And yet Wall Street white collar criminals that brought the entire f***ing world to chaos kept all their money and even got bonuses after the fact. No one of them got locked up.
Mandatory sentences don't even work as a legal concept: how can ANY prison time be considered just or moral if it's OBLIGATORY, and handed down regardless of context/circumstances?!
Usually I love these segments, I still agree for the most part but come on, 'he happened to have a gun on him at the time'…WTF John. You make it seem like someone slipped that guy a gun and he had no idea. I'm not saying 55 years isn't overkill but this guy is a freaking armed drug dealer and you make him sound like he was just hanging out with his friends at the skate park and had bad luck. It's not like he was just some kid who happened to get caught smoking pot one day.
The other guy was charged with trafficking 3 ounces of meth, he wasn't just doing meth, he was selling. Meth ruins thousands of people's lives and families.
Once again, I don't know if a life sentence is justice but dealing meth and crack is not the same as some people just hanging out and recreationally using pot on the weekend. I don't think people should do drugs but I can be convinced that there are too many people in jail for marijuana charges. Lets not pretend that dealing hard drugs like meth and cocaine deserves a slap on the wrist and that's it.
A close friend of mine had to do mandatory time in juvenile detention, simply because someone from school prank called the police and told them that he posed a serious threat and there was a terrorist attack being planned. Despite there not being any shred of evidence, as a juvenile he did not receive any real sort of legal representation, so now not only does he have a record, he can never serve in any military branch and has had his 2nd amendment rights stripped indefinitely…all because of a prank.
1 in 100 Americans are in jail? 1% of the entire population? That is seriously messed up. I live in Canada and my entire province has 3 jails the size of grocery stores that seem abandoned. I don't even know someone who's been in there.
Damn this grammar hurts my brain… First he's talking about "stadiums" which should be "stadia", and now "minimums" instead of "minima". The moral of the story, kids, is never learn the Latin root of words or you will suffer forever and no one will care.
WE NEED TO KEEP MANDATORY MINIMUMS! How else are the industrial prison complex executives going to feed their families on millions of dollars? Shame on you all!
Let's play this out. Someone keep me honest on this logic.
1. Mandatory minimums reduced/removed 2. Come election time, ads run labeling those responsible as "soft on crime"
Okay, that won't work. How about this? 1. Prison overcrowding puts financial strain on state and federal governments 2. Mandatory minimums reduced/removed 3. Come election time, ads run labeling those responsible as "soft on crime" 4. Attacking campaigners labeled as "hard on economy"
I don't see a good way out of this. Someone cut in with the next logical step.
Ok, calm down … let's be reasonable here. Surely, they took drugs (illegal drug, mind you), so some justice MUST be done for it, obviously. But a life sentence??? So … let's say there is someone abusing himself with drugs or alcohol for, let's say, self-harm or a bad mistake, does that mean he deserves a life sentence??!!! WTF??!!!!!
As a criminal defense attorney, I can't thank Jon Oliver enough for doing these videos. Civil forfeiture, municipal violations, bail, and now mandatory minimums, I cannot ask for anything else. He is doing more to bring these issues to light far more than 1000 attorneys can ever do.
The blind devotion which the show receives is a bit of a concern. He raises valid concerns, true, but he also makes mistakes. Many of his viewers are younger, and the knee-jerk "America sucks" reactions completely miss the point, which is to bring about change, not to bitch about how awful things are.
Everyone's heard of this one, but "drugs can ruin your life. So when I catch you, I'm going to ruin your life."
-police officer
And yet Wall Street white collar criminals that brought the entire f***ing world to chaos kept all their money and even got bonuses after the fact. No one of them got locked up.
Mandatory sentences don't even work as a legal concept: how can ANY prison time be considered just or moral if it's OBLIGATORY, and handed down regardless of context/circumstances?!
It's goes without saying but it's high time the drug war ends.
John Oliver hits it out of the park.
But he misses the one important bit about the 13th Amendment and how we got here.
The system is broken. Everyone knows that.
Usually I love these segments, I still agree for the most part but come on, 'he happened to have a gun on him at the time'…WTF John. You make it seem like someone slipped that guy a gun and he had no idea. I'm not saying 55 years isn't overkill but this guy is a freaking armed drug dealer and you make him sound like he was just hanging out with his friends at the skate park and had bad luck. It's not like he was just some kid who happened to get caught smoking pot one day.
The other guy was charged with trafficking 3 ounces of meth, he wasn't just doing meth, he was selling. Meth ruins thousands of people's lives and families.
Once again, I don't know if a life sentence is justice but dealing meth and crack is not the same as some people just hanging out and recreationally using pot on the weekend. I don't think people should do drugs but I can be convinced that there are too many people in jail for marijuana charges. Lets not pretend that dealing hard drugs like meth and cocaine deserves a slap on the wrist and that's it.
A close friend of mine had to do mandatory time in juvenile detention, simply because someone from school prank called the police and told them that he posed a serious threat and there was a terrorist attack being planned. Despite there not being any shred of evidence, as a juvenile he did not receive any real sort of legal representation, so now not only does he have a record, he can never serve in any military branch and has had his 2nd amendment rights stripped indefinitely…all because of a prank.
1 in 100 Americans are in jail? 1% of the entire population? That is seriously messed up. I live in Canada and my entire province has 3 jails the size of grocery stores that seem abandoned. I don't even know someone who's been in there.
After every John Oliver clip I feel grateful not to be an American…
The system is fucked up
Damn this grammar hurts my brain…
First he's talking about "stadiums" which should be "stadia", and now "minimums" instead of "minima". The moral of the story, kids, is never learn the Latin root of words or you will suffer forever and no one will care.
WE NEED TO KEEP MANDATORY MINIMUMS!
How else are the industrial prison complex executives going to feed their families on millions of dollars? Shame on you all!
A plane hijacking, child raping terrorist would get a shorter sentence… wut…
John Oliver for president
Let's play this out. Someone keep me honest on this logic.
1. Mandatory minimums reduced/removed
2. Come election time, ads run labeling those responsible as "soft on crime"
Okay, that won't work. How about this?
1. Prison overcrowding puts financial strain on state and federal governments
2. Mandatory minimums reduced/removed
3. Come election time, ads run labeling those responsible as "soft on crime"
4. Attacking campaigners labeled as "hard on economy"
I don't see a good way out of this. Someone cut in with the next logical step.
Ok, calm down … let's be reasonable here. Surely, they took drugs (illegal drug, mind you), so some justice MUST be done for it, obviously. But a life sentence???
So … let's say there is someone abusing himself with drugs or alcohol for, let's say, self-harm or a bad mistake, does that mean he deserves a life sentence??!!!
WTF??!!!!!
The U.S has almost Muslim like punishments for non violent drug offenses.
As a criminal defense attorney, I can't thank Jon Oliver enough for doing these videos. Civil forfeiture, municipal violations, bail, and now mandatory minimums, I cannot ask for anything else. He is doing more to bring these issues to light far more than 1000 attorneys can ever do.
The blind devotion which the show receives is a bit of a concern. He raises valid concerns, true, but he also makes mistakes. Many of his viewers are younger, and the knee-jerk "America sucks" reactions completely miss the point, which is to bring about change, not to bitch about how awful things are.