Guess what, it happened in Oregon! (it’s a trainwreck)
Or Switzerland
“They’ll ruin your life cause I’ll ruin your life!”
Well someone somewhere still believes that prison is about rehabilation and not punishment
also drug addiction is arguably something that the word treatment would be more applicable for
A society with no concept of redeemeption will never get far
You do know it’s not police who make these laws, right? It’s the politicians that get elected by the people who create these laws.
They chose to make their career of enthusiastically enforcing these laws with extreme violence. They chose this. Fuck the police.
I feel like this attitude and generalized hatred towards every person working as police will make it worse because no one will want to do that job anymore. It has already happend in the USA. This activism against police in general swaps to other countries via internet culture and European countries as well struggle to get anyone work as police. This will make it necessary to lower standards and additionally, more police will be on edge since there aren’t enough people.
no one will want to do that job anymore
Good.
I’ve never seen a crime deterred or solved by the cops. You know what prevents crime? Improved standards of living. Secure housing. Gainful employment. Future prospects.
There will always be inequalities, there will always be unhappiness/unrest, there will always be crime to some degree, and thus there will always be the need of some responsibility to deal with it. The important thing is that this group is selected and actively monitored according to strict requirements. The current situation is bad, especially in the US, something needs to change. But saying we don’t need cops is just as stupid as the right-winger’s “I don’t dial 911 🔫🔫” door sign…
You believe that there would be no crime if just everybody had a home and a job? Are you for real?
Crimes of poverty, deprivation, desperation? Significantly less than currently.
But yes, there would still be plenty of white collar crime that we don’t currently tackle either, and in some cases encourage by policy.
If heavy handed policing worked, it would have worked by now.
I feel like this attitude and generalized hatred towards every person working as police will make it worse because no one will want to do that job anymore.
thatsthepoint.jpg
How can you possibly rationalize that less people working as and apply to be police will somehow make the situation better? The opposite is true.
Less authoritarian pigs, more support workers.
Less shot dogs, more rehabilitation centers.
Less ex-military APCs, more rehab beds.
Police unions and private prison system lobbyists have entered the chat
