TxAgswin said:
Catag94 said:
On the topic of too many people in jail, to assist with this, would you support more severe and swiftly applied penalties for criminal behavior? Most severe being the expanded use of the death penalty.
Or, are you more inclined to further decriminalize more behaviors?
The latter.
I am opposed to the death penalty. I believe it's unconstitutional (clearly violates the 8th amendment). It's also a measure that is used inside brutal theocracies. It is a medieval practice that needs to be abolished. It's embarrassing that we are on the list of countries that still implement the death penalty. You probably wouldn't want to live in any of the countries that have retained the death penalty.
What I would suggest is to legalize drugs. All of them.
And then let every single non-violent drug offender out of prison. That will open up a lot of space and save us a lot of money and will make it way easier for me to get weed.
It will also be a punch in the gut to the Cartels. Their base revenue source would go away at the stroke of a pen. So, instead of using our law enforcement resources on tracking down bags of weed, they can focus on things that are actually evil, like gun-running and human trafficking.
I'm all for this as long as we abolish non violent gun laws as well. Would you be for that? If I want to own a suppressor, a machine gun, a short barrel rifle, a short barrel shot gun, I'd be able to do so with the same FBI back ground check that happens with every other gun I purchase from a dealer?
MJ should have never been illegal at the federal level as that prohibition much like the NFA and Hughes amendment are unconstitutional. States should be able to regulate the former (IMO should be legal at state level), but the latter two should not as they are protected by the 2nd amendment from state regulation.
Imprisoning people for non violent drug or gun offenses is unAmerican. I'm also not a fan of imprisoning people for non malicious crimes (ie accidents), but that's another topic and I'm sure many will disagree.
Furthermore, all prohibitions create black markets that breed violent crime and result in economic decline, organized crime, mass incarceration, and innocents that are victimized. We need to take a smarter approach to crime across the board.
Giving a pass to some because of the color of their skin is a non starter though. Treating EVERYONE equally is the only way to move forward in a colorblind society which is the opposite goal of purposefully divisive progressive policy positions.