Semi-Open Weekend Thread: Chauncey DeVega on 'The Big Picture' Discussing America's Police and Their Debt Peonage Racket



I had three things that I wanted to communicate in 6 minutes last evening: Ferguson is not an isolated problem; there are deep connections between the shakedown schemes used by America's police against non-whites, and the poor more generally and Jim and Jane Crow; and that "hands up, don't shoot" is the truth.

Because time is a variable in a TV segment, I was not able to get to my last point, but I did pivot to the context of Austerity and Neoliberalism as two of the primary driving forces behind the nationwide violations of civil rights by the prison industrial complex in the United States and elsewhere.

Plus, I got to mention "social control", "the carceral society", and "goons" all in one segment.

[Thom Hartmann's segment--which immediately follows mine--where he discusses Ferguson, "hands up, don't shoot", O'Reilly, and white privilege closely echoes much of what I have written about as of late. I take that as a complement.]

Read More: http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2015/03/semi-open-weekend-thread-chauncey.html

Great segment, listen if you can.

As soon as I saw this, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven

Barack Obama and David Simon talked about The Wire and our failed war on drugs.





I also have to note that, in the midst of this conversation, President Obama points out something that I wrote about a few weeks ago:



the fact that one of the reasons why the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) remains low is that our over-incarceration during the war on drugs has produced a record number of Americans with felony records (mostly brown and black men).

UPDATE: Question: Why would President Obama do this interview now? He's laying the groundwork and setting the stage. Somethin's up.



http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-two-men-i-admire-mostin-conversation.html

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Damn good read http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2015/3/15/president-barack-obama-the-right-man-for-this-moment-in-history

Where are the arrest warrants for those involved in the shake down of poor black people in #Ferguson Missouri? In a city with a population of 21,000 people, 16,000 have outstanding warrants. Nearly everyone was criminalize. The police and courts made it a crime to exist in black skin. We live in a country where a state government is running a multi million dollar racketeering & extortion scheme targeting black people & no one is arrested. Kwame M. Kilpatrick was convicted of racketeering, fraud and extortion but Ferguson town leaders got severance pay. It’s disgraceful when those in power see a crime and squeeze their eyes shut because the racketeer & extortionist have white skin. But when you’re white, it’s alriiiight.

All of the bogus arrest records should be thrown out. The Ferguson leadership ran a straight GANGSTA racket. They use police to target poor blacks, arrested them and then the courts shook them down for money, gave then criminal records which was sure to keep them from voting and they’d stay in power…until Darren Wilson murdered Michael Brown and the corruption was exposed.

Huffington Post: To give some context as to how truly extreme this is, a comparison may be useful. In 2014, the Boston Municipal Court System, for a city of 645,000 people, issued about 2,300 criminal warrants. The Ferguson Municipal Court issued 9,000, for a population 1/30th the size of Boston’s.

Ferguson and the Modern Debtor’s Prison

Debtor’s prisons are supposed to be illegal in the United States but today poor people who fail to pay even small criminal justice fees are routinely being imprisoned. The problem has gotten worse recently because strapped states have dramatically increased the number of criminal justice fees….Failure to pay criminal justice fees can result in revocation of an individual’s drivers license, arrest and imprisonment. Individuals with revoked licenses who drive (say to work to earn money to pay their fees) and are apprehended can be further fined and imprisoned. Unpaid criminal justice debt also results in damaged credit reports and reduced housing and employment prospects. Furthermore, failure to pay fees can mean a violation of probation and parole terms which makes an individual ineligible for Federal programs such as food stamps, Temporary Assistance to Needy Family funds and Social Security Income for the elderly and disabled.





Read More: http://3chicspolitico.com/2015/03/16/ferguson-town-leadership-was-running-a-multi-million-dollar-racketeering-extortion-scheme/

Ambassador Gaspard @patrickgaspard
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POTUS just dropped the Mic for the ages.
3:50 PM - 7 Mar 2015



Vox ✔ @voxdotcom
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Read the full transcript of Obama's rousing, emotional speech in Selma: http://vox.com/e/7932126?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter …
3:52 PM - 7 Mar 2015

Ambassador Gaspard @patrickgaspard
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POTUS speech at Selma was a love letter to America.
3:51 PM - 7 Mar 2015




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Trymaine Lee ✔ @trymainelee
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THIS photo of Obama and John Lewis in Selma yesterday. The long arc of 50 yrs ago bent toward his presidency. (WashP)
12:24 PM - 8 Mar 2015 Selma, AL, United States

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_iHqDAXEAAjC44.jp

Breathtaking #Selma50
6:56 PM - 7 Mar 2015

http://theobamadiary.com/2015/03/08/a-tweet-or-two-229/











This weekend brings tears to my eyes and hope in my heart, may we bend toward justice.