Guest Post by
The “war on drugs” is one of the most irrational, idiotic and destructive public policy failures in American history, and that’s saying a lot. I’ve covered this topic many times at Liberty Blitzkrieg, but nothing spells it out like the repentant words of a former federal judge, who admittedly ruined countless lives for no reason.
From the Atlantic:
ASPEN, Colo.—Former Federal Judge Nancy Gertner was appointed to the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1994. She presided over trials for 17 years. And Sunday, she stood before a crowd at The Aspen Ideas Festival to denounce most punishments that she imposed.
Among 500 sanctions that she handed down, “80 percent I believe were unfair and disproportionate,” she said. “I left the bench in 2011 to join the Harvard faculty to write about those stories––to write about how it came to pass that I was obliged to sentence people to terms that, frankly, made no sense under any philosophy.”
She went on to savage the War on Drugs at greater length. “This is a war that I saw destroy lives,” she said. “It eliminated a generation of African American men, covered our racism in ostensibly neutral guidelines and mandatory minimums… and created an intergenerational problem––although I wasn’t on the bench long enough to see this, we know that the sons and daughters of the people we sentenced are in trouble, and are in trouble with the criminal justice system.”
She added that the War on Drugs eliminated the political participation of its casualties. “We were not leveling cities as we did in WWII with bombs, but with prosecution, prison, and punishment,” she said, explaining that her life’s work is now focused on trying to reconstruct the lives that she undermined––as a general matter, by advocating for reform, and as a specific project: she is trying to go through the list of all the people she sentenced to see who deserves executive clemency.
Enough is enough. Let’s end this stupidity once and for all.
For related articles, see:
The DEA Strikes Again – Agents Seize Man’s Life Savings Under Civil Asset Forfeiture Without Charges
The United States has More People in Jail than High School Teachers and Engineers
Land of the Free: American Police Make an Arrest Every 2 Seconds in 2012
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
We have the war on drugs because people still see political violence (which is the political system’s method) as a way to “make people better.”
Vices (e.g., drug use, porn, prostitution, gambling, etc. that results in harms to a person or his/her immediate family) are challenges INDIVIDUALS face, but our saturation in collectivism sees them a “social problems” in need of fixing, and political systems are not based on persuasion, they are based on the initiation of violence, guns, cages (for people), dogs that bite….basically all the tools of totalitarian power.
Until our neighbors turn away from seeing politics as THE means to make people better, this insanity will continue.
The means ARE the ends.
All things that are furthered by violence and threats cannot produce anything but evil, but don’t try explaining this axiom of nature to most people. Very few, even highly intelligent people have the abstract mental pathways to see how the use of force in the service of good is axiomatically likely to produce evil.
The government could have declared a war on dickiness. Douchebags are a plague on society. If assholes were jailed, the world would be a nice place to live. Anybody care for some ice-cream?
A woman democrat judge appointed by Clinton who joined the faculty at Harvard. I should care what she thinks why? I’m fine with ending the so-called war on drugs. Change the laws, if you want, but don’t try to win me over with a bunch of bullshit about disparate impact. It’s not like the drug laws have been a big secret. As someone who survived for the better part of a decade waiting tables and delivering pizza, I believe there are legal ways to make a living. It’s hard. That’s why they call it work.
Instead of a “war on drugs” what we need is a “war on thugs”.
I accuse El Coyote of being a Dick….BURN HIM!!!
If the government declared a “war on dickiness,” we’d just have more dicks.
see: Great Society, and poverty rates, for proof.
Need more? See education rates and IQ.
And, for the judge pulling her head from her ass, no shit.
Many of us were screaming this from the rafters for decades, but so many want “their” government to right all wrongs and protect everyone from everything, so here we are.
Ain’t going to get any better with this newest war on medical choice. If you can’t stop a government connected agency from injecting questionable substances INTO your own child, there are literally no rights left to fight over.
Put a fork in us, we are done. The War on Drugs just helped us in our own demise. “Success!” says the 0.1%
Yet another apparatchik who, once out of power, decries the system.
Such people should do us all a favor and shut up…forever.
dc.sunsets–The Puritan ethic still resides. Some where out there are Baptists worried the somewhere out there someone is having fun. Our laws are hardly rational and carry the deeply rooted moral convictions of our extremist religious heritage. Why in the hell do you think the Pilgrims left Europe to come to America? For religious freedom, you say. BS! They were thrown out of Europe because they were so intolerant and couldn’t get a long with anyone else.
It’s remarkable that Ms. Nancy Gertner got religion after her spat as a judge and got her retirement, when her criticism was needed so much sooner in her career. Kinda like that other A**hole, A. Greenspan, who now has seen the light. It’s like a light switch. He saw the light prior to his FED Governorship, then he switch it to off during his tenure, and now has switched it back on again.
The ‘War On Drugs’ was just plan to eliminate competition with the CIA, shadow government. The little people caught up in addiction, and run through Ms. Gertner’s judicial mill were only the window dressing to give headlines to the MSM, mollify the ignorant masses, and give cover to the CIA’s drug running.
dc.sunsets, the religious idea of making people better is a Procrustean Bed. If the insolent populaces won’t tow the religious line, we’ll make them better by killing them. Of course, we’re doing God’s work.
In case it’s not obvious, some people would still find a way to get themselves imprisoned even all drugs & sales thereof were legal: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_28415266/theft-jewelry-prompts-police-chase-from-edina-woodbury It took 8 idiots to rob one Louis Vitton store of 20k (retail price) of merchandise.
“The ‘War On Drugs’ was just plan to eliminate competition with the CIA, shadow government. The little people caught up in addiction, and run through Ms. Gertner’s judicial mill were only the window dressing to …….. give cover to the CIA’s drug running.”
—-Homer
You’re a delusional idiot.
SSS says:
You’re a delusional idiot.
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SSS fires the opening salvo.
“Drug trafficking is a gold mine for people who want to raise money in the underground government in order to finance projects that they can’t get legitimately. It is very clear that the CIA has been very much involved with drug dealings. We saw [Iran-Contra] on television. They were hauling down weapons and drugs back.” – Ron Paul
SSS, I’m not sure what your views on God/Heaven and any possible afterlife are but I suspect you’ll be in for one hell of an awakening if humans acquire knowledge of everything upon death. You’ll likely die twice that day.
As much as I disagree with the War on Drugs I don’t give a damn what a political sycophant thinks. I heavily doubt she thought it was unjust as she cashed in on it for 17 years. She didn’t leave to go to Harvard because of its immorality. She left because she is getting better paid. I am tired of political profiteers changing with the wind.
On a side note- I realize SSS is in the minority on TBP concerning the drug debate but not once have I seen him change his stance on his career. I give credit where credit is due.
Stephanie Shepard says:
On a side note- I realize SSS is in the minority on TBP concerning the drug debate but not once have I seen him change his stance on his career. I give credit where credit is due.
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Being a spook means never having to say you’re sorry.
DRUD says: I accuse El Coyote of being a Dick….BURN HIM!!!
That was totally out of left field. I have never fucked with you but thanks for coming out of the closet. What kind of dick am I, a big long, thickish, juicy veiny kind of dick? Could you please elaborate? You will be graded on this assignment.
I smell bullshit. Notice that Judge Gertner continued to preside at trials and impose “unjust sentences” enjoying a substantial salary. I doubt that she is still collecting her ill gotten pension and benefits as well. Compartmentalizing your life is so convenient.