Federal Judge: My Drug War Sentences Were ‘Unfair and Disproportionate’

SteamboatBillJr

SteamboatBillJr

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The Atlantic said:
Federal Judge: My Drug War Sentences Were ‘Unfair and Disproportionate’

Nancy Gertner, who left the bench after 17 years, compares the damage caused by drug prohibition to the destruction of cities in World War II.

Conor Friedersdorf
Jun 29, 2015


Former Federal Judge Nancy Gertner was appointed to the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1994. She presided over trials for 17 years. And Sunday, she stood before a crowd at The Aspen Ideas Festival to denounce most punishments that she imposed.

Among 500 sanctions that she handed down, “80 percent I believe were unfair and disproportionate,” she said. “I left the bench in 2011 to join the Harvard faculty to write about those stories––to write about how it came to pass that I was obliged to sentence people to terms that, frankly, made no sense under any philosophy.”

No theory of retribution or social change could justify them, she said. And that dispiriting conclusion inspired the radical idea that she presented: a call for the U.S. to mimic its decision after World War II to look to the future and rebuild rather than trying to punish or seek retribution. As she sees it, the War on Drugs ought to end in that same spirit. “Although we were not remotely the victors of that war, we need a big idea in order to deal with those who were its victims,” she said, calling for something like a Marshall Plan.

She went on to savage the War on Drugs at greater length.

“This is a war that I saw destroy lives,” she said. “It eliminated a generation of African American men, covered our racism in ostensibly neutral guidelines and mandatory minimums… and created an intergenerational problem––although I wasn't on the bench long enough to see this, we know that the sons and daughters of the people we sentenced are in trouble, and are in trouble with the criminal justice system.”

She added that the War on Drugs eliminated the political participation of its casualties. “We were not leveling cities as we did in WWII with bombs, but with prosecution, prison, and punishment,” she said, explaining that her life’s work is now focused on trying to reconstruct the lives that she undermined––as a general matter, by advocating for reform, and as a specific project: she is trying to go through the list of all the people she sentenced to see who deserves executive clemency.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...nces-were-unfair-and-disproportionate/397130/
 
Comparing a prison sentence to leveling cities with bombs is more than a bit hyperbolic.

Other than that, yes she should feel guilty for ruining peoples lives like she did.
 
neversickanymore said:
Good to see you day..

I think you need to look a bit deeper.. I agree with her.
O
If you zoom back and take in the entire picture.. then what she claims seems really valid to me.

Worst failure in the history of war?
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Mabey, but there's really no quantifiable way to compare carpet bombing a city and incarceration of nonviolent drug users, so its more about how that was a bad choice as a a metaphorical concept.

Yes massive amounts of suffering were caused by both, but one was initiated by a legitimate geopolitical threat from Germany, and the other an irrational moral panic.

But I don't really feel the need too argue with you NSA, good to see ya too ☺
 
100%^

A bit late now isn't it judge? All those proba le non violent ppl are all animals locked in the system...ooops sorry for destroying your life bc you had a pre existing drug record and you have a little personal stash...
 
'medicine cabinet' said:
100%^

A bit late now isn't it judge? All those proba le non violent ppl are all animals locked in the system...ooops sorry for destroying your life bc you had a pre existing drug record and you have a little personal stash...
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Exactly. It's not just this one judge either. LEAP is filled with retired cops happily accepting a pension from the police forces. It's easy to be critical after you have retired and reaped all the fruit off the tree you could. Don't sentencing judges usually give a little speech to the defendant? I would be interested to hear the ones he gave to the drug offenders he sentenced. Call me cynical but I think most judges are dick heads with no sense of what the word justice even fucking means.
 
Yeah seriously. The headline is always "Retired cop says legalize drugs" or "Retired judge says end the War on Drugs." Its like a serial killer just being like OK I am done killing and ruining peoples lives I am going to now stop destroying peoples lives and say serial killers are bad. The real good work these judges and cops could've/can do is refuse to arrest or sentence people for ridiculous drug "crimes/charges"..
 
If they speak out chances are they're not going to keep their jobs for very long. Or if they do they will be ostracized by co-workers.

Some Judges admit the mandatory minimums are often excessive. Unfortunately, it's usually against the law to depart from them. (some places have options called 'safety valves')
 
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Fucking good Judge. I hope you are feeling sorry for what you put so many poor and struggling minor drug offenders through. People like you should be in prison yourself.

I'm waiting for all the bogus "paediatricians" who were well paid through mutilating thousands and thousands of baby boys too. They too ruined so many lives, their victims in denial about the extent of the damage done or the effects on their sexual development or the fact that 90% of the world's male population has non-mutilated genitals. They also fucked up the lives of their victims' sons, and grandsons and perhaps great grandsons because genital mutilation is passed down through generations. It took an intelligent person to break the cycle of violence against defenceless infants. My mother was one of them. She's dead now, gone since I was 12, but if there is one thing I thank her for it's for telling the doctors to leave my fucking penis alone.
 
Flynnal said:
Fucking good Judge. I hope you are feeling sorry for what you put so many poor and struggling minor drug offenders through. People like you should be in prison yourself.

I'm waiting for all the bogus "paediatricians" who were well paid through mutilating thousands and thousands of baby boys too. They too ruined so many lives, their victims in denial about the extent of the damage done or the effects on their sexual development or the fact that 90% of the world's male population has non-mutilated genitals. They also fucked up the lives of their victims' sons, and grandsons and perhaps great grandsons because genital mutilation is passed down through generations. It took an intelligent person to break the cycle of violence against defenceless infants. My mother was one of them. She's dead now, gone since I was 12, but if there is one thing I thank her for it's for telling the doctors to leave my fucking penis alone.
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Quick question, do you bitch about circumcision in EVERY post you make here regardless of its relevance to what's being discussed in the thread?

Just sayin, we know how you feel and there's no need to reregurgitate it in every post you make.
 
It's relevant, because it's related to oppression. The drug war may very well be a result of of this issue. People who were subject to intense pain as babies can go on to become psychopaths, ditto for people who were abused as children.

Then people like that get into positions of power.

What is done to children they do to society.
 
Flynnal said:
It's relevant, because it's related to oppression. The drug war may very well be a result of of this issue. People who were subject to intense pain as babies can go on to become psychopaths, ditto for people who were abused as children.

Then people like that get into positions of power.

What is done to children they do to society.
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No, its not relevant.

Show me proof that people that support circumcision are part of a conspiracy to hold power in the country and oppress people.

No offence, but you come off as fucking batshit crazy by freaking out about circumcision in every post you make.

(BTW i don't support circumcision, but don't think the government or anyone else should enforce a ban on it)
 
Show me proof that people that support circumcision are part of a conspiracy to hold power in the country and oppress people.
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Circumcision is based off religious tradition. Religion is the longest running and most successful con in known history and its all about power, control, greed and oppression. Good Lord its so powerful they even conned the politicians into tax exempt status?
 
neversickanymore said:
Circumcision is based off religious tradition. Religion is the longest running and most successful con in known history and its all about power, control, greed and oppression. Good Lord its so powerful they even conned the politicians into tax exempt status?
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Fair enough lol.

My point stands though, I guess I get a bit irritated by the sheer commitment he has to beating a dead (circumcised lol) horse.
 
daytryptr said:
(BTW i don't support circumcision, but don't think the government or anyone else should enforce a ban on it)
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Oh, OK then, I suppose you wouldn't enforce a law against parents cutting off their daughter's clitoris either.

Why not enforce a ban on it? It's a major fucking human rights ABUSE!!!

It's about fucking time it got banned. Let's face it, if we don't start banning it, those who were strapped down and had bits of their private parts cut off might decide to take the law into their own hands. Now, I don't think we want that to happen. The most civilised approach is to plain fucking ban it and send doctors who do it straight to prison where they belong.

They are easily as bad as child molesters.
 
It's foreskin...its not a clit.. Maybe other guys have waaay more nerve endings in their snozzles, but I don't lol...I don't Have one! Guess that means I was molested by my Dr and my parents wanted to mess me up and mutilate my junk...not Jewish BTW...hmm.

Lol why are you even on this site since all you do is bring up circumcision? Freaking crazy.
 
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Go through my post history and look at the long post I made today in the thread about partners.

PTSD is not nice.
 
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