Jive and a Haircut: Two Bits
Well, John Edwards said one thing I agree with: you can’t build enough prisons.
The idea that we’re going to keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating - pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African American male population in America – they’re all gonna be in prison or dead.
That one, on the other hand, is all his. I have higher aspirations for African American men: marriage, fatherhood, economic success. Call me crazy.
And this was in answer to a question about inner-city violence. Wouldn’t you want such people in prison? Call me crazy again.
Oh yeah, and aren’t the victims of inner-city crime also overwhelmingly African American? Hence, locking up predators (regardless of race) in fact aids the African American community, does it not?
Call me crazy—as long as you call him a cab. Get him out of here.
Anon. said,
September 30, 2007 @ 7:53 am
I’m not sure you’ve thought this one through. (Although, to be honest, very few of your blog entries seem to be well-thought-out recently.)
The reason there are so many people in prison is the drug laws. Massive numbers of people are incarcerated for *non-violent* offenses — disproprotionately black people. Of course, being in prison, they then learn to be violent to survive.
If we only imprisoned violent offenders, we’d have lots of free prison space. And all the people arrested for nonviolent drug offenses might get useful treatment rather than being uselessly locked up. Perhaps this is what John Edwards is getting at?
veritas said,
September 30, 2007 @ 9:42 pm
That is some serious spinning you just did Anon. Don’t make excuses for the racist and apocalyptic comments that John Edwards made. Had a white conservative said the same thing, you and the MSM would see to it that his campaign was over.