Execute Michael Vick

Hat tip Hot Air.  

Tucker Carlson shoots off the line during his guest host spot on the Beck program.



The comment was a minor part of a larger discussion about whether or not the President should have made a call to Philadelphia Eagle's owner Lurie praising him for giving Vick a chance despite his felony record for dogfighting and animal cruelty (which was some pretty nasty stuff). Carlson repeats this assertion presumably to underscore his sincerity of feeling on this point.  It was provocative the first time...silly, but provocative, its an opinion program, I get it.  But upon hearing the second repetition, my brain immediately responded <idiot>.

Ed Morrissey opines:

Lurie didn’t hire Vick for selfless reasons; he hired Vick to exploit his talent, and the investment has paid off well. Why that requires a presidential salute is beyond me.

The call struck me as a bit superfluous as well, considering all the other things on Obama's plate to make a call about.  On the other hand, I figure the President has a right to be moved by something and comment on it just like anybody else; he simply has the misfortune of occupying a job where his slightest utterance can provoke endless debate.

Here's where I think his comment to Lurie adds value: we have a serious problem with how we manage the reentry of ex-offenders back into our communities in this country.  The United States has a huge prison population, which is a natural consequence of being a nation of laws administered via a justice system created by flawed human beings.  We jail people for a lot of different things, some we arguably ought not.  Those who are released back to the community but remain under some level of custody to the state are subject to be sent back to prison for a host of reasons ranging from the serious and deserving of consequence to the trivial, cut off your nose to spite your face variety. The cost of maintaining this approach is breaking the back of state corrections budgets and they are all trying to drive those costs down.

The single biggest predictor of whether or not an ex offender will re-offend is whether or not they are employed.  Its not drug use, its not family connection, its not the level of services available to help them re-enter.  Its whether or not they have work. However, the bitter reality is that if you're an ex-con and you check yes in the box on the employment app that asks if you've ever been convicted of a felony, its going in the circular file. Not even a question. So the reality is that 90% or more of ex-cons enter the ranks of the permanently unemployable upon release, with devastating results for their families and communities.

In that context, Vick, while assuredly not the typical ex-offender released from jail, is a powerful conversation starter with employers about the role they can play in helping ex-offenders re-enter our society and stay on the straight and narrow. Were Vick and the President to make that the dominant narrative of his story, they might actually contribute to moving the problem of reentry closer to a better solution.

Sentencing Guidelines: An Opportuntity for Steele and the GOP

If the GOP and Michael Steele really wanted to put its money where its mouth was when it comes to opening up the party and bringing blacks into a better relationship with the party, here is a perfect opportunity.

Color of Change has ginned up a campaign to fight sentencing disparities, a timely effort given that their might be some daylight for this issue. Legislation is moving around in Congress to eliminate the sentencing disparities that have created a national disaster: 1 in 15 Black adults in America are now behind bars. Not because they commit more crime but largely because of unfair sentencing rules that treat 5 grams of crack cocaine, the kind found in poor Black communities, the same as 500 grams of powder cocaine, the kind found in White and wealthier communities.

You have to be convicted of moving roughly $500,000 worth of cocaine to trigger a 5-year sentence. For crack? About $500 worth. These laws punish the lowest-level dealers, while providing a loophole that helps those running the trade escape harsh sentences. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which provides sentencing guidelines for judges, has petitioned Congress numerous times to change the sentencing laws. Senate bill 1711 will completely eliminate the sentencing disparity and end the mandatory minimum for crack possession, while increasing funding for drug treatment programs.

This has been a long running injustice in the sentencing guidelines, made law by Democrats no less including our current vice president. The GOP has run on a law and order ticket often and has made hay with issues like sentencing for political gain. But the sentencing guidelines are unjust and unfair in this regard and have done great damage to black communities. That damage is compounded when add in the problems of recidivism and reentry. It takes nothing away from the GOP's rule of law bona fides to support a move to correct this problem. If we were smart, we'd pick up this ball and run with it and give ourselves an argument for black support that would resonate with every family that has had a loved one do hard time under these guidelines.

If we were smart.

Free At Last

Flanked by a family member on the left and Innocence Project attorney Barry Scheck on the right, Walter Swift looks out at the world from the steps of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 as a free man. Swift was freed after spending 26 years in jail for a rape he didn't commit.

I'm interested in solutions for black America. Clearly, reform of the justice system in this country is needful, because Walter's story occurs too often. And for every Swift that the Innocence Project frees, there are another 20 or more that never get the light of justice shined on their situation. The Innocence Project worked for 11 years to free Swift. 11 damn years. The man languished in prison for a decade before someone began to look into his case, and another decade of his life came and went in prison while the battle was fought. Its a terrible injustice. The Innocence Project isn't just working on the cases of the wrongly convicted, they have also assembled information about the kinds of policy reforms which would reduce the number of people who are wrongly convicted in the first place.

The reforms that can address and prevent wrongful convictions include:

• Eyewitness Identification Reform
• False Confessions
• Access to Post-Conviction DNA Testing
• Evidence Preservation
• Crime Lab Oversight
• Criminal Justice Reform Commissions ('Innocence Commissions')
• Exoneree Compensation

As always, when I look at whats needed to bring about real, lasting changes on substantive issues, I'm struck by the fact that the work that must be done is tedious, costly and decidedly unsexy. Its not marches or protests (they have their place), its organization, fund raising and long term activism to marshal people power and deploy human and political capital. The issues above don't get solved or fixed without hard, dogged effort over time.

Walter Swift hugs his daughter Audrey Kelly Mills, 27. She was an infant when Walter went to prison. He has not seen or touched her during her life until the day this picture was taken.

Visit the Innocence Project. Learn more about the issues and get involved. Because God forbid that you or I or someone we love should ever need an Innocence Project in the first place.

The Mythology of the War on Drugs

For seven years, sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh studied a Chicago crack-dealing gang from the inside and found a complex, tightly organized society bound by friendship and force. His new book is Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets. His findings explode some popular myths that I think often go unquestioned or unanalyzed, even for many of us who have seen drug dealing or dealers up close and personal. The biggest and most massive myth to my mind is the simple fact that 95% of the dealers on the street are working for LESS than minimum wage. The money they have belongs to their bosses, the 5 percent who make more than $100k a year. Thats why so many of them live with their moms or families. They can't afford to live on their own, they make such a pittance. A common theme in discussions about drug dealing is this: "what do we expect young people to do? How can education and being a citizen compete? The drug dealers are wearing nice clothes and rolling in nice cars". Hey, guess what? Their not!

The image of the fat cat drug dealer is a myth. They don't exist. 95% are making slave wages. The Wire as a show actually gets this right, as does Charles Duttons' The Corner. Those corner boys are living hand to mouth. The War on Drugs is partly predicated on the idea that it makes sense to go after these corner boys, lock them up and throw away the keys because they are enriching themselves and destroying our neighborhoods. No doubt, the corner boys are destructive, but the reality is that if they are working for less than minimum wage, the drug trade is not the lure of riches its portrayed as. When drug dealing, a deadly and difficult line of work for less than minimum wage is the route that so many of our youth take, its clear the prevalence of dealers in the streets of many urban cities is really a reflection of the black hole of economic opportunities they have become, If thats the reality, what does that say about the strategy the War on Drugs should be pursuing versus what it is?

I had a cousin who was a drug dealer and was eventually killed in a drive by shooting. I can remember him telling me how difficult it actually was being a dealer (he sold weed). You had to stay in one place all the time so people could find you, people stuck him up for his money and as he bitterly complained once "ain't nobody buying dope every day". There were plenty of days he sold little or nothing and he lived a poverty stricken existence.

So when the candidates are talking about the War on Drugs and what they are going to do to win it, ask them what economic development strategy is in their arsenal for America's urban communities. Jobs and economic development is the real front line in the War on Drugs.