JXL wrote:This is justice, but things definitely need to change.
Until the administration and the DOJ make sweeping changes to reform the police and "pull out the weeds from the rose garden", there will be no true justice.
Let's hope this is the start of a bigger change.
Derek Chauvin is a deranged murderer and lacks the self control to be a free man, let alone act as a police officer.
BUT ... ending the war on drugs is the best way to reform the police, not only just by freeing up money but also by removing the incentive for many of these situations to occur in the first place.
Ending the war on drugs and focusing on treatment for a lifetime addict like Floyd would be a start. Ain't happening under the dems or the pubs. DEA had almost $4 billion last year of our tax dollars alone. They are asking for another $400 million for 2021 and will get it.
https://www.justice.gov/doj/page/file/1246676/download1,841,200 drug related arrests.
Let that sink in. ONE POINT EIGHT MILLION.
A 2021 analysis of marijuana-related arrests in 2020 in New York City’s five boroughs reported that 94 percent of those arrested weren't white. There's no law on the books that spells out a discriminatory aspect but who in their right mind can justify this? 3 states over I can open a store.
In 2013 the federal government spent about $15 billion a year investigating drug offense (FBI, customs, ATF and DEA). State and local government agencies spend another $25 billion, for a total of $40 billion a year. It's estimated to have gone up about 25% but nobody has put out a good comprehensive study on the cost to local law enforcement to prosecute the unjust 'war on drugs'.
Take $40 billion (the entire budget for a city like Baltimores entire school district is about $1.2 billion) and put that to use support young black men and women and see how far it goes. Support them with safe places to live, to go to school, to learn a trade or earn a degree, to make it to adulthood in a sane situation.
/rant
