Flashback: The Global Village Fortifies. Posted by Kate at May 25, 2011 10:32 AMYou see, here is the situation in California. Tens of thousands of prisoners are scheduled by a U.S. Supreme Court order to be released. But why this inability to house our criminals when we pay among the highest sales, income, and gas taxes in the nation? Too many criminals? Too few new prisons? Too high costs per prisoner? Too many non-violent crimes that warrant incarceration? God help us when they are released. We know what crime is like now; what will it be like if thousands are let go? I doubt they will end up in the yards of the justices who let them out.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving State.
Posted by: grok at May 25, 2011 10:51 AMWithout a secure US/Mexico border, Californy will continue it's slide into insolvency. But then again, all those beautiful people in Hollyweird need cheap house/garden help. And so it goes.
Posted by: Eskimo at May 25, 2011 11:21 AMThe gated-community community are not the only people that are clueless. Growing up and then living in overwhelmingly white towns I assumed that every mixed income neighborhood was similar - a few harmless welfare drunks and broken homes mixed in with stable middle class/working class families.
At one of my company's Women's Group meetings there was a woman from a northern town who often went off on rants about natives. One of these times I must have given her an eye-roll or other obnoxious look. I remember her saying "Nothing will make you a 'racist' faster than living near natives".
She was right. A few years later I moved to a northern town and lived in a mixed income/mixed race neighborhood. It was entirely different than my previous experiences. The low income housing units a block down attracted nothing but trouble, welfare weekends were particularly bad. We only stayed there as long as we had to and then moved back down south into a nice, quiet overwhelmingly white town.
I don't feel too bad about being 'racist' though. While still living up north I was having my hair cut at the salon when a drunk woman being propped up by kids stumbled down the street. One of the two older aboriginal women having her hair done looked at her friend and said disgustedly, "THAT woman is not from OUR reserve."
Anyway, I now roll my eyes at those who lecture the rest of us about racism and intolerance.
Posted by: LC Bennett at May 25, 2011 11:42 AMOn the other hand the police in Modesto got a leg up un the problem last night. Guy stuck up a convenience store. When cornered by the cops he declined to comply with instructions. Two in the ten ring made sure he won't do that again. I predict this will become a pattern as soon as the releases start taking place.
Posted by: glenn at May 25, 2011 12:00 PMCries for "bail-out" in 3...2...1...
I see no solution except the dreaded "bail-out". It's my observation that generally speaking, the haves and have-nots are divided along Blue and Read lines. A more pithy analysis is: Blue states will require bail-outs from Red states.
What was a stream of people leaving California will now become a flood. I guess the wise Latina convinced the Liberals that more Criminals are an asset. Besides most of the criminal clas thier are wise Latinos as well.
Califirnia from the Golden state to the land of Lawlesness.
The World becomes more insane by the hour.
JMO
Those judges better hope nobody reads the Declaration of Independence and believes it. They've got a lot of people convinced that their opinions matter more than the rights of the citizens. It'll be a sad day for judges when that music stops.
Posted by: MarkD at May 25, 2011 3:01 PMYou have to realize that most of these criminals are incarcerated under the idiotic "3 strikes" law-
where petty thieves and small time drug dealers are given 25 year sentences.
In other news, sales of powder and wheel weights are up all across the state.
Posted by: The Phantom at May 25, 2011 4:41 PMAwwww C'mon ..... it's just the less violent kinder-gentler criminals !
A clever person would be looking for ways to profit from this!
Wow, Revnant Dream, how...racist of you. Yeah, those Latinos all convinced the government to do this...for some reason.
Dwright got right. California incarcerates a ridiculous number of petty criminals or nonviolent drug offenders in conditions of overcrowding that violate the proscription against unusual and cruel punishment. The courts did the right thing as they so often do.
Posted by: libertariansaresmarter at May 26, 2011 12:22 AMCruel and Unusual Punishment would be hanging them up by their thumbs or making them listen to "Friday". Making them wait in line to use the stainless steel crapper? Tough s**t. Let them dig an outdoor Army latrine. Or what, they're supposed to receive more consideration than soldiers?
Posted by: MissAnthropy at May 26, 2011 1:48 AMThe crowding and violence is what makes the prison situation CnU. People bing kept in cages, that sort of thing. For a photo essay:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/california-prison-overcrowding-photos
Posted by: libertariansaresmarter at May 26, 2011 2:36 AMDude, your supporting link is Mother Jones? BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
Let me know how you feel about it after your next mugging eh? You'll be screaming the over crowding is too good for them.
Posted by: The Phantom at May 26, 2011 12:42 PMLaugh all you want, you got nothing. I win again.
Posted by: libertariansaresmarter at May 26, 2011 1:29 PM