We are all in danger, and the "Gentler War on Drugs"

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"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me." `Martin Niemöller`

I saw the video of the police going all Rodney King on that frat boy and gal down in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. [Video]

All I have to say is that at some point even these  kids dripping with white privilege will see that if power goes unchecked they, too, will become victims of injustice at some point in their lives.

Now here we have these "normal" college kids waking up to the police gone wild as well.  Let's see if their parents and loved ones become more sympathetic to the plight of young men of color the next time that they see them getting the business from the police in live and living color.

Finally, in case you didn't notice, America has a heroin problem. States with lily white populations have seen an explosion of heroin use over the past few years and it is devastating a lot of these smaller communities far from those evil urban areas. 

Of course we know that there will be no draconian drug laws like the ones passed during the crack epidemic that affected mostly poor people and people of color in the inner cities of America.

That won't be the case this time around, and I am quite sure that America will have a different response to this latest drug crisis.

"The New York Times recently published an article titled, “In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs.”

In the piece, middle-class white families, mostly from suburbs and small towns, detail their traumatic experiences with heroin addiction, also known as “smack.” One white New Hampshire man interviewed for the piece talks about how he viewed people battling addiction as “junkies” until he recognized their faces in his own high-achieving, privileged daughter.

Here are some revealing numbers from the piece:

* Deaths from heroin rose to 8,260 in 2013, quadrupling since 2000 and aggravating what some were already calling the worst drug-overdose epidemic in United States history.
 

* Nearly 90 percent of those who tried heroin for the first time in the last decade were white.

No wonder “compassion” is the word of the day.
 

The article includes the personal and political positions of GOP presidential candidates Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, all of whom have expressed that there is a need to decriminalize addiction. This is a glaring departure from the policies of the party of Ronald Reagan. It was through his backroom dealings with Nicaragua’s Contras that the war on drugs (pdf) intensified as crack cocaine and guns flooded inner cities, laying the groundwork for mass incarceration that has ravaged black communities; yet, here are his political descendants struggling to frame addiction as the health issue it has always been without making the GOP look like the party of hypocrites that it has always been.
 

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also has had to step into the breach in an attempt to sanitize the insidious racism that shades her husband’s legacy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Former President Bill Clinton was complicit in the passage in 1994 of the omnibus crime bill, which included the “Three Strikes Law,” thus expanding the war on drugs. He has since acknowledged and apologized for his role in the devastation that the bill caused for black families, but it’s much too little, much too late.

Here are some revealing numbers from the piece:

* Deaths from heroin rose to 8,260 in 2013, quadrupling since 2000 and aggravating what some were already calling the worst drug-overdose epidemic in United States history.

* Nearly 90 percent of those who tried heroin for the first time in the last decade were white.

No wonder “compassion” is the word of the day.
 

The article includes the personal and political positions of GOP presidential candidates Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, all of whom have expressed that there is a need to decriminalize addiction. This is a glaring departure from the policies of the party of Ronald Reagan. It was through his backroom dealings with Nicaragua’s Contras that the war on drugs (pdf) intensified as crack cocaine and guns flooded inner cities, laying the groundwork for mass incarceration that has ravaged black communities; yet, here are his political descendants struggling to frame addiction as the health issue it has always been without making the GOP look like the party of hypocrites that it has always been.
 

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also has had to step into the breach in an attempt to sanitize the insidious racism that shades her husband’s legacy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Former President Bill Clinton was complicit in the passage in 1994 of the omnibus crime bill, which included the “Three Strikes Law,” thus expanding the war on drugs. He has since acknowledged and apologized for his role in the devastation that the bill caused for black families, but it’s much too little, much too late." [More]

Hmmm, it seems that the "first black president" wasn't looking out for his constituents after all.

*Pic from totalfratmove.com