America Is Hardly The Land Of The Free by Bob Livingston January 10, 2014 When one thinks of a prison nation, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela or some Third World backwater or banana republic dictatorship country might spring to mind. But the truth is the No. 1 prison nation is the United States. No country incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than the United States. Currently, more than 2.4 million Americans occupy U.S. prisons. That’s one out of every 100 American adults. The U.S. houses one-fourth of the world’s prison population. The International Centre for Prison Studies claims the 2013 prison population for America is 716 per 100,000 population. Cuba’s number per 100,000 is 510; Russia’s is 490; Azerbaijan’s is 407; Panama’s is 392; the Cayman Island’s is 382. North Korea, Iran and Venezuela didn’t make the top 20. According to a study in the journal Crime & Deliquency, Americans’ interaction with the so-called criminal justice system begins at an early age. It surveyed data from 1997 to 2008 and found that: • By age 18, 30 percent of black males, 26 percent of Hispanic males and 22 percent of white males had been arrested. • By age 23, 49 percent of black males 44 percent of Hispanic males and 38 percent of white males had been arrested. • Among females 18 years old, 12 percent of whites, 11.9 percent of blacks and 11.8 percent of Hispanics had been arrested. • By age 23 the numbers for females increased to 20 percent for whites, 18 percent for Hispanics and 16 percent for blacks. The actions that got young people on the wrong side of the law and saddled them with a lifetime criminal record include truancy, underage drinking, drug offenses and more serious and violent offenses. There are currently in America more than 3,000 prisoners serving life without parole sentences for committing nonviolent crimes. Crimes like shoplifting a $150 coat, shoplifting a couple of $45 Michael Jordan jerseys, possessing a crack pipe, possessing a bottle cap with a trace of heroin, and acting as a go-between for a $10 marijuana sale to an undercover police officer have landed some people in prison for life, thanks to three- and four-strike laws that mandate life sentences for repeat offenders. In his book Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, Harvey Silverglate claims: “[I]t is only a slight exaggeration to say that the average busy professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, takes care of personal and family obligations and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she likely committed several Federal crimes that day.”
Currently, there are more than 4,450 listed Federal criminal offenses. These listed Federal offenses have exploded well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, giving Federal prosecutors thousands of additional vague, complex and technical prohibitions removed from Congressional authority or any authority but the Federal prosecutors themselves. In America, people are being imprisoned for holding a plant leaf or seed, drinking raw milk or selling natural supplements. Children are being taken away from parents and locked into hospitals both for the “crime� of the parents’ following the advice of their physician and for not following it. As we document almost every day, police are becoming increasingly militant, violent and militarized. They are even scooping up surplus tanks and armored vehicles for their police forces. Even the Federal Reserve, a private entity, now has its own police force with arresting powers. America the land of the free? In your dreams.
No Justice, No Peace The Fruits Of Our Dilapidated Justice System By Luke Hamilton January 9 2014 All the lofty talk about ‘root causes’ of crime fail to notice the obvious: People commit crimes because they are people – because they are innately selfish and do not care how their behavior affects other people, unless they have been raised to behave otherwise or unless they fear the criminal justice system. – Thomas Sowell Many of the boils on the face of Lady Liberty are the result of the same two STDs (Socialist-Transmitted Diseases): namely, the erosion of the American family and the corruption of our justice system. In any society, the family has always been an irreducible building block. Civilizations which have sought to redefine it or remove it have not lasted long. Modern examples include Russia, Japan, and Eurozone nations which are not even able to accomplish the basic task of replenishing their population thanks to rampant abortion and anemic birthrates. Likewise, when a civilization allows the concept of Justice to atrophy, it begins the inevitable slouch towards tyranny. The concept of Justice is so foundational that its perversion becomes the objective of anyone seeking to demolish the underpinnings of society. The Knock-Out game, flash mobs, resurgent gangs in our inner cities; these are all examples of crimes perpetrated by those who either a) were never raised to behave in a civilized manner or b) have no fear of the criminal justice system. This should come as little surprise, given that we have become afraid of discussing cultural equivalency, pretending instead that all cultures are worthwhile and provide equally valuable contributions to American society. The infuriatingly ironic part of it is that the bleeding-hearts who mouth this bullroar never live anywhere near the areas where these “worthwhile” cultures are allowed to thrive. Try and find a tenured college professor anywhere near Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood. Bill Ayers calls for police protection from reporters and angry parents, it’s hard to imagine what he would do if confronted by a crew from the GDs or the Vice Lords! American families are crumbling. According to FamilyFacts.org, fewer than 6 out of 10 American children live in a home with both of their married biological parents or married adoptive parents. Nearly 1 in 2 children, who live in single-mother homes, live with mothers who have never been married. The breakdown of American families contributed directly to the breakdown of our civil society. 78% of the nation’s jail and prison population grew up in a single-parent household. As Dr. Sowell states, they do not care how their behavior affects other people because they have not been raised to behave otherwise and they certainly are not afraid of the criminal justice system.
And why should they be? Our criminal justice system is degrading at an alarming rate. States like Illinois have placed moratoriums on death sentences while bemoaning the fact that prisons are overflowing. What critics fail to understand is that the most beneficial effect of a fully-operational death penalty is not the killing of criminals who are convicted of capital offenses; the most beneficial effect is as a deterrent to those who are considering committing a violent crime. When a capital penalty is taken off the table, or mitigated by an endless appeals process which is subsidized by the taxpayer, the deterrent is removed and crime is encouraged. Further incentive is provided to the criminal when judges neglect to dispense justice at all, as was the case in September 2013 when Cook County Circuit Court Judge Laura Marie Sullivan dismissed all charges against Luis Pantoja. He was arrested in August and charged with criminal sexual assault in the rape of a 24-year old Chicago woman. According to court records, Pantoja was accused of dragging the young woman into an alley and raping her. Judge Sullivan dismissed the charge, finding no probable cause, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. The victim spoke very little English and her request for an interpreter during her testimony was ignored and Pantoja released. Two years before that, he was arrested for fondling a young relative and exposing her to pornography on his cell phone. Again, no charges were filed and Pantoja walked free. Just three months after his release by Judge Sullivan, Pantoja has now been charged in connection with a December 17th assault on a 15-year old girl who was on her way to school. Authorities allege that he hit her over the head with a blunt object, dragged her into a backyard, assaulted her, and left her in a pool of her own blood to die. The victim is alive but remains in critical condition in a coma, having undergone multiple surgeries in the past three weeks. This attack should never have taken place. If the judicial system was operating properly, this animal would have been deterred by the threat of a syringe of potassium chloride with his name on it, or he would be in jail, serving time or waiting for a trial. God only knows why Sullivan dismissed his charge, given that he has a long rap sheet stretching back to 2005, which includes a felony conviction for his role in a fatal car accident. She should be removed from the bench and disbarred immediately; yet Cook County, along with many other counties and municipalities, lacks a viable means of recalling a judge who is unfit for service. This nation is being run into the ground by political hacks who have carved out their own fiefdoms under the guise of public service. Some wear black robes and some hold court in Washington, DC, but our world is being shaped by such as these. They shred the very fabric of our society in order to line their own nests and they wear the power granted to them by the people as if it belonged to them. It will continue thus until their yoke is broken from our necks and Justice retrieves her blindfold.
INFOWARS.COM BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND