cspam book club II -- edification via obsolete mediums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > cspam book club II -- edification via obsolete mediums

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

MonsieurChoc posted:

I started reading I can�t breathe. It�s very good.

The police in the US is a death squad.

I picked up The New Jim Crow after not reading for years and oh yeah baby, big time.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2018 09:30

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 17, 2024 20:37

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

The New Jim Crow posted:

Imagine you are Emma Faye Stewart, a thirty-year-old, single African American mother of two who was arrested as part of a drug sweep in Hearne, Texas. All but one of the people arrested were African American. You are innocent. After a week in jail, you have no one to care for your two small children and are eager to get home. Your court-appointed attorney urges you to plead guilty to a drug distribution charge, saying the prosecutor has offered probation. You refuse, steadfastly proclaiming your innocence. Finally, after almost a month in jail, you decide to plead guilty so you can return home to your children. Unwilling to risk a trial and years of imprisonment, you are sentenced to ten years probation and ordered to pay $1,000 in fines, as well as court and probation costs. You are also now branded a drug felon. You are no longer eligible for food stamps; you may be discriminated against in employment; you cannot vote for at least twelve years; and you are about to be evicted from public housing. Once homeless, your children will be taken from you and put in foster care.

A judge eventually dismisses all cases against the defendants who did not plead guilty. At trial, the judge finds that the entire sweep was based on the testimony of a single informant who lied to the prosecution. You, however, are still a drug felon, homeless, and desperate to regain custody of your children.

Now place yourself in the shoes of Clifford Runoalds, another African American victim of the Hearne drug bust. You returned home to Bryan, Texas, to attend the funeral of your eighteen-month-old daughter. Before the funeral services begin, the police show up and handcuff you. You beg the officers to let you take one last look at your daughter before she is buried. The police refuse. You are told by prosecutors that you are needed to testify against one of the defendants in a recent drug bust. You deny witnessing any drug transaction; you don�t know what they are talking about. Because of your refusal to cooperate, you are indicted on felony charges. After a month of being held in jail, the charges against you are dropped. You are technically free, but as a result of your arrest and period of incarceration, you lose your job, your apartment, your furniture, and your car. Not to mention the chance to say good-bye to your baby girl.

Folks... this America place... not so good.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2018 09:35

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

In the chapter about prosecutorial discretion, and how it's basically unreviewable:

The New Jim Crow posted:

The risk that prosecutorial discretion will be racially biased is especially acute in the drug enforcement context, where virtually identical behavior is susceptible to a wide variety of interpretations and responses and the media imagery and political discourse has been so thoroughly racialized. Whether a kid is perceived as a dangerous drug-dealing thug or instead is viewed as a good kid who was merely experimenting with drugs and selling to a few of his friends has to do with the ways in which information about illegal drug activity is processed and interpreted, in a social climate in which drug dealing is racially defined. As a former U.S. Attorney explained:

Excerpt posted:
I had an [assistant U.S. attorney who] wanted to drop the gun charge against the defendant [in a case in which] there were no extenuating circumstances. I asked, �Why do you want to drop the gun offense?� And he said, ��He�s a rural guy and grew up on a farm. The gun he had with him was a rifle. He�s a good ol� boy, and all good ol� boys have rifles, and it�s not like he was a gun-toting drug dealer.� But he was a gun-toting drug dealer, exactly.

That's a lmao

# ¿ Jan 9, 2018 08:56

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

L M A O, chapter on all white juries

The New Jim Crow posted:

the prosecutor offered the following explanation to justify his strikes of black jurors:

Excerpt posted:
I struck [juror] number twenty-two because of his long hair. He had long curly hair. He had the longest hair of anybody on the panel by far. He appeared not to be a good juror for that fact.... Also, he had a mustache and a goatee type beard. And juror number twenty-four also had a mustache and goatee type beard.... And I don�t like the way they looked, with the way the hair is cut, both of them. And the mustaches and the beards look suspicious to me.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2018 09:15

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

remembered i had a paperwhite from like 5 years ago, and found it, hell yeah babyyyyyy

# ¿ Jan 11, 2018 07:49

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

Homeless Friend posted:

remembered i had a paperwhite from like 5 years ago, and found it, hell yeah babyyyyyy

this things got a more influential legacy than obama, if u think about it

# ¿ Jan 11, 2018 07:50

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

Epic High Five posted:

The best thing about Kindles is that if you buy one from 5 years ago it's gonna be pretty much identical to the same model you could buy new today

yeah I looked it up and it's basically the exact same thing. Holy poo poo at their e-ink racket, their big boy flagship goes for $250 and comes with a whopping 8GB

just lmao

# ¿ Jan 11, 2018 07:58

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

I've been audiobooking kotkin stalin while at work and it owns folks

# ¿ Jun 14, 2019 05:44

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

thats too much drat readin

# ¿ Dec 18, 2019 05:56

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

goodreads yearly summary i'd assume

# ¿ Dec 18, 2019 08:57

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

it's called piracy b*tch

# ¿ Jan 29, 2020 08:44

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 17, 2024 20:37

Homeless Friend: Jul 16, 2007

*clutching my edgy white guy energy* Molon Labe

# ¿ Feb 6, 2020 09:13

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > cspam book club II -- edification via obsolete mediums