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'Lord of the Flies' comes to Baltimore


DKW 86

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http://www.cnn.com/2...more/index.html

All i can say is this: R-B doesnt get it at all. John Blake does.

"This is old here," he said, pointing to himself. "There ain't no more 'Old Heads' anymore, whereyou been? They got big numbers or they in pine boxes." In street syntax, that meant long prison sentences or death.


We hear about the absence of black men from families, but what happens when they disappear from an entire community? West Baltimore delivered the answer to that question this week. It's no accident that one of the most enduring images from the riot was a young mother spanking her son as she dragged him away from the protests. Where were the men in his life?

As I walked through my old streets, it was filled with nothing but black young women, children and teenage boys. It was as if an alien spaceship had come in the night and spirited all the older black men away.

Castaways waiting for rescue

I've read and written about big issues like the mass incarceration of black men for nonviolent drug offenses -- what some call "The New Jim Crow." To see it in person, though, is spooky. I felt like "The Lord of the Flies" had taken over my old neighborhood. William Raspberry, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the Washington Post, once invoked the book's title in a column to describe what was happening to young black men in inner cities across America. He said that without the civilizing influence of older men to guide them, young black men never develop an internal moral compass. They become castaways. I read Raspberry's essay after college and kept it for years. It spoke so well to what I saw in the 1980s when the crack epidemic first hit my neighborhood."The Lord of the Flies" was a novel written in 1954 by the English author William Golding. It describes what happens to a group of upper-class English schoolboys when their plane crash-lands on a deserted island and all the adults are killed. The kids try to build a society of their own, but with no adult guidance, they descend into tribalism and savagery.

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Good article.

It's long been my goal in life to keep the mob from stealing the conch and killing Piggy.

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Some of the reading i am doing now gives me pause that all the non-violent drug arrests in America are actually destroying some communities.

We are blowing $BNs incarcerating non-violent offenders and that ends up leaving their communities leaderless, destroying the communities, and then having to go in and spend more $BNs rebuilding these communities. WTH is wrong with these people? Can we not see that this is wrong on so many levels? Do kids need to go fatherless and communities leaderless because once when a man was young and immature he went and got some insignificant amount of the wrong drug?

On the other hand we have other side of the aisle mindlessly raising taxes, writing crazy regulations, and running businesses out of the very communities we are trying to get them to go into or stay in? WTH is wrong with those people?

Are we doomed to The Detroit Cycle over and over and over again in America?

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Even if these men aren't locked up does that mean they'll be around and be a good role model for the kids? It may be minor offense but it's still being involved in non productive things. I don't see a maturity to stay around and take responsibility.

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Its hard to believe that permissiveness is gathering so much support. I have hard time gettng my head around the idea that not arresting criminals is going to fix the problems for any segment of society

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Some of the reading i am doing now gives me pause that all the non-violent drug arrests in America are actually destroying some communities.

We are blowing $BNs incarcerating non-violent offenders and that ends up leaving their communities leaderless, destroying the communities, and then having to go in and spend more $BNs rebuilding these communities. WTH is wrong with these people?

I want to add only one thing from experience in my life.

I have only called three cities "home", Americus, Hawkinsville, and Columbus GA. In each one of these cities I have personally come to find out that at least one Judge from each of these communities used cocaine. I have also witnessed a fair amount of law enforcement members take a hit off a joint while on vacation or leave.

I am not trying to lower these people but I have always :headscratch: to how these people could arrest and literally judge people for doing the same thing they do.

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I am a role model for my family, I bet most on this forum are. We all, or almost all have done quite a bit of stupid in our lives. Should one mistake ruin your lives forever?

It is not permissiveness to have incarcerated more people in the US than the rest of the world.

We are not incarcerating violent criminals. We are imprisoning the mistakers/sinners, of which i am chief.

us_violent_crime_rate_and_incarceration_rate.jpg?itok=Pp2z-luU

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I don't care if it's non violent mor not they still aren't taking responsibility for their actions. Even the ones that don't go to prison don't act responsible. It goes much deeper than just changing the rules on incarceration.. That is just a peripheral thing.

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Enjoy the country you knew as long as you can. It's changing and not in a good way.

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I don't care if it's non violent mor not they still aren't taking responsibility for their actions. Even the ones that don't go to prison don't act responsible. It goes much deeper than just changing the rules on incarceration.. That is just a peripheral thing.

So, no father figure is a better outcome than a father figure who uses or has used a banned substance?

In the absence of a harmed party, no crime has been committed- regardless of what a politician has scribbled on a piece of paper stating otherwise.

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Some of the reading i am doing now gives me pause that all the non-violent drug arrests in America are actually destroying some communities.

We are blowing $BNs incarcerating non-violent offenders and that ends up leaving their communities leaderless, destroying the communities, and then having to go in and spend more $BNs rebuilding these communities. WTH is wrong with these people? Can we not see that this is wrong on so many levels? Do kids need to go fatherless and communities leaderless because once when a man was young and immature he went and got some insignificant amount of the wrong drug?

And how many offenders that go in for non-violent offences come out much more angry and violent after time spent in that environment?

And as you say, a young man with plenty of potential to make a success of himself and give back to the community instead finds his dreams of a good career destroyed by a felony record...for doing little more than what happens in many frat houses and on every college campus most any weekend.

I smoked some weed--well, maybe a little more than "some" :rolleyes: --in my college days (and possession wasn't a misdemeanor way back then!), I experimented with other drugs, and while I've never caused an accident or gotten a D.U.I. for alcohol intoxication, I won't deny that I might have deserved one a time or two. Fortunately, nothing I did in my youth prevented me from pursuing the profession of my choice. However, what if the sins of my youth had interfered with my goals? For one thing, society would have lost out on 36 years of service from a dedicated teacher.

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I don't care if it's non violent mor not they still aren't taking responsibility for their actions. Even the ones that don't go to prison don't act responsible. It goes much deeper than just changing the rules on incarceration.. That is just a peripheral thing.

So, no father figure is a better outcome than a father figure who uses or has used a banned substance?

In the absence of a harmed party, no crime has been committed- regardless of what a politician has scribbled on a piece of paper stating otherwise.

That's not the point. In prison or not they aren't being father figures. You can change the laws on marijuana and change the rules on incarceration. Just because these people aren't going to prison does mean they're all of a sudden going to want to take responsibility and be part of a family.
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That's not the point. In prison or not they aren't being father figures. You can change the laws on marijuana and change the rules on incarceration. Just because these people aren't going to prison does mean they're all of a sudden going to want to take responsibility and be part of a family.

Mister, actually I see people doing just that day after day after day...

People do mature, wakeup, get better. They wake up and take responsibility for their lives.

I probably should have been arrested a 100X back in the day. I had a very much out of control alcohol problem. DUIs? I dont know how i managed to not wall paper the walls with arrest reports. Folks, throwing people in jail and tagging them as worthless is a self fulfilling prophesy. You know, in every other country in the world, they seem to be able to make it all work without incarcerating an entire segment of society.

Above, i made the reference to the "wrong drug." That was by design. While working with the Rescue Mission, i saw that there were some odd drug policies. Crack gets you busted fast, cocaine, not so much. Why? Cocaine is the white man's drug. Crack is the black man's drug. (BY AND LARGE...)

http://www.drugpolic...and-crack-facts

Criminal penalties for possession and sale of powder and crack cocaine are severe. Despite recent federal reforms of crack sentencing laws, much higher penalties still exist for possession and sale of crack, despite the fact that, pharmacologically, it is the same drug as cocaine. Possession of 28 grams of crack cocaine yields a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for a first offense; it takes 500 grams of powder cocaine to prompt the same sentence.

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Legalize Cannibis. Set up clinics for everything else and provide it to the addicted for free. Make this a medical instead of a criminal issue.

That would address the crime and incarceration issue and put addicts in contact with people who might be able to help them.

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Marihuana will be de-criminalized if not legal in nearly all states within five years in my opinion. However, with narcotics such as heroin and methamphetamine (the two main drugs in my area), the thought of legalizing or de-criminalization of those drugs, even to the dealers, is unthinkable. Detox and rehab should be more affordable and available to those that want to be clean. There are many who "want" to be clean but also want to still get high. Also, in my area, for one to be sentenced to prison, much less incarcerated, their record has to be incredibly long and bad. So, I do agree with you to a point that there needs to be some alternative but I also think that there needs to be punative measures still available.

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Legalize Cannibis. Set up clinics for everything else and provide it to the addicted for free. Make this a medical instead of a criminal issue.

That would address the crime and incarceration issue and put addicts in contact with people who might be able to help them.

:thumbsup:
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The only real legal impediment I see to universal acceptance of recreation pot use is the problem of currently having no simple or quantitative way of determining a person's (driver, etc.) current state of intoxication: response tests are somewhat subjective, and all that current blood/urine tests detect is if THC has been in the system in the last 2-4 weeks. There's not yet the equivalent of a breathalyzer for pot. It's really a problem of technology or medical science, but until it is resolved I can understand some legal resistance.

It might be a while before some social or professional stigmas fade, but they have little to do with weed's legal status.

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It is funny but the out of wedlock birthrate just gets ignored in all of this. Prior to the 1960's racism was worse poverty was worse but we didn't have riots. Until people stop having children outside the institution of marriage then conditions will not get anything but worse. This broken windows policing is a relatively new phenomenon. Some will step up if they're not in jail but this is only a small percentage. I can't remember where I saw it but if you stop locking people up for nonviolent offenses the black incarceration rate drops maybe two or three points. That's not a lot. It is fine to do that but to think it is anywhere near a panacea is naive.

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It I'd funny but the out of wedlock birthrate just gets ignored in all of this. Prior to the 1960's racism was worse poverty was worse but we didn't have riots. Until people stop having children outside the institution of marriage then conditions will not get anything but worse. This broken windows policing is a relatively new phenomenon. Some will step up if they're not in jail but this is only s small percentage. I can't remember where I saw it but if you stop locking people up for nonviolent offenses the black incarceration rate drops maybe two or three points. That's not a lot. It is fine to do that but to think it is anywhere near s panacea is naive.

Nativist Period 1700s-1860Edit

  • 1824: Providence, Rhode Island Hard Scrabble Riots
  • 1829: Cincinnati riots of 1829 Rioting against African Americans results in over a thousand leaving for Canada.
  • 1829: Charlestown Anti-Catholic Riots
  • 1831: Providence, Rhode Island
  • 1834: Massachusetts Convent Burning
  • 1834: Philadelphia pro-slavery riots[37]
  • 1835: Five Points Riot
  • 1835: Washington, D.C.[38][39]
  • 1836: Cincinnati riots of 1836 - Several anti-abolitionist riots
  • 1841: Cincinnati, Ohio White Irish-descendant and Irish immigrant dock workers rioted against Black dock workers. When the Black dock workers banded together to defend their community from the approaching Whites, the White rioters retreated and then commandeered a 6-pound cannon and shot it through the streets of Cincinnati.
  • 1844: Philadelphia Nativist Riots (May 6–8, July 5–8)
  • 1851: Hoboken Anti-German Riot
  • 1855: Louisville Anti-German Riots

Civil War Period 1861-1865Edit

Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1877Edit

Jim Crow Period: 1878 - 1914Edit

War and inter-war period: 1914–1945Edit

Postwar era: 1946 - 1954Edit

Civil Rights and Black Power Movement's Period: 1955–1977Edit

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It I'd funny but the out of wedlock birthrate just gets ignored in all of this. Prior to the 1960's racism was worse poverty was worse but we didn't have riots. Until people stop having children outside the institution of marriage then conditions will not get anything but worse. This broken windows policing is a relatively new phenomenon. Some will step up if they're not in jail but this is only s small percentage. I can't remember where I saw it but if you stop locking people up for nonviolent offenses the black incarceration rate drops maybe two or three points. That's not a lot. It is fine to do that but to think it is anywhere near s panacea is naive.

Poverty was not worse and despite having thrown $19 trillion dollars of federal and state funding at it, it is up from 10.5% in 1967 to 14.5% in 2014. Those living below the poverty line today is approaching 50 milllion citizens. I am hard pressed to believe that those who voted for the New Deal Great Society legislation would have cast those votes if they knew 50 years later and almost $20 trillion dollars spent there would be as many living in poverty as there was n the entire country at the time the bill became law. It was passed to eradicate poverty but instead has created an entitlement culture of dependency and victimization.

As Americans we should know, when we subsidize something we get more of it. When the federal govt started subsidizing illegitimacy with welfare benefits based on the number of children, did they really think out of wedlock birth rate would go done? That single entitlement has done more to destroy the black family unit than anything else. Incidentally the illegitimacy rate was about 18% for nonhispanic blacks in 1967 and is at 72% now resulting in very few male role models for young black men who are unemployed at much higher rates than any other race. Unemployed, no role models, living with an entitled mentality. Yea, thats going to solve all the problems of the black community, dont lock up the criminals!

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It I'd funny but the out of wedlock birthrate just gets ignored in all of this. Prior to the 1960's racism was worse poverty was worse but we didn't have riots. Until people stop having children outside the institution of marriage then conditions will not get anything but worse. This broken windows policing is a relatively new phenomenon. Some will step up if they're not in jail but this is only s small percentage. I can't remember where I saw it but if you stop locking people up for nonviolent offenses the black incarceration rate drops maybe two or three points. That's not a lot. It is fine to do that but to think it is anywhere near s panacea is naive.

Poverty was not worse and despite having thrown $19 trillion dollars of federal and state funding at it, it is up from 10.5% in 1967 to 14.5% in 2014. Those living below the poverty line today is approaching 50 milllion citizens. I am hard pressed to believe that those who voted for the New Deal Great Society legislation would have cast those votes if they knew 50 years later and almost $20 trillion dollars spent there would be as many living in poverty as there was n the entire country at the time the bill became law. It was passed to eradicate poverty but instead has created an entitlement culture of dependency and victimization.

As Americans we should know, when we subsidize something we get more of it. When the federal govt started subsidizing illegitimacy with welfare benefits based on the number of children, did they really think out of wedlock birth rate would go done? That single entitlement has done more to destroy the black family unit than anything else. Incidentally the illegitimacy rate was about 18% for nonhispanic blacks in 1967 and is at 72% now resulting in very few male role models for young black men who are unemployed at much higher rates than any other race. Unemployed, no role models, living with an entitled mentality. Yea, thats going to solve all the problems of the black community, dont lock up the criminals!

American farm subsidies are egregiously expensive, harvesting $20 billion a year from taxpayers’ pockets. Most of the money goes to big, rich farmers producing staple commodities such as corn and soyabeans in states such as Iowa.

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21643191-crop-prices-fall-farmers-grow-subsidies-instead-milking-taxpayers

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It I'd funny but the out of wedlock birthrate just gets ignored in all of this. Prior to the 1960's racism was worse poverty was worse but we didn't have riots. Until people stop having children outside the institution of marriage then conditions will not get anything but worse. This broken windows policing is a relatively new phenomenon. Some will step up if they're not in jail but this is only s small percentage. I can't remember where I saw it but if you stop locking people up for nonviolent offenses the black incarceration rate drops maybe two or three points. That's not a lot. It is fine to do that but to think it is anywhere near s panacea is naive.

Poverty was not worse and despite having thrown $19 trillion dollars of federal and state funding at it, it is up from 10.5% in 1967 to 14.5% in 2014. Those living below the poverty line today is approaching 50 milllion citizens. I am hard pressed to believe that those who voted for the New Deal Great Society legislation would have cast those votes if they knew 50 years later and almost $20 trillion dollars spent there would be as many living in poverty as there was n the entire country at the time the bill became law. It was passed to eradicate poverty but instead has created an entitlement culture of dependency and victimization.

As Americans we should know, when we subsidize something we get more of it. When the federal govt started subsidizing illegitimacy with welfare benefits based on the number of children, did they really think out of wedlock birth rate would go done? That single entitlement has done more to destroy the black family unit than anything else. Incidentally the illegitimacy rate was about 18% for nonhispanic blacks in 1967 and is at 72% now resulting in very few male role models for young black men who are unemployed at much higher rates than any other race. Unemployed, no role models, living with an entitled mentality. Yea, thats going to solve all the problems of the black community, dont lock up the criminals!

American farm subsidies are egregiously expensive, harvesting $20 billion a year from taxpayers’ pockets. Most of the money goes to big, rich farmers producing staple commodities such as corn and soyabeans in states such as Iowa.

http://www.economist...lking-taxpayers

Farmers are feeding the world. What were those doing in Baltimore that was even remotely productive last Monday night?

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It I'd funny but the out of wedlock birthrate just gets ignored in all of this. Prior to the 1960's racism was worse poverty was worse but we didn't have riots. Until people stop having children outside the institution of marriage then conditions will not get anything but worse. This broken windows policing is a relatively new phenomenon. Some will step up if they're not in jail but this is only s small percentage. I can't remember where I saw it but if you stop locking people up for nonviolent offenses the black incarceration rate drops maybe two or three points. That's not a lot. It is fine to do that but to think it is anywhere near s panacea is naive.

Poverty was not worse and despite having thrown $19 trillion dollars of federal and state funding at it, it is up from 10.5% in 1967 to 14.5% in 2014. Those living below the poverty line today is approaching 50 milllion citizens. I am hard pressed to believe that those who voted for the New Deal Great Society legislation would have cast those votes if they knew 50 years later and almost $20 trillion dollars spent there would be as many living in poverty as there was n the entire country at the time the bill became law. It was passed to eradicate poverty but instead has created an entitlement culture of dependency and victimization.

As Americans we should know, when we subsidize something we get more of it. When the federal govt started subsidizing illegitimacy with welfare benefits based on the number of children, did they really think out of wedlock birth rate would go done? That single entitlement has done more to destroy the black family unit than anything else. Incidentally the illegitimacy rate was about 18% for nonhispanic blacks in 1967 and is at 72% now resulting in very few male role models for young black men who are unemployed at much higher rates than any other race. Unemployed, no role models, living with an entitled mentality. Yea, thats going to solve all the problems of the black community, dont lock up the criminals!

American farm subsidies are egregiously expensive, harvesting $20 billion a year from taxpayers’ pockets. Most of the money goes to big, rich farmers producing staple commodities such as corn and soyabeans in states such as Iowa.

http://www.economist...lking-taxpayers

Farmers are feeding the world. What were those doing in Baltimore that was even remotely productive last Monday night?

Oh so you meant just those 'black people' subsidies. You should be more specific in your moronic rants.
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It I'd funny but the out of wedlock birthrate just gets ignored in all of this. Prior to the 1960's racism was worse poverty was worse but we didn't have riots. Until people stop having children outside the institution of marriage then conditions will not get anything but worse. This broken windows policing is a relatively new phenomenon. Some will step up if they're not in jail but this is only s small percentage. I can't remember where I saw it but if you stop locking people up for nonviolent offenses the black incarceration rate drops maybe two or three points. That's not a lot. It is fine to do that but to think it is anywhere near s panacea is naive.

Poverty was not worse and despite having thrown $19 trillion dollars of federal and state funding at it, it is up from 10.5% in 1967 to 14.5% in 2014. Those living below the poverty line today is approaching 50 milllion citizens. I am hard pressed to believe that those who voted for the New Deal Great Society legislation would have cast those votes if they knew 50 years later and almost $20 trillion dollars spent there would be as many living in poverty as there was n the entire country at the time the bill became law. It was passed to eradicate poverty but instead has created an entitlement culture of dependency and victimization.

As Americans we should know, when we subsidize something we get more of it. When the federal govt started subsidizing illegitimacy with welfare benefits based on the number of children, did they really think out of wedlock birth rate would go done? That single entitlement has done more to destroy the black family unit than anything else. Incidentally the illegitimacy rate was about 18% for nonhispanic blacks in 1967 and is at 72% now resulting in very few male role models for young black men who are unemployed at much higher rates than any other race. Unemployed, no role models, living with an entitled mentality. Yea, thats going to solve all the problems of the black community, dont lock up the criminals!

That 72% out of wedlock birthrate is the number one problem in the black community. That is not a result of incarceration for nonviolent offenses. They made a lot of progress in the time between the civil war and the civil rights act. Since then it has gotten worse in a lot of areas.
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