“All people make mistakes. All of us are sinners. All of us are criminals. All of us violate the law at some point in our lives. In fact, if the worst thing you have ever done is speed ten miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you have put yourself and others at more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of his or her living room. Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something virtually unheard of anywhere else in the world.” PeopleIfsWorldFirstsStatesDoneFactsLawUnitedRoomsMistakeUnited StatesOur LivesRiskWorstDrugTenLimitsFirst TimeSentencesSpeedHarmCriminalsMilesSmokingPrivacyMaking MistakesSinnerServingMarijuanaOffenseWorst ThingsLiving RoomUnheardFreewaysSpeed LimitsPeople Make Mistakes Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
“You're not going to have the police force representing the black and brown community, if they've spent the last 30 years busting every son and daughter and father and mother for every piddling drug offense that they've ever done, thus creating a mistrust in the community. But at the same time, you should be able to talk about abuses of power, and you should be able to talk about police brutality and what, in some cases, is as far as I'm concerned, outright murder and outright loss of justice without the police organization targeting you in the way that they have done me.” IfsWayShouldYearsDoneAbleLastsMotherFatherForceBlackCommunityJusticeLossCasesSonDrugCreatingDaughterConcernedOrganizationAbuseMurderPoliceBrownOffensePolice BrutalityBrutalityRepresentingMistrustAbuse Of PowerSon And DaughterPolice ForceBusting Author:Quentin Tarantino
“The whole drug war is nothing but a pretext to increase police power and personnel, and that, of course, is dead wrong. So many created imagined drug offenses.” WarWholeCoursesDrugIncreasePoliceOffenseWar On DrugsPretextPersonnelPolice Power Author:William S. Burroughs
“Mandatory minimum sentences give no discretion to judges about the amount of time that the person should receive once a guilty verdict is rendered. Harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses were passed by Congress in the 1980s as part of the war on drugs and the "get tough" movement, sentences that have helped to fuel our nation's prison boom and have also greatly aggravated racial disparities, particularly in the application of mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine.” GivingShouldPersonsWarNationsMovementJudgingAmountDrugToughPrisonCongressSentencesGuiltyFuelCracksApplicationMinimumOffenseHarshCocaineDiscretionWar On DrugsVerdictDisparityAggravated Author:Michelle Alexander
“Defenders of the system will counter by saying this drug war has been aimed at violent crime. But that is not the case. The overwhelming majority of people arrested in the drug war have been arrested for relatively minor, non-violent drug offenses.” PeopleHas BeensWarCasesCrimeDrugMajorityViolentOverwhelmingMinorsOffenseArrestedDefendersWar On DrugsNon ViolentViolent Crimes Author:Michelle Alexander
“Many people don't realize that financial incentives have been built into the drug war that guarantee that law enforcement will continue to arrest extraordinary numbers of people, particularly in poor communities of color, for minor drug offenses that get ignored on the other side of town.” PeopleHas BeensWarLawSidesRealizingCommunityPoorNumbersColorDrugBuiltTownsExtraordinaryFinancialGuaranteesMinorsOffenseIgnoredLaw EnforcementEnforcementIncentivesWar On DrugsGuarantees That Author:Michelle Alexander
“In the war on drugs, state and state law enforcement agencies have been rewarded in cash by the federal government - through programs like the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant program - for the sheer numbers of people arrested for drug offenses.” PeopleHas BeensWarStatesGovernmentLawNumbersDrugProgramAgencyGrantsCashSheerOffenseFederal GovernmentLaw EnforcementEnforcementMemorialArrestedWar On Drugs Author:Michelle Alexander
“To make matters worse, federal drug forfeiture laws allow state and local law enforcement agencies to keep, for their own use, up to 80 percent of the cash, cars, and homes seized from suspected drug offenders. You don't even have to be convicted of a drug offense; if you're just suspected of a drug offense, law enforcement has the right to keep the cash they find on you or in your home, or seize your car if drugs are allegedly found in it or "suspected" of being transported in the vehicle.” IfsMatterStatesUseHomeLawFoundCarDrugPercentLocalsAgencyCashVehicleOffenseLaw EnforcementEnforcementOffenders Author:Michelle Alexander
“For those who say that the war on drugs and the system of mass incarceration really isn't about race, I say there is no way we would allow the majority of young white men to be swept into the criminal justice system for minor drug offenses, branded criminals and felons, and then stripped of their basis civil and human rights while young black men who are engaged in the same activity trot off to college. That would never be accepted as the norm.” MenWayHumansWarYoungBlackJusticeWhiteRaceRightsCollegeDrugActivityMassBasesMajorityHuman RightsCriminalsAcceptedEngagedMinorsOffenseWhite ManNormJustice SystemWar On DrugsCriminal JusticeIncarcerationCriminal Justice SystemBrandedMass IncarcerationFelonsOff To College Author:Michelle Alexander
“Of course in this age of colorblindness, a time when we have supposedly moved "beyond race," we as a nation would feel very uncomfortable if only black people were sent to jail for drug offenses. We seem comfortable with 90 percent of the people arrested and convicted of drug offenses in some states being African American, but if the figure was 100 percent, the veil of colorblindness would be lost.” PeopleIfsFeelsStatesSeemsWould BeAgeCoursesLostNationsBlackRaceFiguresDrugComfortablePercentMovedAfrican AmericanUncomfortableJailBlack PeopleOffenseVeilsArrested Author:Michelle Alexander
“People charged with drug offenses, though, are typically poor people of color. They are routinely charged with felonies and sent to prison.” PeoplePoorColorDrugPrisonOffensePoor PeopleFelony Author:Michelle Alexander