....Marijuana Reform Could Ease Tensions In Baltimore And Beyond

[homersapien 11,354]

I have to admit. I linked this article mainly because I liked the title so much.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/29/marijuana-reform-baltimore_n_7171982.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[AUDub 11,131]

It would be a good start.

[AURaptor 1,121]

Pot saves day

[AUDub 11,131]

Pot saves day

[WarTim 3,456]

huffington .....no need to waste time on it.

[cole256 17,039]

Could have been worse that daily caller site for example....talk about trash

[AUDub 11,131]

huffington .....no need to waste time on it.

If it was an editorial, I could understand your objection, but on a news report? Afraid Arianna Huffington has cooties?

[autigeremt 6,569]

huffington .....no need to waste time on it.

If it was an editorial, I could understand your objection, but on a news report? Afraid Arianna Huffington has cooties? :dunno:/>

Lmao!

[Mims44 1,864]

Question!

I'm for weed being legal, think it's dumb it is illegal for no good reason.

But how are police to tackle the problem of driving under the influence? How are employers going to deal with it?

IE: If a person is drinking and driving, or drinking on the job there are sure fire ways to test them. But the only tests I know of for marijuana show use up to a 30 day history. No one is worried about getting a DWI on Wednesday from drinking Saturday, but would a person who smoked up on Saturday have to still be worried about it on Wednesday?

[AUUSN 823]

Educating Black Boys

Tony Harris takes a personal look at Baltimore's inner city and an education system failing black Americans.

Baltimore, Maryland has come to be known as 'Charm City' because of its harbour, which attracts a vibrant nightlife and thriving tourism business.

But just beyond the harbour's calm waters is one of the toughest and most violent inner cities in the US.

Baltimore is also home to Al Jazeera presenter Tony Harris and in this episode of Al Jazeera Correspondent he takes us on an up close and personal journey to his old neighbourhood to witness the challenges facing black youth today as they struggle to get out of the dead end of life on inner city streets.

Most of the crime in Baltimore is committed by black males with other blacks as victims, making black males an easy target for the police.

And many believe that the stereotyping of black kids starts at an early age in the US - as early as grade school. In this film, Harris examines how the education system has failed black boys and reflects upon why he managed to make it out successfully while so many of his friends did not.

A visit to his former high school reveals the desperation felt by both the pupils and the teachers.

"School and criminal justice systems biased against black boys; all echoes of my childhood. But I managed to avoid the trap of Baltimore's cycle of poverty and violence," he explains. "But now I was going back to my hometown to get to the bottom of what I considered the new civil rights fight in America - educating black boys."

[AUUSN 823]

And so here it is again: The stealthy tyranny of the "non-violent" proviso demanded of popular protests. Events in Baltimore are symptomatic of and particular to the US and its bloody history of state and social violence, in all its forms, against black Americans from slavery to the streets today. But the unrepresentative and wholly marginal violence of broken windows is invariably invoked against all protests that are struggles against power and its abuses.

Streets of England during its riots of 2011, or back to the anti-capitalists protests against the WTO in Seattle in 1999; the IMF in Prague and the G8 summit in Genoa; from the protests engulfing marginalised French suburbs, to Ferguson in the US, right across to the Palestinian struggle to be free from occupation - all these movements against inequality and injustice are bound by the media depiction of protest as suddenly, senselessly "violent".

Such loaded appraisals are wilfully blind to the fact that situations never go from total calm to sudden violence. There is a daily, pervasive state violence that is never spoken of, much less acknowledged: for Palestinians living under a brutal military occupation; for marginalised, disenfranchised young people in British cities or French suburbs; for African Americans disproportionately impoverished, disadvantaged and preyed upon by US police, surviving generation upon generation of institutionalised and violent racism; for the global South diminished and drained by neo-liberal policies imposed upon it by the IMF and the WTO.

The violence never starts with protesters on the streets - it's just that this is the moment the cameras decide to start filming. In this context, it takes a special kind of struggle-free, reality-blind sanctimony for media commentators to start preaching about the need for non-violence.

Moreover, the disproportionate focus on the violence of broken windows and looted shops ignores the full panorama of these issues: the lengthy, ongoing debates within protest movements over the merits and drawbacks of violence (against property, not people) as a tactic; the attempts within communities to prevent and guard against violence, or dissipate tensions, or take action to clear up in the aftermath; the pressure-cooker conditions created by ramped up, over-militarised, heavy-handed and often provocative policing; the simple fact that movements unite over causes if not always tactics; or just that understanding why a few people might steal trainers during protests is not at all the same as justifying such behaviour.

Instead, the "non-violence" theme is rolled out precisely to prevent any such debate over causes, context or history. This media preoccupation is in place to ensure that we stop talk about anything else.

We know the Martin Luther King quote: "A riot is the language of the unheard." The question is why, after so long, are these voices still not listened to? And who is it that doesn't want us to hear them?

http://www.aljazeera..._medium=twitter

[icanthearyou 4,462]

Wow man. Like I was thinking the same thing the other day man. Like if the cops and the protesters just got together and took some bong hits man, like everyone would just mellow out. They could like listen to some cool tunes and just talk instead of all this like senseless violence and destruction man.

[triangletiger 1,599]

OK, so if we grant that the rioting and looting is the culmination of years of institutional racism and injustice (which I personally think is much too simplistic a read on the situation), then what will it take to fix it?

Also, explain how has this institutional racism and injustice has led to the breakdown of the family and so many children being born out of wedlock and deadbeat dads.

[homersapien 11,354]

Question!

I'm for weed being legal, think it's dumb it is illegal for no good reason.

But how are police to tackle the problem of driving under the influence? How are employers going to deal with it?

IE: If a person is drinking and driving, or drinking on the job there are sure fire ways to test them. But the only tests I know of for marijuana show use up to a 30 day history. No one is worried about getting a DWI on Wednesday from drinking Saturday, but would a person who smoked up on Saturday have to still be worried about it on Wednesday?

That's a problem all right. I guess LEOs would have to rely on field tests, presumably video'ed.

But frankly, the average sober driver in this country is so bad, I'm not sure Cannabis users would even stand out as obvious hazards.

[icanthearyou 4,462]

OK, so if we grant that the rioting and looting is the culmination of years of institutional racism and injustice (which I personally think is much too simplistic a read on the situation), then what will it take to fix it?

Also, explain how has this institutional racism and injustice has led to the breakdown of the family and so many children being born out of wedlock and deadbeat dads.

Don't forget that we are a mere 50 years removed from segregation and all of the associated implications. That is less than a lifetime. I would not underestimate the effects of having been second class citizens for so long. Those effects are magnified by current economic conditions that limit opportunity and, manifested in conflicts with the police who represent the front line of civil authority.

I think we are basically halfway through a marathon. We have come a long way but, there is a long way to go. Eventually, I think we see the focus shift away from race and towards poverty, education, and opportunity.

The effects of institutional racism and injustice should not have to be explained. They are obvious. They are staring us all in the face. Unless of course, you believe that black people are somehow predisposed to those things you mentioned.

[TheBlueVue 177]

"I think we are basically halfway through a marathon. We have come a long way but, there is a long way to go. Eventually, I think we see the focus shift away from race and towards poverty, education, and opportunity."

How much money needs to be thrown away before you and yours realize and are willing to admit that approach is an epic failure? Great Society programs have already spent over $20 TRILLION DOLLARS and for what? Poverty is MORE prevalent NOW than it was when the program was enacted to address it and thats because we have MORE unemployment. We have more people living on entitlements that EVER before. Must we put EVERYONE on entitlement benefits to satisfy your do gooder self righteousness?

[homersapien 11,354]

"I think we are basically halfway through a marathon. We have come a long way but, there is a long way to go. Eventually, I think we see the focus shift away from race and towards poverty, education, and opportunity."

How much money needs to be thrown away before you and yours realize and are willing to admit that approach is an epic failure? Great Society programs have already spent over $20 TRILLION DOLLARS and for what? Poverty is MORE prevalent NOW than it was when the program was enacted to address it and thats because we have MORE unemployment. We have more people living on entitlements that EVER before. Must we put EVERYONE on entitlement benefits to satisfy your do gooder self righteousness?

How much economic wealth did 200 years of slavery generate for the country?

And really, "epic failure"? You don't think we've made progress?

And to say that poverty is more prevalent now than before the Great Society programs is just simply false.

[icanthearyou 4,462]

"I think we are basically halfway through a marathon. We have come a long way but, there is a long way to go. Eventually, I think we see the focus shift away from race and towards poverty, education, and opportunity."

How much money needs to be thrown away before you and yours realize and are willing to admit that approach is an epic failure? Great Society programs have already spent over $20 TRILLION DOLLARS and for what? Poverty is MORE prevalent NOW than it was when the program was enacted to address it and thats because we have MORE unemployment. We have more people living on entitlements that EVER before. Must we put EVERYONE on entitlement benefits to satisfy your do gooder self righteousness?

Well, that is not exactly what the rest of us are talking about but, you have an interesting perspective.

I have never considered the programs that helped pull us out of depression, win WWII, and usher in the greatest economic expansion in history as epic failures. Perhaps a return to the days when many had no electricity, indoor plumbing, or local school represent a better life of poverty? Since I have so little understanding of whatever point it is, you are attempting to make, I will have to think about it.

[Mims44 1,864]

Question!

I'm for weed being legal, think it's dumb it is illegal for no good reason.

But how are police to tackle the problem of driving under the influence? How are employers going to deal with it?

IE: If a person is drinking and driving, or drinking on the job there are sure fire ways to test them. But the only tests I know of for marijuana show use up to a 30 day history. No one is worried about getting a DWI on Wednesday from drinking Saturday, but would a person who smoked up on Saturday have to still be worried about it on Wednesday?

That's a problem all right. I guess LEOs would have to rely on field tests, presumably video'ed.

But frankly, the average sober driver in this country is so bad, I'm not sure Cannabis users would even stand out as obvious hazards.

Anyone driving in a perfect straight line, yet going 20 in a 65 zone.... immediate ticket. lol

[triangletiger 1,599]

Don't forget that we are a mere 50 years removed from segregation and all of the associated implications. That is less than a lifetime. I would not underestimate the effects of having been second class citizens for so long. Those effects are magnified by current economic conditions that limit opportunity and, manifested in conflicts with the police who represent the front line of civil authority.

I think we are basically halfway through a marathon. We have come a long way but, there is a long way to go. Eventually, I think we see the focus shift away from race and towards poverty, education, and opportunity.

The effects of institutional racism and injustice should not have to be explained. They are obvious. They are staring us all in the face. Unless of course, you believe that black people are somehow predisposed to those things you mentioned.

I certainly don't think black people are anymore predisposed to those things than any other racial group (in fact, those things aren't just happening in black communities), but I do believe that the breakdown of the family is a large contributor to these problems and I don't believe the breakdown of the family is a consequence of institutional racism.

I think saying the effects of institutional racism are obvious and staring us in the face is somewhat question-begging (in the philosophical sense). You seem saying ‘all the problems we’re seeing are the result of institutional racism and injustice’ and ‘if you want to see the consequences of institutional racism and injustice it’s obvious - just look as all the problems we’re seeing’ without providing the logical, causal link between the two.

My point is that it’s not that simple. I do believe that institutional racism is a factor in the problems we’re seeing, but it’s not the only factor. How does institutional racism lead to self-destructive behavior? The institutional racism was much more overt 50 years ago, but you didn’t as many children being born out of wedlock and deadbeat dads then.

[cole256 17,039]

I think the wedlock and dead beat stuff is more culture times changing than anything. I think if you look up divorce and kids out of wedlock it's a rise across the board with all races. I imagine that 50 years ago even though the numbers are down African Americans numbers were probably higher then too. So maybe orbs Judy increasing exponentially on top of itself because if your dad left you didn't see commitment and dedication so you followed suit.

Also maybe blacks being ripped away from their families and uprooted is a reason why it all started in the first place

[quietfan 233]

I must admit, in my half-century of knowing pot smokers (and being one in my distant college days), I've never known one that wanted to riot, loot, or burn...unless it was looting the Hostess/chip/candy aisle at the convenience store or firing up another doobie.

[homersapien 11,354]

Question!

I'm for weed being legal, think it's dumb it is illegal for no good reason.

But how are police to tackle the problem of driving under the influence? How are employers going to deal with it?

IE: If a person is drinking and driving, or drinking on the job there are sure fire ways to test them. But the only tests I know of for marijuana show use up to a 30 day history. No one is worried about getting a DWI on Wednesday from drinking Saturday, but would a person who smoked up on Saturday have to still be worried about it on Wednesday?

That's a problem all right. I guess LEOs would have to rely on field tests, presumably video'ed.

But frankly, the average sober driver in this country is so bad, I'm not sure Cannabis users would even stand out as obvious hazards.

Anyone driving in a perfect straight line, yet going 20 in a 65 zone.... immediate ticket. lol

Especially if they are on a phone.

[quietfan 233]

Anyone driving in a perfect straight line, yet going 20 in a 65 zone.... immediate ticket. lol

[icanthearyou 4,462]

Question!

I'm for weed being legal, think it's dumb it is illegal for no good reason.

But how are police to tackle the problem of driving under the influence? How are employers going to deal with it?

IE: If a person is drinking and driving, or drinking on the job there are sure fire ways to test them. But the only tests I know of for marijuana show use up to a 30 day history. No one is worried about getting a DWI on Wednesday from drinking Saturday, but would a person who smoked up on Saturday have to still be worried about it on Wednesday?

That's a problem all right. I guess LEOs would have to rely on field tests, presumably video'ed.

But frankly, the average sober driver in this country is so bad, I'm not sure Cannabis users would even stand out as obvious hazards.

Anyone driving in a perfect straight line, yet going 20 in a 65 zone.... immediate ticket. lol

Sorry officer. Like I thought this was like a school zone or something man.