We are not free when we have this kind of racial disparity in disproportionate sentencing for crime. We are not a free nation when we incarcerate more people than any other country on earth. We are not a free nation when we lock up so many people that it has altered and continues to alter the outcome of elections.
Those who insist that we have too much government fail to understand the deeper underlying problems with our infrastructure. They fail to correctly understand the causational correlation between crime and our social safety net.
Now we learn that the statistics which show violent crime declining may be incorrect, that violent crime may in fact be dramatically increasing.
This presents both a problem and an opportunity to make some constructive, positive changes. However counter-intuitive it is to consider legalizing drugs, we should look at the surprising (and frankly unexpected) success of Portugal, to see if there is some way we can emulate their results in this country.
It's time to try something different, radically different, because what we are doing now, dating back to the Reagan era, IS NOT WORKING.
The greater battle will not be the crime; the larger, harder to win battle will be the one against special interest and ignorance about drugs and drug use and crime.
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