Crack is cheaper, less potent, and as a by-product, more addictive than powder cocaine. It's no coincidence it found it's home in the "hoods" of America. Put a highly addictive drug, with a short lived high in the poorest of the poor neighborhoods and voila, whuddya get? Instant violence among similarly situated (poor and black) people...a pseudo-Willie Lynch theory with automatic weapons. I don't think it's fair, but I'm also one of the few in the black community who don't think it should change. The stiff sentences helped a lot of kids balance the jail time vs. fast money argument within themselves. Shorter sentences could equal more dealers. If the "business" was less violent, the sentences could and should be more comparable to powder. Dealers aren't afraid of the sentences for being caught selling weed. I personally know a guy who got caught with 100 lbs. and 500 ecstacy pills, on a second offense no less, and he got off with boot camp. But marijuana dealing is rarely a violent "business," even in the upper tiers of dealing. With crack, heroine, and now meth in the black community, violence is inherent...
You have gang bangers that have no desire to get a job or learn a trade. They only want to sale crack and steal from people. They are flopin useless. They don't want to live a normal life. They think they are scarface and it's how they act. These same pos have 9 kids with 9 diffrent crack whores and every one of them get government handouts. These are the kinds of trash that the democrats count on during elections. Keep the voting slaves on the plantation. These drive by gang banger pos thieves get off easy. They should be in jail for life at the very least. Is that racist? Maybe. Do I care? Nope.
The conservative message could do very well in the black community if there were fewer mindless diatribes such as this. You basically have a group of people, which clearly includes you, who hate another group of people who really couldn't care less about you. But that hated group of people is not going to accept any message your group attempts to deliver as long as its so tinged with hate. You could have said all that diplomatically...yes, even on this message board. You say all that while ignoring the trailer park has many of the same socially burdensome problems as the projects. Make sure you point that damning finger at the white guy who sold them the cocaine to make the drug. Cause and effect. Yet, you offer no solution besides life in prison (thought you didn't care for having your tax dollars go towards feeding, clothing, and caring for pos prisoners?) for the social pariah of the American ghetto. The root of the problem is generational poverty. Not the drug itself or the prison sentence.
Thank the Democrats for that. You speak the truth but the problem has gotten out of hand and drastic measures are needed.
This is the crux of the matter. There is always a trade-off when reducing sentences. It increases the temptation.
