This should effectively be the kiss of death to Biden’s race for the White House as it is no secret that Harris is nothing more than a cop who wants to be president. Any voter on the political left would do well to remember that Harris was grilled during the 2020 Democratic Debates over her record on criminal justice reform by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Tulsi lit Harris on fire concerning her record as a former attorney general for the state of California.

“I want to bring the conversation back to the broken criminal justice system that is disproportionately negatively impacted black and brown all across this country today. Now Senator Harris says she is proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she will be a prosecutor president, but I am deeply concerned about this record,” Gabbard said.

“There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana. She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California, and she fought to keep cash bail system in place, which affects poor people in the worst kind of way”, Gabbard continued.

When Joe Biden announced that Harris would be his VP pick, he said, “I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person, according to The LA Times.

Tough on what, Joe? Furthering the federal government’s war on drugs, which is destroying the black community in modern America? Maybe you mean tough on crime? The American people know all too well that any time a politician talks about declaring war on something or being tough, it is just political double-speak for more regulation, which is a stumbling block for desperately needed reform to our criminal justice system.

What in the world makes you think that after cases like Eric Gardner, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor that anyone in this country would want a corrupt former cop as vice-president of this country, Joe? Oh, I forgot you’re the same man who can say openly racist things about black Americans twice and insult the intelligence of an entire community and think they will still vote for you.

Yes, black lives matter. Criminal justice matters. Ending the war on drugs matters. But not to Joe Biden. Do you really think a corrupt attorney general who prosecuted people for non-violent drug offenses, and hid evidence that would free innocent individuals gives a damn about helping the black community? Joe and Kamala don’t care about anything but more government and more control.

This does nothing but continue to demonstrate how out of touch Democrats are with their voter base and the American people at large. I predict this to be the kiss of death for Biden’s 2020 run for the White House, and it serves him right for what appears to be nothing more than another attempt at playing identity politics. Joe doesn’t want to reform the system because he is part of the political machine that plagues American society, and his choice of a corrupt cop as a running mate is further evidence of that fact.

Black lives matter to me because I believe all men were created equal, and anyone who wants to ensure that justice should be for all Americans would not vote for Biden/Harris. Voting for a corrupt former attorney general puts out a fire by adding gasoline.

The post Black Lives Don’t Matter to Biden: His VP Pick Proves It. appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Angelos launched the Mission Green initiative to bring attention to those imprisoned for cannabis offenses and to assist in getting them released through executive clemency from the president or the governor if they are state offenders. “We’ve got a few prisoners released from federal prison via executive clemency and compassionate release that was amended with the First Step Act.”

The Mission Green team brought a list of offenders that they believe deserve to be commuted to the White House. Angelos tells me that one of them is, “my friend Luke Scarmazzo.”

Scarmazzo is serving a 22-year sentence in prison for owning and operating a cannabis dispensary in California. Angelos adds, “he was following state law.” He notes that Scarmazzo’s operation was similar to many others in the area that were not targeted by law enforcement.

The team was well received by the White House when they hand delivered the list in February. They established a good rapport with senior advisor Jared Kushner. Angelos points to Kushner as one of the best hopes for the future of criminal justice reform. “This administration is being pulled in different directions by different individuals in the law and order Republicans and this Attorney General; Jared Kushner has a tough job balancing that out and getting more reforms.”

The fact that Mission Green is necessary shows that reforms are still necessary. The system now leaves room for extreme discrepancy based on judges’ personal beliefs. According to Angelos, one of the major flaws with the First Step Act is that it allows a judge to be merciful if they want to, but “when it comes to people applying for release, they should be released on a consistent basis rather than having judges in California and New York granting many releases whereas, judges in Texas grant few even though the cases are similar.”

Some opposed the First Step Act because it would give politicians an excuse to not advance any further on criminal justice reform. Angelos admits that concerns about progress slowing have come to fruition, but he still firmly supports the initial reform. “Thousands of people have been released because of it.”

“What we really need is cannabis reform; we need an end to prohibition”, says Angelos. However, not everyone feels that way and some of the disagreement about what should be the next legislative target is why progress has slowed. “No one agrees on what needs to be changed next.” But he is hopeful. “I think new reforms will happen in the next 2-4 years.”

Regardless of who is President, Angelos knows that states will keep legalizing cannabis and will take the lead in reform. He adds, “I’m not particularly confident in either candidate” because of Biden’s past of worsening the system and Trump’s inconsistencies on the subject. But his positivity is due to reform progressing through the states and Congress no matter who is in the White House.

The problem, as he sees it, is that federal cannabis prohibition gives authorities an excuse across the country to abuse their power. Angelos tells me that until cannabis is removed from the federal code of illegal drugs, “police are going to continue to use the odor of cannabis to justify exploratory searches. They’re going to continue wasting money in arresting people for cannabis where one state over, you’re an entrepreneur and the next you’re a criminal.”

Weldon Angelos was an emerging and compelling music producer when charged with selling marijuana in 2002. He suspects that authorities in Salt Lake City, Utah investigated and prosecuted him because of his connections to celebrities like Snoop Dogg. “They thought it would lead to an arrest of a famous rapper, which didn’t happen.”

Angelos hesitates when asked if he has any qualms with his defense attorney. “Here’s the thing: the government made it tough for us to mount an effective defense because they suppressed evidence that we didn’t see until years later; they indicted me on one factual narrative and we prepared a very effective defense to that narrative.”

The narrative was changed unexpectedly as they entered court. Under normal circumstances, he tells me, for 900 dollars of marijuana being sold over 3 transactions, “I wouldn’t have got any prison time.”

After the stacking and enhancement provisions, Angelos was facing 105 years in prison. His defense fought some of those and won, “we got it down to 55 years.”

The prosecution trumped up the charge with “gunstacking” enhancements. Something that Angelos adamantly argues was based on “fabricated” evidence. The original reports never said he had a gun on him during the drug trade and he says that is the truth. The legally owned firearm was found in a locked safe when the police raided his home.

He laments, “Although I wished it would’ve gone better, my attorney didn’t have much to work with.” Angelos is confident that if his trial hadn’t been manipulated, he would have walked out as a free man.

Angelos’ assets and money were seized by authorities shortly after charging him. “They took all my stuff that I had bought with my music industry money.” It left him with little to pay for his legal defense and the lawyer finished by working for free.

The prosecution was so aggressive, it caught the ire of a fellow attorney in the Utah DA’s office, Mike Lee. “When Mike Lee was elected to the Senate in 2010, he became one of my number one advocates.”

Angelos gives Senator Lee (R-UT) much credit for getting him released and helping pass criminal justice reform so far. Senator Lee and Koch Industries were instrumental in changing the political landscape of criminal justice reform and enlightening conservatives on the need for change on the issue.

Early into his appeals process, the only hope for legislation that would free him was Democrat control of both houses of Congress and the White House because Republicans were not allies of criminal justice reform. Angelos recounts, “In 2009, we got that and we didn’t get a thing; we got a band-aid approach.” It wasn’t until Republicans began to consider criminal justice reform as a conservative issue that substantial progress started. “Were it not for Republicans coming over on the issue, we would not have had criminal justice reform.”

Weldon Angelos has seen the progression of criminal justice reform from the inside of a prison cell and as a free man. He has been a benefactor of advancement on the issue, but he has been an advocate for those who are still hurt by the system. The First Step Act was a step in the right direction, but Angelos realizes that more is needed and he plans on being part of the progression.

Weldon Angelos – New Beginning from Arnold Enrique Huaiquil on Vimeo.

Image: screenshot from Weldon Angelos – New Beginning

The post Inmate to Advocate: One Man’s Fight For Victims of The War On Drugs appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

We don’t need to replace our current system with anything other than a Constitutional Republic. The answer to our woes is to strengthen our commitment to individual liberty, limited government, and capitalism.

The US has unbelievably high incarceration rates. Many Americans that are in prison are there for nonviolent drug crimes that carry draconian mandatory minimums. Many judges vocally lament the prison lengths they are forced to sentence defendants to due to mandatory minimums.

Weldon Angelos

One famous example is Weldon Angelos who was sentenced to 55 years without the possibility of parole for selling small amounts of marijuana to a police informant three times in 2002.

This harsh sentence is due to something known as “gun stacking”. The informant saw a gun in Angelos’ possession when the drug trade went down. It was never used or brandished in a threatening manner. During the first trade, the informant simply saw it in Angelos’ car. During the second and third trades, the gun was in an ankle strap.

Therefore, Angelos qualified for a 5-30 year mandatory minimum for being a first-time drug offender with a gun. For the first instance when a gun was in his car, he received five years tacked onto his sentence. For each subsequent drug deal where a gun is present, 25 years are automatically added. He never used the gun in a violent way, but he did exercise his legal 2^nd Amendment right while selling a plant.

Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home after police broke down her door in the middle of the night because of suspected nonviolent drug activity. She wasn’t the suspect, but her boyfriend dared protect her against the unknown intruders by firing his own legal weapon at them. The police shot and killed Breonna in bed while they were serving a no-knock warrant for a nonviolent drug crime that she was never even accused of being a part of. The authorities initially charged Breonna’s boyfriend with attempted murder for firing at the intruders, but then recanted (nice of them).

Steven Sutherland

In Steven Sutherland’s case, he was sentenced more harshly because he had a gun in the house. He never used it in a threatening or violent way in any instance that the authorities were involved in. He was merely a dying man that had a gun and marijuana in rural Missouri. He died in prison for it.

Duncan Lemp

A Maryland man named Duncan Lemp was shot and killed in March when a SWAT team entered his home in the middle of the night. They were attempting to serve a no-knock warrant for accused gun crimes. His family and their lawyer claim Lemp was sleeping when the officers killed him. The authorities argue that they were met with violence and a deadly booby trap that forced them to shoot Lemp. However, they have not released body camera footage from the raid despite calls from the Lemp family attorney and civil rights groups.

Police raided his home in the middle of the night for allegedly owning a rifle that he was banned from owning due to a juvenile offense—not because he was an immediate threat, but because he was allegedly practicing God-given rights and they had told him not to.

Charles White

Charles White was sentenced to 10 years in prison for growing marijuana plants in Missouri. He was sentenced to prison in 2017 and soon appealed under the First Steps Act because he was elderly and in bad health. However, the judge denied him release citing his health issues as not severe enough. The judge felt it was in the best interest of everyone involved to keep the nearly 80-year-old man with worsening macular degeneration (which made him legally blind) in prison for a plant.

There is good news. Early in 2020 as Covid-19 fears ramped up, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidelines for prisons across the country to release nonviolent, low-risk prisoners. White met the criteria for release and thus, is now a free 80-year-old man. Christina Frommer of The Canna Convict Project tells me, “If it wasn’t for Coronavirus, Charles White would not be out of prison.”

Marvin Louis Guy

Marvin Louis Guy was in his home in the wee hours of the morning when police raided it. They were serving a no-knock warrant for drugs and Guy met the unknown invaders with gunfire from his legal weapon. He claims he did not know the intruders were police and that is why he fired on them, but the authorities still charged him with attempted murder. The drugs that the police were searching for were never found. They did find a 9MM pistol, walkie-talkies, three cellphones, a laptop, a safe, a glass pipe identified as drug paraphernalia, and a grinder. Sound like sufficient findings to justify putting civilians and police officers in deathly danger while violating 4^th Amendment rights?

Corrupt Police or Systems?

There are many good individual police officers and, as a whole, they do a good job. There are legitimate purposes for police officers—like keeping the community safe from outside threats to their businesses and personal lives.

Read True Blue: Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them. Some stories will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and almost all of them will make you realize that it is a tough job to see the worst 20 minutes of individuals’ lives day-in and day-out. The stories in that book are written by police officers who have a love for people of their community that they are protecting.

Then, read The New Jim Crow and you will see a systemic problem with criminal justice laws. But the problem is that our system has forgotten respect for individual liberty and has replaced it with an ideology that government needs to nanny individual behavior.

The system needs reformed, but only in the way that American principles need to be restored and revered.

The post Criminal Justice Reform: What System Needs Replaced? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

However, in the last few weeks, it seems as though it has been the Republicans who have taken on the brunt of reform of the justice system in the United States.

In the executive branch, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order implementing incentives for a national database for abusive police officers, banning chokeholds, national re-prioritization of de-escalation in police training, and higher standards of use of deadly force.

In the Senate, Senators Tim Scott and Rand Paul have both been champions of bills that would help criminal justice reform as well. Sen. Scott gave a resounding speech on the new bill that will be on the Senate floor entitled the “Justice Act”, which prioritizes more responsibilities for the police departments being held accountable and increase transparency in the status quo of the justice system.

Even as Scott’s stumping for the act on the Senate floor could pull any heartstring if listened to, it still came under fire, such as when Senator Dick Durbin referred to the act as a “token bill”. Many on the right, including Sen. Scott himself, did not let the comment slide, as he said it “hurt his soul” to hear one of his colleagues call an act that could have such a positive impact on the criminal justice system a “token” bill because he, one of the only two black men serving in the United States Senate, was the one advocating for a GOP sponsored piece of legislation.

Senator Paul proposed his new legislation that would end no-knock raid warrants by the state, such as the one that ended in the controversial killing of Breonna Taylor. This is nothing new to Paul, however, as he has been one of the most consistent legislative advocates for criminal justice reform that we have seen in our lifetimes.

For so long, those on the left and center have accused Republicans of apathy when talks of overreach by the state in issues concerning criminal justice have been brought to the forefront. However, it seems as if those in the GOP have been the voices of reason in terms of legislation on this polarizing issue the past few weeks. Their voices have been raised for reform, while still dealing with the usual mantras and virtue signaling from the left.

Who are the real criminal justice warriors here?

Image: Gage Skidmore

The post Opinion: Will the Real Criminal Justice Warriors Please Stand Up appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

That was the largest single-day mass commutation of prisoners in state history, and the Oklahoma governor calls it the largest in the nation. But this story doesn’t end with the state. It’s just the beginning.

Oklahoma has one of the largest incarceration rates in the country and in one day they significantly reduced that. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously approved that 527 state inmates be commuted on Friday, November 1. Governor Kevin Stitt quickly approved it, and 462 of those prisoners walked free on Monday. The other 65 are being held on detainer.

The people of Oklahoma made it clear that they were moving forward with criminal justice reform for nonviolent offenders. In 2016, Oklahomans voted to lower penalties for numerous drug and property crimes by categorizing them as misdemeanors instead of felonies; thus, reducing sentencing and the unrelenting black mark that a felony offense carries.

In the spring of 2019, the legislators made it possible for the governor to retroactively commute nonviolent offenders’ sentences. In other words, the 2016 reforms of how crimes are punished and categorized apply to those currently serving unduly harsh time in prison. This made it possible for the hundreds of prisoners to be released on Monday.

“We are making great progress this Legislative session on criminal justice reform, from investing in drug courts and diversion programs to stabilizing District Attorneys’ funding sources by ending their dependency on fines, fees and court costs. My administration remains committed to changing our state’s number one incarceration ranking,” –Governor Stitt, May 2019

Many of the prisoners released were women. The state of Oklahoma incarcerates women at the highest rate in the country. Governor Stitt greeted about 70 newly freed female prisoners as they left the Eddie Warrior Correctional Facility on Monday.

The fight for reform is partially governmental and strictly legal, but the work to help former prisoners reenter society is largely handled by private hands. Chrystalynn Sanchez is a criminal justice reform advocate that works for Reaching Our City (ROC). ROC operates one of the largest food pantries in the Oklahoma City area, and the Career Navigator program that helps applicants find training/certification for employment opportunity.

In the near future, ROC plans on opening a legal aid clinic to assist those charged with low-level crimes. Sanchez hopes that legal assistance will prevent them from falling into the revolving-door of the criminal justice system.

Through ROC, Sanchez works with Celebrate Recovery a ministry that assists those struggling to overcome hurt, pain, or addiction. The organization is providing the former inmates with hygiene products and clothing that will aid them in finding employment and reentering society.

The ministry facilitated transportation of the newly freed inmates as they were released on Monday. Sanchez tells me that the solutions in this situation is “less of a single ministry and more of an effort from all the programs that work with women”.

The state took a positive step forward in criminal justice reform, but work continues to ensure that newly freed prisoners have opportunities in society and don’t end up back in prison.

Reaching Our City will have a benefit art auction to raise money for their job training program on November 14. To donate and/or learn more about them go to their website here.

The post Criminal Justice Reform: Oklahoma Releases Over 400 Prisoners, But It Doesn’t End There appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Gun control is fashionable at the moment. But in reality, it is just another government program that will grow bureaucracy and diminish individual liberty. The same knee-jerk mob reaction that pleads for the government to “f*cking do something” about gun control is the same mentality that started the Drug War.

Musgraves’ passionate plea was in response to two mass shootings in the same week in America. She was pleading for something like governmental regulation to solve the heinous tragedy of mass shootings. It’s not the first time that America has faced scary situations and reacted by asking the government to solve it.

Through the 1970s to the 1990s, America struggled with drug abuse never seen before. The public clamored, “somebody f*cking do something”. What was the policy response? Massive law enforcement campaigns that spent tons of money and incarcerated countless people for answering consumer demands.

The hysteria of the time wasn’t completely unfounded. Americans were dying of overdoses all over the country. However, as most panic-induced government solutions do, the fix was too expansive and had some nasty side-effects. It created a system that harassed, arrested and sentenced people to long prison terms for marijuana charges. Even though, the plant has never caused an overdose death by itself.

Republicans played a role in perpetuating the war on drugs boondoggle, but it was far from ONLY a Republican mistake. Many Democrats played their part in it too (looking at you, Joe Biden). Some of them have owned up to their past and helped in bipartisan criminal justice reform.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill) recognized that he played a role in creating the disparity between sentencing for crack cocaine versus powder during the 1990s. The disparity was created in a hysterical rush and inadvertently caused a disproportionate number of non-white offenders receiving harsh sentences for drug offenses.

For example, in 1994 at the age of 25, Alton Mills was sentenced to life without parole for a low-level nonviolent drug offense. Senator Durbin started arguing on Mills’ behalf and in December of 2015, he was released from prison after serving 22 years.

There are numerous similar cases where unduly harsh sentences were given to offenders, and that is why there is bipartisan dislike of the Drug War. That should remind us how panicked government action can be dangerous, and result in toxic solutions that have long-lasting repercussions.

Drug overdoses are terrible… just like gun violence. Blindly begging the government to “f*cking do something” isn’t the answer, whether it’s drugs or guns.

The post History Rhymes: From The War on Drugs to The War on Guns appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

When he first announced his campaign, he was thought to be the clear favorite. Even then, he angered progressives with his relatively conservative stance on healthcare: opposing dismantling Obamacare and instead favoring a public option. 

Even more sickening to left-leaning Democrats is the fact that he is a vocal opponent of socialism.

However, the issue of race is hounding his campaign like nothing else. First he was attacked for working with segregationists in order to get things done. Then came Kamala Harris’ righteous anger – which coincidentally gave her a huge boost in the polls.

The most damaging attack was on mass incarceration. Many progressives blame his 1994 crime bill for the discrepancy in incarceration rates between blacks and whites. This issue is especially important because it damaged the Clinton campaign in 2016 by harming their reputation with black voters. Even if he wins the nomination, this issue could lose him the general election. 

Yet another embarrassing moment came at the NAACP annual conference. There, he said that his legislative record couldn’t be racist because if it was, Obama wouldn’t have picked him for VP. Predictably, this was seen as tone-deaf. 

To escape these controversies, Joe released a twitter campaign aimed at fighting mass incarceration.

Unfortunately, progressives were quick to remind everyone of Joe Biden’s past.

From the other side of the aisle, conservatives argued that Biden was simply copying the First Step Act. Signed by Trump last December, that law made key reforms to sentencing that were widely celebrated by the black community.

Finally, one guy just kept it short and sweet.

Either way, it doesn’t seem like a lot of people liked Joe Biden’s attempt. Time will tell how his campaign does in the coming months. 

The post Biden Attempts to Appeal to Black Voters. Twitter Finds Him Guilty of Hypocrisy appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.