White Lines...
Posted by: Joseph Turner | 04/29/2007 11:45 AM
The United States Sentencing Commission released a report (not in San Bernardino Sun online version)today calling for a reduction in the mandatory sentencing requirements for first time crack cocaine convictions.
At issue is a 1986 law that includes what critics have called the 100-to-1 disparity: Trafficking in 5 grams of cocaine carries a mandatory five-year prison sentence, but it takes 500 grams of cocaine powder to warrant the same sentence.
Crack is disproportionately used by minorities and is found in urban areas. Whereas, powder cocaine is generally a more affluent drug. Thus, there is a huge disparity in the punishments doled out to those caught using crack. This discrepancy is absurd and needs to be remedied.
This double standard in punishment is often cited by blacks and others when citing racial inequality and abuse in our justice system. While there is no need to romanticize and suggest that bringing these punishments into equilibrium will somehow cure some of the race problems in America, it would go a long way towards that objective.
This is why many sports ban the use of performance enhancing drugs. Another form of doping is blood...
Funny, Joseph. You didn't mention these sentiments on weakening drug penalities to your then-boss Ray Haynes, did you?
Because Assemblyman Haynes voted against liberal Democrat Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally's AB 125 in April 2005. That bill would have weakened drug conviction sentencing, just as you would like.
Guess you figure that when you run for government office again (gotta keep them taxpayer-provided paychecks coming, right?)you are aiming for a coalition of African-Americans ("blacks" as you call them) and whites to put you over the top.
What a crass opportunist you are turning out to be.
TheTruth:
Perhaps, you have discovered a time machine. I am not sure exactly how it is that you would have liked for me to express my feelings on a bill that was voted on months before I was brought on as a staffer.
Haynes didn't pick me up until mid-August of 2005.
Also, where did I ever state I wanted weakened drug sentencing in my post? I may in fact believe that sentencing for drug crimes should be reduced, but that is not what I stated. I simply stated that the punishments for each crime should be brought into equilibrium. Thus, either toughen the punishment in powder offenses, lower the punishment for crack or some variance in between.
Finally, your suggestion that there is some sort of political calculus on my part with a "crass oportunist[ic]" approach is more than amusing.
The day I go after the "European-American" vote is the day I go after the "African American" vote. Until then, I will remain free of the vestiges of political correctness that enslave such colorblind and socially progressive tolerants like yourself...