HBUA Final

Crips and Bloods

Jamaicans set up crack businesses across the U.S., focusing on towns and cities where established criminal organizations were not already in place. A posse created a crack epidemic in Kansas City, but they skipped Chicago, where local gangs already controlled traffic. In Kansas City, law enforcement commented on how efficient and business-like the Waterhouse posse had operated. The Mayor talked about how they "do everything a good business would do" (Silverman, 1994: 115). Most sources say, in one way or another, that the Jamaican posses were a major network in making crack available across the Unites States Those sources also describe the same role for African-American gangs - the Crips and the Bloods - based in Los Angeles. In fact, here we retum to the earlier issue of U.S. involvement in cocaine trafficking during the Contra/Sandinista war. With his articles in the San Jose newspaper and later his book, Webb argues that the CIA were in fact directly involved in marketing cocaine to African-Americans in Los Angeles. This argument remains controversial, as described in an earlier section of this article. Silverman writes that Cali Cartel dealer Mario Villabona was looking for an alternative to Miami in the mid-1980s. He was "the first to spot the enormous potential of the black ghettoes" (Silverman, 1994: 278). He picked Los Angeles, and soon afterwards "rock houses" were established in the African-American South-Central neighborhood. Shipments arrived through Mexico to dozens of secret airstrips and miles of remote coastline. Later, in 1989, the LA Tinas reported that the gangs had expanded and were selling crack in 47 cities, including rural Iowa and small towns in South Dakota (Ybarra and Lieberman, 1989). Massing also writes about the Los Angeles gangs. "Generally they emulate the tactics of the posses, infiltrating black communities by working through local contacts" (1989). He notes that the posses and the gangs had avoided fighting as the date of his article, with the former working east from NY and the latter working west from LA. The LA Times, though, says that about 400 posse members are active in LA, that they are more violent and brutal than the gangs, and that little is known about them. And in Baltimore, the city in which I work, all three networks described here fed local crack markets at one time or another. What distinguished the Dominican, Jamaican and LA gang networks were their innovations in marketing and the way they linked Colombian sources to poor urban commimities. The Dominicans provided the methods to convert powder cocaine into crack in a way that enhanced profit and served a mass market. Jamaican posses and LA gangs provided a sales force that developed nimierous new sites and increased the flow of product in an efficient way. All three groups provided a crucial link between producers in Colombia and users in p

war on drugs general outline

there were anti opium laws against chinese people anti cocaine laws in 1900s directed towards black men in south anti marijuana in 10s=20s targeted mexicans now latinos and black people most attacked Nixon - drug were symbol of youthful rebellion, social upheaval, political dissent, governmented halted scientific research - 1971 Nixon decalres War on Drugs -- increased size and presence of federal drug control agencies - mandatory sentences - no knock warrants - ehrlichman admitted that it was all about t argetting black people and anti war left - criminlizae and disrupt those communties - coudl arrest leaders, raid homes, break up meetings, vilify them - we knew that we were lying about drugs - people tried to decriminalize marijuana too -dirty harry - around nixon time ------------------------------------ - ronald regan presidency marked start of long period of alot of incarceration because of expanded drug war - people think he was just repsonded to crack epidemic but he actually talked about drug war before risse of crack - alexander - he worked o make public hysteria - militiarizaiont of policy -m naataory minmums -increaased federal funding to combat drug crime - people started being portrayed in media as addicted to smokeable cocaine - crcrak - anti drug campaign by nancy - just say no -set stage for zero tolerance policies - dary gates of LADP said casual drug users should be taken out and shot - dare program is what he started - blocked expansion of syine access programs to reduce HIV AIDS - had dranconian principles - anti drug abuse laws Mandatory minimum sentences of five years became common even for first-time offenders. The War on Drugs achieved enormous public support, and President George Bush, Sr. picked up where his predecessor, Reagan, left off. The public continued to panic about a drug crisis that was mostly the product of media sensationalism, and even progressives were hesitant to criticize anti-drug policies. ------------------------------------ Bush put money towards it had militiarization of drug law enforcement 40k SWAT everyyear for nonviolent drug offesnes ,misdemors ------------------------------------ clinton democractic but centrist controversial welfare reform efforts repsonsbile for increasing suffering of poor black and incarcerted by draining support for social welfare and exaggering curelty of tough approach - alexander thinks that he pushed i past what conservatives thought possible - three strikes your out - cutting welfare icnrease spending on mass incarceraton - banning anyone with criminal record from accessing benefits like public housing now situations; nowadays, they are most commonly used for noknock searches of people's homes for drugs. These searches are markedly aggressive, violent, and traumatic—particularly for children and other vulnerable people who happen to be home—and have killed people, including those totally innocent of drug charges. However, there has been little coverage of the militarization and increases in funding of the police. federal government chose to incentivize police by allowing state and local authorities to keep most of the assets they seize from drug busts. This gave police and local authorities "a massive stake in theWarc

Iran Contra

Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[3] They hoped, thereby, to fund the Contras in Nicaragua while at the same time negotiating the release of several U.S. hostages. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress. The contras (some references use the capitalized form, "Contras") is a label given to the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing militant groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the left-wing, socialist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government in Nicaragua. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance. From an early stage, the rebels received financial and military support from the United States government, and their military significance decisively depended on it. After US support was banned by Congress, the Reagan administration covertly continued it. These covert activities culminated in the Iran-Contra affair. During their war against the Nicaraguan government, the Contras committed a large number of human rights violations and used terrorist tactics,[1][2][3][4][5] carrying out more than 1300 terrorist attacks.[6] These actions were frequently carried out systematically as a part of the strategy of the Contras. Supporters of the Contras tried to downplay these violations, particularly the Reagan administration in the US, which engaged in a campaign of white propaganda to alter public opinion in favor of the contras.

punitive turn

see war on drugs takes place in all aspects of society - fed gov't putting more money into police in state and local - pop culture in 70s that celebrates kind of punishing peron - can't hear - PR in president - nixon adminstration making ties with - trying to encourage specific films - nixon admin has new staretgy of using public relations to support its vision - self conscious - DAN BAUM - talks about how nixon admin tries to get consensus around punitive turn - remember just gone through massive uphealvel in us in 60s - by no means consensus - its a beginning for extremem polarization - partially response to progress when people have more access to rights - had racial elements and gender elements - state as punishing father cutting to fundings for treaetment

Barry Goldwater

senator for something cant hear something johnson forged oppostion to civil rights movement using this rhetroic i think o f silent majority Supporters of "law and order" argue that incarceration is the most effective means of crime prevention. Opponents of law and order argue that a system of harsh criminal punishment is ultimately ineffective because it does not address underlying or systemic causes of crime. These penalties may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws, and in some countries, capital punishment. "Law and order" became a powerful conservative theme in the U.S. in the 1960s. The leading proponents in the late 1960s were Republicans Ronald Reagan (as governor of California) and Richard Nixon (as presidential candidate in 1968). They used it to dissolve a liberal consensus about crime that involved federal court decisions and a pushback against illegal drugs and violent gang activity. White ethnics in northern cities turned against the Democratic party, blaming it for being soft on crime and rioters.[1]

Dope + Capitalism = Genocide

state poisoning people in Harlem panthers see heroine connected to larger story of diff forms of racism, state violence punitive turn something about gang fighting segment of black leadership class supports punitive measures hes attacking the segement that supports punitive turn continuation of panther focus on class politics - bootlickers gallery divison in black community have illegal economy that has more distension this fits into the story of fracture thats going on state makes diff violence - direct ivolenec of policing incarceration putting in prison other form makes condition for it, like mass distribution of heroin in black communities ultimately what drug law

Attila the Hun Laws

what critics called the rockefeller drugs laws idea is that barbaric and rutheless other legislators talked a bou tthis in terms of a something white masculinity extremity of putting dope peddlers in prison for life without parole even nyt called it vengeful and possibly catastrophic

Manhattan Community college

where assata went to school and got radicalized. it shows class distinction Manhattan Community College had a very high percentage of Black and Third World students, more than fifty percent. The level of activity was high, both on campus and off. The Golden Drums, the Black organization on campus, whose president was a prin- cipled, disciplined brother named Henry Jackson, was pushing for more Black studies courses, Black teachers, programs more responsive to the needs of Black students, and cultural awareness. They gave all kinds of programs on African dancing, drawing, and more. By word of mouth or by the bulletin board, we were turned on to concerts, plays, poetry readings, etc. The Last Poets, a group of young Black poets, knocked me out. I had always thought of poetry in a European sense, but The Last Poets spoke in African rhythms, chanted to the beat of African drums, and talked about revolution. When we'd leave their place on 125th Street — i think it was called the Blue Guer- rilla — we'd be so excited and fired up we didn't even notice the long subway ride home. If i was running myself ragged before i went back to school, now i was flying. I was learning and chang- assata ing every day. Even my image of myself was changing, as well as my concept of beauty. One day a friend asked me why i didn't wear my hair in an Afro, natural. The thought had honestly never occurred to me. In those days, there weren't too many Afros on the set. But the more i thought about it, the better it sounded. I had always hated frying my hair — burnt ears, a smokey straightening, and the stink of your own hair burning. How many nights had i spent trying to sleep on curlers, bound with scarves that cut into my head like a tourniquet. Afraid to go to the beach, afraid to walk in the rain, afraid to make passionate love on hot summer nights if i had to get up and go to work in the morning. Afraid my hair would "go back." Back to where? Back to the devil or Africa. The permanent was even worse: trying to sit calmly while lye was eating its way into my brain. Clumps of hair falling out. The hair on your head feeling like someone else's. And then i became aware of a whole new generation of Black women hiding under wigs. Ashamed of their hair — if they had any left. It was sad and disgusting. At the time, my hair was conked, but the hairdresser said it was "relaxed." To make it natural, i literally had to cut the conk off. I cut it myself and then stood under the shower for hours melting the conk out. At last, my hair was free. On the subway the next day, people stared at me, but my friends at school were supportive and encouraging. People are right when they say it's not what you have on your head but what you have in it. You can be a revolutionary-thinking person and have your hair fried up. And you can have an Afro and be a traitor to Black people. But for me, how you dress and how you look have always reflected what you have to say about yourself. When you wear your hair a certain way or when you wear a certain type of clothes, you are making a statement about yourself. When you go through all your life processing and abusing your hair so it will look like the hair of another race of people, then you are making a statement and the statement is clear. I don't care if it's the curly conk, latex locks, or whatever, you're making a statement. It was a matter of simple statement for me. This is who i am and this is how i like to look. This is what i think is beautiful. You can spend a lifetime discovering African-style hairdresses, there are so many of them, and so many creative, natural styles yet to be invented. For me, it was important not just because of how good it made me feel but because of the world in which i lived. In a country that is trying to completely negate the image of Black people, that constantly tells us we are nothing, our culture is nothing, i felt and still feel that we have got to constantly make positive statements about ourselves. Our desire to be free has got to manifest itself in assata everything we are and do. We have accepted too much of a negative _ lifestyle and a negative culture and have to consciously act to rid ourselves of that negative influence. Maybe in another time, when everybody is equal and free, it won't matter how anybody wears their hair or dresses or looks. Then there won't be any oppressors to mimic or avoid mimicking. But right now i think it's important for us to look and feel like strong, proud Black men and women who are looking toward Africa for guidance. I wasn't in school but a hot minute when a brother in my math class told me about the Golden Drums. After a couple of meetings i was hooked. They addressed me as sister, were glad to see me at meetings, worried about how I was making out in school, and were really concerned about me as a person. The subject of one of the many lectures scheduled by the Drums was about a slave who had plotted and planned and fought for his freedom. Right here in amerika. Until then my only knowl- edge of the history of Africans in amerika was about George Washington Carver making experiments with peanuts and about the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman had always been my heroine, and she had symbolized everything that was Black resist- ance for me. But it had never occurred to me that hundreds of Black people had got together to fight for their freedom. The day i found out about Nat Turner I was affected so strongly it was physical. I was so souped up on adrenalin i could barely contain myself. I tore through every book my mother had. Nowhere could i find the name Nat Turner. I had grown up believing the slaves hadn't fought back. I remember feeling ashamed when they talked about slavery in school. The teachers made it seem that Black people had nothing to do with the official "emancipation" from slavery. White people had freed us. You couldn't catch me without a book in my hand after that. I read everything from J. A. Rogers to Julius Lester. From Sonia Sanchez to Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee). I saw plays by Black playwrights like Amiri Baraka and Ed Bullins. It was amazing. A whole new world opened up to me. I was also meeting a lot of sisters and brothers whose level of consciousness was much higher than mine — Black people who had gained knowledge not only by reading but by participating in the struggle, who talked about Denmark Vesey, Gabriel Prosser, Cinque, as well as Nat Turner, because they had gone out of their way to learn about our history and our struggle. The major way i got hip to things was by listening to people. The Black students going to Manhattan Community College be- longed to every type of organization. There were Black Muslims, Garveyites, Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), members of various community and cultural organiza- tions, and a few who were young turks of the NAACP. We got together and talked about everything under the sun. I did a whole lot more listening than talking, but i asked questions about any- thing i didn't understand. Sometimes the discussions and debates got so heated that they lasted until eleven o'clock, when night school ended and the building was being closed up. he parents in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn, like Black parents all around New York at that time, were pushing for control of the schools in their communities. They wanted a say in what their children were taught, in how their schools were run, and in who was teaching their children. They wanted the local school boards to have hiring-and-firing power over teachers in their districts, but the city's board of education and the American Federation of Teachers was against them. A whole bunch of us from Manhattan Community College loaded on the subway and took the train out to a demonstrat Manhattan Community College had not one course on Puerto Rican history. The Puerto Rican sisters and brothers who knew what was happening became our teachers. I had hung out all my life with Puerto Ricans, and i didn't even know Puerto Rico was a colony. They told us of the long and valiant struggle against the first Spanish colonizers and then, later, against the u.s. government and about their revolutionary hero

Stand Your Ground Laws

BLACK PEOPLE HAVE TRIED TO USE STAND YOUR GROUND LAWS AND IT HASNT WORKED FOR THEM! A stand-your-ground law (sometimes called "line in the sand" or "no duty to retreat" law) is a justification in a criminal case, whereby defendants can "stand their ground" and use force without retreating, in order to protect and defend themselves or others against threats or perceived threats. The acquittal of George Zimmerman for killing unarmed high-schooler Trayvon Martin serves as a reminder of the continuing inequities in America's criminal justice system -- and might be the impetus to repeal a law like "Stand Your Ground," which was adopted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and subsequently spread across the country. Stand Your Ground was part of the jury instructions in Zimmerman's criminal trial, and it could again come into play if Trayvon's family brings a civil suit. "This is another tragedy for Black families everywhere, and another instance of how law enforcement and our criminal justice system routinely fail Black people and communities," said Rashad Robinson, Director of Color of Change. "What the verdict says, to the astonishment of tens of millions of us, is that you can go looking for trouble in Florida, with a gun and a great deal of racial bias, and you can find that trouble, and you can act upon that trouble in a way that leaves a young man dead, and none of it guarantees that you will be convicted of a crime," writes Andrew Cohen in The Atlantic. Jury Instructions Included Stand Your Ground In 2012, the killing of Trayvon Martin acutely focused attention on Stand Your Ground laws, which give criminal and civil immunity to a person who claims they use deadly force because they allege a reasonable fear of harm. Because of the law, Sanford Police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman because they apparently agreed it was "reasonable" to feel threatened after stalking an unarmed African-American teenager returning from a trip to buy Skittles and iced tea. Some have claimed that Stand Your Ground played no role after Zimmerman was eventually arrested -- he and his lawyers relied on Florida's lenient self defense statutes -- but the jury instructions invoked the Stand Your Ground protections by stating he had no "duty to retreat" from the situation: If George Zimmerman was not engaged in an unlawful activity and was attacked in any place where he had a right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony. This language is nearly identical to that in the Florida Stand Your Ground law and the ALEC "model" legislation. We cannot know if the outcome would have been different had the six jurors been instructed differently -- but we do know that Stand Your Ground played a role in the case, even after Zimmerman's arrest. Law Could Also Be Applied in Civil Lawsuit And Stand Your Ground could still come into play. If, as expected, Martin's family brings a civil suit against Zimmerman seeking damages for wrongful death, he could still try to invoke the law's protections. The Stand Your Ground law provides potential immunity not only in criminal prosecutions brought by the state, but also civil lawsuits filed by a person's family. What's more, if the court sides with Zimmerman's Stand Your Ground claim in the civil case, the law would actually require Martin's family to pay Zimmerman's legal fees. "The Poison of Stand Your Ground Was from ALEC" As the Center for Media and Democracy (publishers of ALECexposed.org) uncovered, ALEC adopted Stand Your Ground as a "model" for other states in early 2005, just months after the NRA pushed it through Florida's legislature (with then-state legislator Marco Rubio voting in favor). The NRA boasted that its lobbyist's presentation at a 2005 ALEC meeting "was well-received," and the corporations and state legislators on the Criminal Justice Task Force voted unanimously to approve the bill as an ALEC model, under the name the "Castle Doctrine Act." At the time, Wal-Mart, the nation's largest seller of rifles, was the corporate co-chair of the Task Force. Since becoming an ALEC model, more than two dozen states have passed laws that contain provisions identical or similar to the ALEC legislation. ALEC called the legislation one of its "successes." (See this infographic showing the connections between ALEC, the NRA, and Stand Your Ground.) With this revelation, the spotlight turned on ALEC as never before, with the public soon becoming aware of ALEC's role in advancing an array of reactionary bills, including legislation that makes it harder to vote, criminalizes immigrants, destroys unions, protects corporations from civil liability, thwarts environmental regulations, and cuts holes in the social safety net -- all while the organization enjoys tax-exempt "charitable" status. In response to public criticism and a campaign led by Color of Change, along with CMD, Common Cause, Progress Now and People for the American Way, at least 49 corporations, including General Motors, General Electric, Amazon.com, and Coca-Cola, have severed ties with ALEC. In April 2012, ALEC disbanded the task force that had promoted Stand Your Ground and disavowed its gun bills, but the damage has already been done: laws influenced by ALEC's "model" Stand Your Ground law remain on the books in twenty six states, and ALEC has done nothing to promote their repeal. Donate to CMD! On Sunday, Urban League President Marc Morial renewed calls to focus attention on ALEC. "There needs to be sunlight on what they're doing, which what they're doing is creating model legislation and spread the poison of Stand Your Ground all over the nation." "It's important to recognize a year ago when there was some sunlight on ALEC, many of us called for many of its major supporters to withdraw," he said on MSNBC's Up With Chris Kornacki. "I want to renew that call this morning, because the poison of the Stand Your Ground law was from ALEC." ALEC Has Backed More Than Stand Your Ground The Trayvon Martin tragedy has never been exclusively about Stand Your Ground laws. The case has captured the nation's attention because it serves as a reminder of the persistent racial inequities that continue to plague the country, such as the too-common presumption that young black men are criminals and the ways the criminal justice system persistently fails communities of color. And ALEC's connections to those issues are not limited to Stand Your Ground. The group was instrumental in pushing "three strikes" and "truth in sentencing" laws that in recent decades have helped the U.S. incarcerate more human beings than any other country, with people of color making up 60 percent of those incarcerated. At the same time ALEC was pushing laws to put more people in prison for more time, they were advancing legislation to warehouse them in for-profit prisons, which would benefit contemporaneous ALEC members like the Corrections Corporation of America. ALEC has also played a key role in the spread of restrictive voter ID legislation that would make it harder to vote for as many as ten million people nationwide -- largely people of color and students -- who do not have the state-issued identification cards the laws require. ALEC began to focus on voter ID shortly after the 2008 elections, where high turnout from college students and voters of color helped sweep America's first black president into office. Soon after those elections, ALEC began promoting the myth of voter fraud (with "Preventing Election Fraud" as a cover story on the Inside ALEC magazine), and ALEC corporations and politicians voted in 2009 for "model" voter ID legislation. Bills reflecting ALEC's model Voter ID Act were subsequently introduced in a majority of states. In some states, voter ID restrictions were blocked by the Department of Justice under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act -- but the U.S. Supreme Court recently held that states subject to Section 5 need not seek pre-approval from the federal government before changing voting rules. After the Court's decision in that case, Shelby County v. Holder, states with a history of legalized discrimination quickly rushed to pass and implement ALEC-inspired voter ID laws. But "our country has changed," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision. Stand Your Ground Victims Show Need for Repeal "Were it not for Trayvon's family and countless supporters taking action, Zimmerman would have never faced a single question about his actions at all," Robinson says. The persistence of Trayvon Martin's family eventually attracted national attention to the case, and only after a massive public outcry did Florida law enforcement reconsider their Stand Your Ground assessment, appointing a special prosecutor and eventually arresting Zimmerman six weeks after the shooting. Most victims where Stand Your Ground has been invoked have not had the same level of press attention as the Martin case. There is the case of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, for example, who was shot and killed in Florida after a disagreement with 46-year-old Michael Dunn, who thought Davis and his friends were playing their music too loud; Davis was black and Dunn was white, and Dunn plans to invoke Stand Your Ground at trial. And the disparities in how Stand Your Ground are applied become clear by looking at the case of Marissa Alexander, also in Florida, who was convicted of 20 years for firing a warning shot after being threatened by her husband, who has a history of domestic violence. Justice under Stand Your Ground laws have been anything but equal. The Tampa Bay Times found that an individual who killed a black person walked free 73 percent of the time, while those who killed a white person went free 59 percent of the time. Other studies have shown that Stand Your Ground is more likely to be applied in cases of white-on-black crime, and in May, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights launched an investigation into racial bias and Stand Your Ground laws. ALEC is now trying to distance itself from its role in pushing legislation like Stand Your Ground and the laws that promote mass incarceration and voter suppression, but their position is not credible until they work to repeal these damaging policies.

Black Twitter

Black Twitter is a cultural identity[1] on the Twitter social network focused on issues of interest to the black community, particularly in the United States.[2] Feminista Jones described it in Salon as "a collective of active, primarily African-American Twitter users who have created a virtual community ... [and are] proving adept at bringing about a wide range of sociopolitical changes."[3] Similar Black Twitter communities are growing in South Africa[4] and Great Britain. Although Black Twitter has a strong black American user base, other people and groups are able to be a part of this social media circle through commonalities in shared experiences and reactions to such online.

civil forfeiture

Civil forfeiture in the United States, sometimes called civil judicial forfeiture or occasionally civil seizure, is a controversial legal process in which law enforcement officers take assets from persons suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing. Modern drug forfeiture laws date back to 1970, when Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. The Act included a civil forfeiture provision authorizing the government to seize and forfeit drugs, drug manufacturing and storage equipment, and conveyances used to transport drugs. As legal scholars Eric Blumenson and Eva Nilsen have explained, the provision was justified as an effort "to forestall the spread of drugs in a way criminal penalties could not—by striking at its economic roots."46 When a drug dealer is sent to jail, there are many others ready and willing to take his place, but seizing the means of production, some legislators reasoned, may shut down the trafficking business for good. Over the years, the list of properties subject to forfeiture expanded greatly, and the required connection to illegal drug activity became increasingly remote, leading to many instances of abuse. But it was not until 1984, when Congress amended the federal law to allow federal law enforcement agencies to retain and use any and all proceeds from asset forfeitures, and to allow state and local police agencies to retain up to 80 percent of the assets' value, that a true revolution occurred. Suddenly, police departments were capable of increasing the size of their budgets, quite substantially, simply by taking the cash, cars, and homes of people suspected of drug use or sales. At the time the new rules were adopted, the law governing civil forfeiture was so heavily weighted in favor of the government that fully 80 percent of forfeitures went uncontested. Property or cash could be seized based on mere suspicion of illegal drug activity, and the seizure could occur without notice or hearing, upon an ex parte showing of mere probable cause to believe that the property had somehow been "involved" in a crime. The probable cause showing could be based on nothing more than hearsay, innuendo, or even the paid, selfserving testimony of someone with interests clearly adverse to the property owner. Neither the owner of the property nor anyone else need be charged with a crime, much less found guilty of one. Indeed, a person could be found innocent of any criminal conduct and the property could still be subject to forfeiture. Once the property was seized, the owner had no right of counsel, and the burden was placed on him to prove the property's "innocence." Because those who were targeted were typically poor or of moderate means, they oft alexander In 2000, Congress passed the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act which was meant to address many of the egregious examples of abuse of civil forfeiture

felon disfranchisement

Felony disenfranchisement is the exclusion from voting of people otherwise eligible to vote (known as disfranchisement) due to conviction of a criminal offense, usually restricted to the more serious class of crimes: felonies. More recently, civil rights groups around the country have helped to launch legal attacks and vibrant grassroots campaigns against felon disenfranchisement laws and have strenuously opposed discriminatory crack sentencing laws and guidelines, as well as "zero tolerance" policies that effectively funnel youth of color from schools to jails The message communicated by felon disenfranchisement laws, policies, and bureaucratic procedures is not lost on those, such as Clinton Drake, who are effectively barred from voting for life Drake, a fifty-five-year-old African American man in Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested in 1988 for possession of marijuana. Five years later, he was arrested again, this time for having about $10 worth of the drug on him. Facing between ten and twenty years in prison as a repeat offender, Drake, a Vietnam veteran and, at the time, a cook on a local air force base, took his public defender's advice and accepted a plea bargain. Under the plea agreement, he would "only" have to spend five years behind bars. Five years for five joints. Once released, Drake found he was forbidden by law from voting until he paid his $900 in court costs—an impossible task, given that he was unemployed and the low-wage jobs he might conceivably find would never allow him to accumulate hundreds of dollars in savings. For all practical purposes, he would never be able to vote again. Shortly before the 2004 presidential election, he said in despair: I put my life on the line for Following the collapse of Jim Crow, all of the race-neutral devices for excluding blacks from the electorate were eliminated through litigation or legislation, except felon disenfranchisement laws. Felon disenfranchisement laws have been more effective in eliminating black voters in the age of mass incarceration than they were during Jim Crow. Less than two decades after the War on Drugs began, one in seven black men nationally had lost the right to vote, and as many as one in four in those states with the highest African American disenfranchisement rate.32 These figures may understate the impact of felony disenfranchisement, because they do not take into account the millions of ex-felons who cannot vote in states that require ex-felons to pay fines or fees before their voting rights can be restored—the new poll tax. As legal scholar Pamela Karlan has observed, "felony disenfranchisement has decimated the potential black electorate As previously noted, poll taxes, literacy tests, and felon disenfranchisement laws were all formally race-neutral practices that were employed in order to avoid the prohibition on race discrimination in voting contained in the Fifteenth Amendment. These laws operated to create an all-white electorate because they excluded African Americans from the franchise but were not generally applied to whites. alexander

collateral consequences

Once labeled a felon, the badge of inferiority remains with you for the rest of your life, relegating you to a permanent second-class status. Consider, for example, the harsh reality facing a first-time offender who pleads guilty to felony possession of marijuana. Even if the defendant manages to avoid prison time by accepting a "generous" plea deal, he may discover that the punishment that awaits him outside the courthouse doors is far more severe and debilitating than what he might have encountered in prison. A task force of the American Bar Association described the bleak reality facing a petty drug offender this way: [The] offender may be sentenced to a term of probation, community service, and court costs. Unbeknownst to this offender, and perhaps any other actor in the sentencing process, as a result of his conviction he may be ineligible for many federally-funded health and welfare benefits, food stamps, public housing, and federal educational assistance. His driver's license may be automatically suspended, and he may no longer qualify for certain employment and professional licenses. If he is convicted of another crime he may be subject to imprisonment as a repeat offender. He will not be permitted to enlist in the military, or possess a firearm, or obtain a federal security clearance. If a citizen, he may lose the right to vote; if not, he becomes immediately deportable.5 Despite the brutal, debilitating impact of these "collateral consequences" on ex-offenders' lives, courts have generally declined to find that such sanctions are actually "punishment" for constitutional purposes. As a result, judges are not required to inform criminal defendants of some of the most important rights they are forfeiting when they plead guilty to a felony. In fact, judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys may not even be aware of the full range of collateral consequences for a felony conviction. Yet these civil penalties, although not considered punishment by our courts, often make it virtually impossible for ex-offenders to integrate into the mainstream society and economy upon release. Far from collateral, these sanctions can be the most damaging and painful aspect of a criminal conviction. Collectively, these sanctions send the strong message that, now that you have been labeled, you are no longer wanted. You are no longer part of "us," the deserving. Unable to drive, get a job, find housing, or even qualify for public benefits, many ex-offenders lose their children, their dignity, and eventually their freedom—landing back in jail after failing to play by rules that seem hopelessly stacked against them. Collateral consequences of criminal conviction are the additional civil state penalties, mandated by statute, that attach to criminal convictions. They are not part of the direct consequences of criminal conviction, such as prison, fines, or probation.

COINTELPRO

The FBI's systematic surveillance of and attacks on Black groups and individuals were orchestrated by its counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO), which was directed specifically against what the FBI termed "Black nationalist hate groups.'' COINTELPRO^ first targets were Martin Luther King and thousands of less prominent civil rights activists. Elsewhere,* I have written extensively about COINTELPRO and the criminal disruption and destruction of Black leaders and groups that were the specific goals of this government program...incontrovertible documentation of this government- sponsored conspiracy against the civil and human rights of all sorts of political activists and, most particularly, Black people. On May 2, 1973, Assata, Sundiata Acoli, and Zayd Malik Shakur were traveling south on the New Jersey Turnpike in a white Ponriac. They were stopped by New Jersey state trooper James Harper for reasons consistent with the FBI COINTELPRO guidelines, which directed that activists be arrested for minor traffic violations. I hey listed four categories of prisoners, the first of which were political prisoners, defined as a class of victims of FBI misconduct through the COINTELPRO strategy and other forms of illegal governmental conduct who as political activists have been selectively targeted for provocation, false arrests, entrapment, fabrication of evidence, and spurious criminal pros- ecutions. This class is exemplified by at least: The Wilmington Ten, the Charlotte Three Assata Shakur, Nobody back then had ever heard of the counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) set up by the FBI. Nobody could possibly have known that the FBI had sent a phony letter to Eldridge Cleaver in Algiers, "signed" by the Panther 21, criticizing Huey Newton's leadership. No one could have known that the FBI had sent a letter to Huey's brother saying the New York Panthers were plotting to kill him. No one could have known that the FBI's COINTELPRO was attempting to de- stroy the Black Panther Party in particular and the Black Liberation Movement in general, using divide-and-conquer tactics. The FBI's COINTEL program consisted of turning members of organizations against each other, pitting one Black organization against another. Huey ended up suspending Cet and Dhoruba from the Party, branded them as "enemies of the people," and caused them to go into hiding, in fear for their very lives. No one had the slightest idea that this whole scenario was carefully manipulated and orches-trated by the FBI. But i had changed, and in so many ways. I was no longer the wide-eyed, romantic young revolutionary who believed the revolution was just around the cor- ner. I still appreciated energetic idealism, but i had long ago become convinced that revolution was a science. Generalities were no longer enough for me. Like my comrades, I believed that a higher level of political sophistication was necessary and that unity in x66 the Black community had to become a priority. We could never afford to forget the lessons we had learned from COINTELPRO. As far as i was concerned, building a sense of national consciousness was one of the most important tasks that lay ahead of us. I couldn't see how we could seriously struggle without having a strong sense of collectivity, without being responsible for each other and to each other. from assata

Rockefeller Drug Laws

The Rockefeller Drug Laws are the statutes dealing with the sale and possession of "narcotic" drugs in the New York State Penal Law. The laws are named after Nelson Rockefeller, who was the state's governor at the time the laws were adopted. Rockefeller, a staunch supporter of the bill containing the laws, had Presidential ambitions and so wanted to raise his national posture by being "tough on crime." If this strategy worked, he would no longer be seen as too liberal to be elected. He signed it on May 8, 1973. Under the Rockefeller drug laws, the penalty for selling two ounces (57 g) or more of heroin, morphine, "raw or prepared opium," cocaine, or cannabis or possessing four ounces (113 g) or more of the same substances, was a minimum of 15 years to life in prison, and a maximum of 25 years to life in prison. The original legislation also mandated the same penalty for committing a violent crime while under the influence of the same drugs, but this provision was subsequently omitted from the bill and was not part of the legislation Rockefeller ultimately signed. The section of the laws applying to marijuana was repealed in 1977, under the Democratic Governor Hugh Carey. The adoption of the Rockefeller drug laws gave New York State the distinction of having the toughest laws of its kind in the entire United States — an approach soon imitated by the state of Michigan, which, in 1978, enacted a "650-Lifer Law," which called for life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole for the sale, manufacture, or possession of at least 650 grams (1.43 lb) of cocaine or any Schedule I or Schedule II opiate. In 1973, New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller responded to panic about soaring heroin use by renouncing his aggressive treatment programs and enacting the most punitive drug policy in the United States. His "Rockefeller Drug Laws" mandated sentences up to life in prison for selling any narcotics. These punishments, comparable to the penalties for murder, served as models for subsequent "War on Drugs" policies enacted across the nation.This article explores the ideological and political work accomplished by this high profile legislation—for policy makers, for members of the general public who clamored for "get tough" strategies, and for the drug users targeted by the statutes. The laws were a repudiation of liberal treatment programs and specialists' expertise, and provided a forum to remake the much-maligned welfare state into a stern, macho vehicle for establishing order in society. Increasingly punitive policies constricted the rights of drug users by rhetorically constructing "addicts" and "pushers" as outside of the polity and as the antithesis of full citizens. Therefore, the Rockefeller Drug Laws not only had devastating effects on drug offenders, but also were instrumental in the profound renegotiation of the state's role and responsibilities. argue that social programs and civil rights promote crime dont lessen anger directed at drug addicts and welfare cheats problem with them was that punitive laws passed but so many people are going to ocme in jial, people not ready for increase - lib repubs like john lindsey oppose the laws he becomes vanguard of punitive turn - focused on street level dealers - financeers in nyc - differentiated by class - street level are most accesible to police and poorest - important thing they do is target low level users themselves - people who are at the very very bottom, not peopel making huge profits on the sale of it - targetting the vulnerable populations - like those in informal harris economies - along with this is rockefellers punitive view of addicts - protect ourselves - need to isolate people - uses idea of contagion in reference to users - but they are the most vulnerable but they are targetted by rockefeller and state as cause of problem - language of disease and infection - put in prison so they dont contaminate - many people saw this as directly racist - stop and frisk predates this - also a focus on street crime nad street level dealers - marijuana heroine possession - why are working class people more accessible by police - because people of all classes use drugs at same rate = because density, housing projects etc wealthy people can hide addiction bc can afford treatments, also state has access to you with the welfare programs bill that passed was a compromise people were in favor of punitive turn but were scared about how this was gonna collapse the system with such influx took hasish off list of hard drugs it allowed for a little plea bargining and stuff - this was compromise conviction had mandatory setence of 15 yers - life to avoid this is to become informant class A felones were monitored for life- survelliance etc once charged with class A felony couldnt be bargained to lower charge mandatory minimum starts in 50s and expands with rockefeller drug laws - bitter fruit of discourse of silent majority impletmented sept 1 1973 led to higher drug prices - because higher risk baum --> punishment itself drives up prices - criminilization drives the economy and makes it profitable nad brings people into it teres are way that punitive drug policy does the thing its trying to stop we see this with heroine in 70s - this just makes it works punitive turn just makes it worse we see younger people getting involved in drug stuff because they dont want to get involved in prosecutin - didnt have same penalities as adult - another reason why panthers see this drug policy as another direct attack on youth - CAPITALISM PLUS DOPE we see no reduction in heroine with these laws can also look at drug economy as consumption RFDL they do nothing to stop consumption of heroine

Silent Majority

There s an expansion of rights for criminal defenders Thats an expansion of civil rights and political rights of something Going long with this desire to increase quality Public defender So the argument they made by Nixon Rockefeller by black republicans is that permissiveness Over the Provision of social programs and something criminal defendants had resulted in a rise of crime Language of this is language of backlash and the institutions Rockefeller and nixon blank silent majority Trump uses silent majority ran campaign that was appropriation of nixon ? Nixon uses it first and it refers to silent majority and refers to pop of white lawyers that felt left behind by movements of 1960s - talking about pop that sees itself as oppressed by liberation of others - hence silent majority - these are pop that define thesmselves as victims - effecitvie because it means that im not okay with radicalizatio nof politicss, opinion that many have, but it also means that civil rights movement and reaction against it were not publically okay and thats a opinon many people have privately - republican interest in southern staretgy or sometihng - can think of it like white supremacy - instead of saying i oppose civil rights it pop defines itself as victimized by others peoples consitutional rights - its important - its providing a narrative a victimization for a population that actively opposed inequality of others - psychological dimension important - nixon thinks most opporessed people in country arre white suburban mothers and former white dems in the south - their losing their everything - the sense that something - cant hear - black ppls citizneship rights are so recent - cant hear - the repsonse to incoroporation of black populatoins into democracy is to say we are stripping white populations of something - its a defining a zero sum game that whiet people are disempowered by black people being incropared - victimization is imporatnt to think of it - no one cares about us - what about us - important to know that history because still used today -language of zero sum politics in which drug disordre crime this population cant hear -its a way to say drugs crime ysed to say this pop is zero sum or something - crime justification for why they feel something - they think they should have disproportionate access to jobs - we should have the right to something - cant hear - we should have accesss to jobs to global power - uptill 1960s AA couldnt accesss social welfare state at all - left out of socia lsecurity etc, housing, - cant hear - silent majority is racist repsonse to AA getting in democracy and getting access to social needs another aspect backlash against AA (baum reading), and backlash against counterculture - radical white and asian chicano leaders or something - what happens is that republican party has always been anti something party but in 1966 reagan is elected gov in california and he defeats a democrat or something - union workers are willing a support him (white workers) a republic that something - reason because oposting AA or something urban rebellions - part of that backlash - response of constituencies happened very much in last election - he has taken parts of nixons speeches -appropriated silent majority word for word this period is a foundational period white backlash etc union stuff somthing thats different is that in 60s cant hear today union membership 4% white populations were willing to oppose their own economic interest to oppose black latinos union membership goes down or sometihng people in union households supporting backlash politics or something backlash against counterculture - student protestng etc - youth culture - counter culture is marijunana - in 1960s weed is associated with student demosntrators and protestors - target marijuana and acid important to this (legalize it) (baum) - two diff consittuentsi AA and protestors - reads quote from rock/nixon supporter, AA are minority are represented by state interests more than white. -AA were left out right before this no access to social welfare - shes made their now included - she is tlking about a white only s ociety - argument - where do we see this in the argument - majority - majority = white - talking about race without saying colorblind rhetoric not saying it directly - lines itself against convicts etc why are people so angry 1. high profile struggle of populations of struggle - angry about new political consituties - no longer white man republic - black congressman on stage, shirely is first black congressman, latinos etc 2. revise cimrinal procedures under something - strike against all diff kinds of something? - supreme court was so idk cant hear - many rights of cimrinal defenders is very recently - public defener, miranda etc - for first time peole could get public defense - if cahrged with criminal offense state could give you a public defender - the right to have a lawyer present during integration was now new - can plead fifth - acquired right to be informed about your before your arrest - all of these are new under "warren report" - cant hear - silent majority i totally zoned out lol talking about someone who wrote to rockefeller - feeling safe within their home - hes saying we need to deprive rights to cirminal who are black because black inherently violate the civil rights - he's now the prisoner in his own house - anger at bill of rights and state i think - since consititutional rights exteneded to certain populatoins we lost everything zero sum game - really important, what is role of state, who should have access who should be protected vrime as a racial rhetoric- saying white people are only epople affected by crime i think - but poc prob most likely to feel crime harkens back to older history, segregation response to civil rights movement 1960s - 70s really important for many fronts - death penalty is overturned - rights of crimindal defendenats expanded marginal popualtions mobilized and receive no state protections transformative period how silent majority responded to the accomplishments of the 1960s

Anti-Drug Abuse Acts

a law of the War on Drugs passed by the U.S. Congress under Reagan. Among other things, they changed the system of federal supervised release from a rehabilitative system into a punitive system. The 1986 Act also prohibited controlled substance analogs. The bill enacted new mandatory minimum sentences for drugs, including marijuana.[1][2] This act mandated a minimum sentence of 5 years without parole for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine while it mandated the same for possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine.

Joanne Chesimard

assata shakur heroine icon for BLM intersting bc 1. wasnt in formal leadership 2. from nyc not oakland 3. woman alot comes from her autobio- an poliitical act arrested in 73 convicted of mansalguter in 77 79 she is broken out of prison - max sectrary section of min secretary prison details of jailbreak unknown b/c doesn't want to implicate others 5 year period as fugitive, fbi most wanted manhunt but then she is added to terrorism watchlist in 2005 wanted by fbi one of reason she bcomes heroe is bc fugitive for 5 year sin Us then emerges in cuba interesting figure bc political prisoner, fugitive, and ultimately a woman who liberates herself image of personal liberation and national liberatoin - going to cuba one of reason so celebrated bc connected to radical bp history, its most armed and militant wing and she fought law and won with obama renegotiated treaty with cuba people thought she would be extradiated but not 2mil bond on her head - nj state troopers and one from fbi has become i think famous to a new generation of political activist and embodies a spirit of black lives matter/ black revolution thats a prehistory lets talk about assata herself what have we learned about her in her autobio how did she become politicized - her family is from queens and then moved to south - family has southern culture wilmington NC - very much inbetween southern migrant culture and born in NYC - genertaional diff she is the sme age as huey newton etc but in diff cotext - she sees nyc diff from oakland - something nyc shares is that it has a southern migrant community but her growing up is diff - she tries to unlearn lessons of white supremacy - k-12 deeply allienating experience, authoiritainsims, racism, erasure of black identity -but it is at the college level that we see a shift in assata -columbia vs. manhattan community college - public community colllege working class - she dropped out of high school so she couldnt go to columbia - assata is very conscious of class its something she brings up a lot - we bring up in 70s african americans that are in positions to benefit from civil rights movement, beginnings of higher edu affirmative action - have black elite that is being created - assata is thinking often about her grandparents and the place where she becomes politicized is community college - in nyc late 60s-70s open enrollmenet, anyone can enroll in state and community colleges in NY and they are free - like oakland college campus is being opened up to a whole new generation of people - class distinction though between manhattan and columbia etc her life in the party - she didn't like it, met people she liked but she was a big representative of the split between higher ups and and the masses - mentions that they were attempting to build a clinic but they made it huey newtons new york something - irritated by that because she wanted the resources to reach the people and the higher ups were getting in the way of that - she found higher ups abrasive didnt like the way they talked to epople - she speaks of the tetnsions inside the panther party - oakland vs. nyc; rank and file vs. leadership (assata is rank and file); - critical of leardership but member of BLA still so what does she as her role in activist, what does she value emphasize - she empahseizes edu to be free you need to know that youre a slave - poli edu is important -how state troopers treated her - about state repression - affected by fact that she is a women - no sympathy when shes pregnant - shackled - separation from her child immediately - physical vulnerabilities of women - solitary faciliatiy - but in state prison vs. federal and state usually worse - often put in institutes for men - danger of being women prisoner - writes book in cuba and publishes it - it is published from exile - political act - why is being an autobiography important - you get to tell the story - what are the messages shes trying to deliver: what is her relationship with black community - capitalizes the word Black but gives black community respect but i with small I - she puts them at a higher level then her, - attack on ego, elevating collective struggle - tells her story in service of a larger story, my story is representative of many - needs of many are much more important than needs of one - published in 1980s but in 1980s there is a lot of politiciazation of speech, spelling amerikkka like that - direct reference to racial violence - in this era we get conservative response to politicaization of speech - political correctness - black B etc - cultural nationalist when you do Black because raises it to idea of national identity - Irish Polish etc - she is a black natiionalist and a pan africanist - how is saying your Black diff from saying Polish Ethiopian etc - its an identity that is larger than just US, movement to elevate black history and culture, its transnationalist, politicizing speech, elevating panafricanism and putting it in speech it is a nightmare in the court system and the law system book is insider look as to what it is like to be arrested/shackled put in isolation etc put in three trials etc this is a political prisoner who is put in prison for political activities and she is put in 70s just as the take off of mass incarceration is happening she gives us the insight from former panther that is subjected from criminal justice system, she has criticism for it one story of a womens struggle against state struggle much of her life is about this battle of state battle of own freedom we can ue this to talk about 70s from view of political prisoner this isnt possible now the activism in 70s criminalized now but we do have some panthers that win their cases stuff now would be prosecuted as anti terrorism maybe even military tribunals shows growth of prison anti terrorism etc she is listed as a terrorist!

Black Liberation Army

emerges after the panther 21 part of splinter faction that rose out of blank panther party diff forms of self representation - oakland on self defense, young revolution diff image of self rep-holding gun, police men, self portraiture, invokes Emory Douglas diff tenure from black liberation army newspaper right on important reason for BLA is 1. role of COINTELPRO state repression - split top level of party between huey and cleaver - cleaver living exile cuba then algeria running the army. seen it founding with his ideas. how his ideas were shaped with split - direct attack on state insitutions 2. believed in expropriation of funds - believed in bank robberies - number people prosecuted for it it emerges in early 70s in time of fracture - portion of black social movement that is incroporated into the state, getting jobs in municiple gov, getting elected in municiple office, having even creation of conressional black caucus - portion of leadership going in state another portion criminalized by state turns into radicalizatin 1970s looks diff based on who you are looking at, for some people it is a time of unpredenteed opportunity - black mayors - interracial div of african american community (imporatnt theme in class) portion in middle class in 1970s-80s civil rights movement age of access then have poor and working class blacks shut out and portion of radical leadership ny bp were facing this decrim by the state last third of class is about state repression, after black power and civil rights movement leads to mass in carceration etc 70s is mixed period, have wattstax etc bp is tangible reality electoral politics but also have like shakur who is revolutioanry that joins BLA and sees revolution as incomplete , look critically of dev of elite black class, more concerned about poor and working class she is so important bc she is protion of black movement that didnt just join black leadershi class one of the structural casuses of founding of BLA had to do with dynamics of party itself - when oakland expelled leadership of ny bp the panter 21 all of those people were left with legal cases with no financial support - have people between 14-21 that are facing capital murder/conspiracy etc - split in party happens and oakland didnt support the cases of political prisoners - one of the cause sfor BLA creation had to do with just number of political prisones - one of effects of bpp esp in cities esp was that where panthers orgnaized, using armed self defesne led to legal feeds bc of imprisonment, a lot of fees effect of oakland deciding to only focus on electoral politics means that all te money peopl resoures that used to go to political prisones went to running political campaign in oakland - she is showing pictures of panther 21 pre asssata joining 21 bc 21 people put in prison being charged with conspiracy etc in ny bp party anothe element in creation was panther underground - mentioned in living for the city but assata mentoins it - we have an above ground that is political organization have programs etc liberation schools etc runnning campaigns for poverty council - but there was another party that was clandestine because they were doing illegal stuff, gathering of arms, when people faced repression like when someone was about to arrested, they had safe houses to prevent being arrested - this dynamic is not uncommon in other liberation movements - underground predates BLA which emerges in early 70s - always been element of party whre in oakland it was legal to have open unconcleared weapons for 6 months but in ny that was always illegal - this is an effect of armed self defense, wasnt jsut symbolic real element that dealt with carrying guns - underground strong in LA NY because had strongest state repression - portion of BLA doesnt just emerge in NY connected to earlier history in party - in this context we understand events with assata - she makes argument in living for the city that one of the primary ways that state damaged the party/infiltrated was through underground - why does having an underground make you vulneralbe -- gives gov rationalization to criminalize your doings, also not a lot of people see it so not alot of people can speak out, this left bp party vulnerable in addition to repression with imprisonment we have inflitratin of party by agents, paid, informants etc coerced to inform and in some case shape direction of party see this pattern of infiltration of a underground security this was most vulnerable this is worth thinking critically how assata understand s the nature of her politics - one one hand you have self defense you will not accept oppression - but its this kind of structure that had to be clandestine meaning that it was vulnerable to state infiltratin that is a diff argument taht civil disobedience is better than armed self defense, more strategic also period in 1970s of continuation of anti imperialism - panthers and BLA are in pan africanisms and anti imperialist project - have intensificaiotn of bombins in vietnam, laos, cambodia - some of this radicalization also happening in context of carpet bombing of laos and cambodia - early 1970s is a difficult time that have exciting things and under the surface things - continuation of war in vietnam, escalation of violence against social movement leaders, and take off of law and order war on drugs

colorblind ideology

comes from michelle alexander Here Alexander further emphasizes her earlier point that "colorblind" language, rather than being evidence of the end of racism, is in fact used to cover up—and thereby sustain—racist systems. Like her analogy of an optical illusion (something difficult to see but impossible to "unsee") in the Introduction, this passage suggests that it is all too easy for those who wish to ignore racism in the criminal justice system to do so. Meanwhile, those with enough "common sense" perceive that the criminal justice system also see it in nixon time when people werent outright saying blacks no good - silent majority- we want whtie state they were saying it likewe dont feel safe and drugs/criminals black rockefeller insider critsizing the drug laws rock responds in a racial way - just worried about his people - although the rockefeller drug laws dont name race they affect black people and people disprop targetting race (colorblind) attacking through drugs which brings in race implicitly rockefeller never mentions race but thats what his thing targets in early 70s using narcotics and heroine to talk about black people, before it was opium and chinese - there was anxiety on chinese presence in us west

Law and Order Politics

In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through stricter criminal penalties. These penalties may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws, and in some countries, capital punishment.

political prisoner

assata shakur political prisoners, defined as a class of victims of FBI misconduct through the COINTELPRO strategy and other forms of illegal governmental conduct who as political activists have been selectively targeted for provocation, false arrests, entrapment, fabrication of evidence, and spurious criminal pros- ecutions. from assata

John Ehrlichman

dan baum John Daniel Ehrlichman (/ˈɜːrlɪkmən/;[1] March 20, 1925 - February 14, 1999) was counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. He was a key figure in events leading to the Watergate first break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal, for which he was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury and served a year and a half in prison. he is imporatnt becuse he shows the self concious agenda of the nixon admin in creating this war on drugs also shows the colorblindness of this war by targetting drugs nad thus indrectly the people

Gary Indiana

had national black political convention here and got panther in electoral stuff This is the cost of "Manifest Destruction." Gary isn't suffering from Urban Blight-that's just a symptom of the real problem. It's not suffering from crime, high foreclosure rates, bad schools, or lack of outside capital investment in the infrastructure (and potentially investors who would open up businesses that could provide some semblance of a commercial tax-base); it's suffering from the unmentionable legacy of the migration of Black people and the overwhelming of a once prosperous white city. The decline of Gary correlates to the rise of its Black population and the decline of the overall white percentage of its population (remember, roughly 100 percent white in 1920). Indeed, where the white people went once they escaped Gary, prosperity flourished. Thriving business and commercial districts, safe streets, outside investments, and good schools were just an outgrowth of this migration [ Hurt feelings continue over Northwest Indiana town's creation

civil commitment

post-sentence institutional detention of an offender with the intention of preventing further offenses.

deindustrialization

the Reagan administration launched a media offensive to justify the War on Drugs. Central to the media campaign was an effort to sensationalize the emergence of crack cocaine in inner-city neighborhoods—communities devastated by deindustrialization and skyrocketing unemployment. The media frenzy the campaign inspired simply could not have come at a worse time for African Americans The impact of globalization and deindustrialization was felt most strongly in black inner-city communities. As described by William Julius Wilson, in his book When Work Disappears, the overwhelming majority of African Americans in the 1970s lacked college educations and had attended racially segregated, underfunded schools lacking basic resources. Those residing in ghetto communities were particularly ill equipped to adapt to the seismic changes taking place in the U.S. economy; they were left isolated and jobless. One study indicates that as late as 1970, more than 70 percent of all blacks working in metropolitan areas held blue-collar jobs.77 Yet by 1987, when the drug war hit high gear, the industrial employment of black men had plummeted to 28 percen We faced a fork in the road one decade after Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were laid to rest. As described in chapter 1, during the late 1970s, jobs had suddenly disappeared from urban areas across America, and unemployment rates had skyrocketed. In 1954, black and white youth unemployment rates in America were equal, with blacks actually having a slightly higher rate of employment in the age group sixteen to nineteen. By 1984, however, the black unemployment rate had nearly quadrupled, while the white rate had increased only marginally.76 This was not due to a major change in black values or black culture; this dramatic shift was the result of deindustrialization, globalization, and technological advancement. Urban factories shut down as our nation transitioned to a service economy. Suddenly African Americans were trapped in jobless ghettos, desperate for work.

War on Drugs 1971-1982,1988,1992

the punitive turn and war on drugs was a direct challenge to social moves of 1960s that focused on social racial and gender equality part of this is to redefine these movements and really to look at them almost as a form of crime (cant hear) - using crime, trying to replace discourse about equality before law cant hear and try to redefine those populations through lens of crime (populations that got state protection and access to social welfare) - crime did amazing amoutn of work to reorient nationa ldiscourse - instead of talking about voting right civil rights protections , crime becomes important globalizing rhetoric for this backlash in 70s - last class we were talking about how this is invoked by trump but it is forged in the immediate aftermath of civil rights movement - michelle alexander speaks about this in her own way - view about calling this a new jim crow how she periodizes it - a little diff from professors way - punitive crime policies was a way to attack populatoins and very important it defined social programs themselves as the cause of crime - in many ways we may think of it as the opposite, most crime in Us is property crime which is related to social ineqautliy - lessen inequality then less crime - this argument is the reverse, social programs creates dependency and pathology and this leads to crime - leshawn harris talks about epople going to informal economy bc they are excluded from formal economy - to stop crmie is to punsih people and take away social welfare - part of this is backlash against war on poverty - conflating addiction with welfare cheating - larger debate of meaning of gov - something about silent majority - white working class anger mobilized - put at the center silent majority - attacking liberals etc - mulitiple villians, welfare cheats librals etc - early 1970s its crime created by cycle of excuse and cultural permisveness, not social inequality but absence of social control - people that most affected by crime are low income people but silent majority is strong in lwo crime area - they experience low crime but its still a mobilizing rhetoric - use of crime reaches its pinnacle under reagan and it really sets it stage for other presidsents like clinton - sets precedent - clinton largest expansion of incarceration 600k people put in prison - 70s is take off of this idea - enshrined under regaon, continues under bush and reaches its bigest under clinton - bipartison mass incarceration grows out of 70s - recent development gender poltiics - critics of nixon and rockefeller talked about gender politics of what govt supposed to do - dem is mommy party, rep is daddy party (punishes) - what is role of state? to punsih like dad or provide like mom? - people use this language of time - see take of of popular cultural people like clint eastwood dirty harry - violent white masculinity that is fighting against crime - punishing - celebrats individual hero that limits rights in favor of law and order - protect normal citizens from normal deviants this is the essense of punitive turn see this before with chinese

black political class

- how did political people feel about it - very critical - howard jones black - when rockefeller issued his laws, jones was suppsoed to be the head of his narcotics policyand he never consulted -he outlined criticisms that came from within rockefellers original circle - 1. such punitive sentencing (life in person for first offense) that juries wouldnt convict 2. too expensive 3. judges would lose expression 4. completely rejecting rehabilitatoin itself black rockefeller insider critsizing the drug laws rock responds in a racial way - just worried about his people - although the rockefeller drug laws dont name race they affect black people and people disprop targetting race (colorblind)

Freeway Ricky Ross

1] is an American author and convicted drug trafficker best known for the drug empire he established in Los Angeles, California, in the early to mid 1980s.[2] He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009.

carceral state

A carceral state is a state modelled on the idea of a prison. It employs physical boundaries in order to gain control of urban space. In the carceral state, public space is transformed into defendable space, with the installation of walls, gates, fences, surveillance cameras and security checkpoints

BYP 100

BYP100, formally, the Black Youth Project 100, is a national organization of young, Black activists founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman on an all charges relating to his February 26, 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin.[1] Founding members include Charlene Carruthers. The organization seeks to achieve to its mission of realizing freedom for all Black people by organizing through a Black Queer Feminist lens and maintaining a commitment to group-centered leadership. In September 2014, BYP100 released their first policy agenda, entitled the Agenda to Keep Us Safe which outlined policy suggestions to combat the criminalization of Black youth.[2] On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2016, the organization launched their Black economic justice policy platform, the Agenda to Build Black Futures with a series of actions and events around the country under the banner of the hashtag #reclaimMLK.[3] Thanks to the work of Black Youth Project 100, who cleared the way and legitimized all-black spaces, other activist groups like Assata's Daughters have started to thrive[4].

methadone

Methadone substitution as a treatment of opiate addiction has been widely criticized in the social sciences for its role in social control of addicts.[72] It is suggested that methadone does not function as much to curb addiction as to redirect it and maintain dependency on authorised channels. Several authors apply a Foucauldian analysis to the widespread prescription of the drug and use in institutions such as prisons, hospitals and rehabilitation centres.[73] Such critique centers on the notion that substance addiction is reframed with a disease model. Thus methadone, which mimics the effects of opioids and renders the addict compliant, is labeled as a "treatment" and so obscures the disciplinary objectives of "managing undesirables".[72]

Anastazio Somoza

Nicaraguan politician and officially the 73rd and 76th President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country from 1967 to 1979. He was the last member of the Somoza family to be President, ending a dynasty that had been in power since 1936. After being overthrown in an insurrection led by the FSLN, he fled Nicaragua and power was ceded to the Junta of National Reconstruction. He was eventually assassinated while in exile in Paraguay. Although the initial overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1978-79 was a bloody affair, the Contra War of the 1980s took the lives of tens of thousands of Nicaraguans and was the subject of fierce international debate. During the 1980s both the FSLN (a leftist collection of political parties) and the Contras (a rightist collection of counter-revolutionary groups) received large amounts of aid from the Cold War super-powers (respectively, the Soviet Union and the United States).

George Zimmerman

On February 26, 2012, Zimmerman fatally shot 17-year-old African American high school student Trayvon Martin in The Retreat at Twin Lakes community in Sanford, Florida.[4] Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community where Martin was temporarily staying and where the shooting took place.[14][15][16] The Twin Lakes Neighborhood Watch program was not registered with the National Neighborhood Watch Program, but was administered by the local police department.[17] Following an earlier call from Zimmerman, police arrived within two minutes of a gunshot during an altercation in which Zimmerman fatally shot Martin, who did not possess any weapons. Zimmerman was subsequently taken into custody, treated for head injuries, then questioned for five hours. The police chief said that Zimmerman was released because there was no evidence to refute Zimmerman's claim of having acted in self-defense, and that under Florida's Stand Your Ground statute, the police were prohibited by law from making an arrest.[18] The police chief also said that Zimmerman had had a right to defend himself with lethal force.[19] As news of the case spread, thousands of protesters across the United States called for Zimmerman's arrest and a full investigation.[20] Six weeks after the shooting, amid widespread, intense, and in some cases misleading media coverage,[21][22] Zimmerman was charged with murder by a special prosecutor appointed by Governor Rick Scott.[23

southern strategy

Richard Nixon's strategy to whiteify the electorate so Republicans could hold onto power in light of demographic changes. It began as a grab for southern states during the 1968 and 1972 elections: a combination of dog-whistle politics as well as a deliberately racist agenda, effectively throwing any social clout the GOP had right out the window. It resulted in a total party realignment over issues of civil rights and racism. Democrats went from being the party who opposed civil rights to being the party that passed them,[2] and Southerners who were formerly Democrats voted Republican instead, because Republicans opposed progress in those areas to various extents. This was the most significant political realignment in the US since the "New Deal Coalition," and one that still continues to this day. In American politics, the southern strategy was the Republican Party's policy to gain political support in the South by appealing to the racism against African Americans harbored by many southern white voters.[1][2][3] As the Civil Rights Movement and dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s visibly deepened pre-existing racial tensions in much of the Southern United States, Republican politicians such as presidential candidate Richard Nixon and Senator Barry Goldwater developed strategies that successfully contributed to the political realignment of many white, conservative voters in the South t

Richard Hatcher

Richard Gordon Hatcher (b. July 10, 1933) became on January 1, 1968, the first African-American Mayor of Gary, Indiana. He was the first Black candidate elected mayor of a U.S. city larger than 100,000 people and the first elected Black mayor in the state of Indiana. Carl Stokes was elected days later as the mayor of Cleveland, and was sworn into office prior to Hatcher's inauguration. Hatcher was inaugurated mayor of Gary in 1968 and served until 1987. During his tenure as mayor, he became internationally known as a fervent and prolific civil rights spokesman. Hatcher was known for developing innovative approaches to urban problems and for being a national and international spokesman for civil rights, minorities, the poor and America's cities. He often delivered speeches alongside Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, and other historic proponents of the civil rights movement. On April 5, 1968, he addressed President Lyndon B. Johnson, along with a collection of politicians and civil rights leaders, on the topic of the King assassination the night before and pending civil unrest.[1][2]

shirley chisolm

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (November 30, 1924 - January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author.[1] In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress,[2] and she represented New York's 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.[2]

Sandinistas

The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending the Somoza dynasty, and established a revolutionary government in its place.[8][9] Following their seizure of power, the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Following the resignation of centrist members from this Junta, the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981. They instituted a policy of mass literacy, devoted significant resources to health care, and promoted gender equality,[10] but came under international criticism for human rights abuses, mass execution and oppression of indigenous peoples.[11][12] A militia, known as the Contras, was formed in 1981 to overthrow the Sandinista government and was funded and trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency.[13] In 1984 elections were held[14] but were boycotted by some opposition parties. The FSLN won the majority of the votes,[15] and those who opposed the Sandinistas won approximately a third of the seats. The civil war between the Contras and the government continued until 1989. After revising the constitution in 1987, and after years of fighting the Contras, the FSLN lost what many consider the first truly democratic election in 1990 to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro but retained a plurality of seats in the legislature. socialism

Panther 21

The Panther 21 is a group of twenty-one Black Panther members who were arrested and accused of planned coordinated bombing and long-range rifle attack on two police stations and an education office in New York City.[1] The trial eventually collapsed and the twenty-one members were acquitted.[2]

George Wallace

Wallace is remembered for his Southern neo-dixiecrat[2] and "Jim Crow" positions during the mid-20th century period of the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 Inaugural Address that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," and standing in front of the entrance of the University of Alabama in an attempt to stop the enrollment of black students. He eventually renounced segregationism but remained a social conservative. alabama gov alexander: - well known segregationist - she writes that hes an example of how early on there was little erffort made to disguise racial motivatons behind law and order hetroic - he thought that supreme court was bending ove backwards to help criminals - wanted to curb rights of criminal defendents -he made law and order key to his prediential run against nixon - hwne we think of racism with think of governor wallace blocking the schoolhouse door

crack babies

While it is true that the publicity surrounding crack cocaine led to a dramatic increase in funding for the drug war (as well as to sentencing policies that greatly exacerbated racial disparities in incarceration rates), there is no truth to the notion that the War on Drugs was launched in response to crack cocaine. President Ronald Reagan officially announced the current drug war in 1982, before crack became an issue in the media or a crisis in poor black neighborhoods. A few years after the drug war was declared, crack began to spread rapidly in the poor black neighborhoods of Los Angeles and later emerged in cities across the country.2 The Reagan administration hired staff to publicize the emergence of crack cocaine in 1985 as part of a strategic effort to build public and legislative support for the war.3 The media campaign was an extraordinary success. Almost overnight, the media was saturated with images of black "crack whores," "crack dealers," and "crack babies"—images that seemed to confirm the worst negative racial stereotypes about impoverished inner-city residents. The media bonanza surrounding the "new demon drug" helped to catapult the War on Drugs from an ambitious federal policy to an actual war. The timing of the crack crisis helped to fuel conspiracy theories and general speculation in poor black communities that the War on Drugs was part of a genocidal plan by the government to destroy black people in the United States. From the outset, stories circulated on the street that crack and other drugs were being brought into black neighborhoods by the CIA "Crack baby" was a term coined to describe children who were exposed to crack (freebase cocaine in smokable form) as fetuses; the concept of the crack baby emerged in the US during the 1980s and 1990s in the midst of a crack epidemic. Other terms are "cocaine baby" and "crack kid".

Congressional Black Caucus

after nixon being a bitch and insirpition from chisholm preisdent and gary they make CBC out of people inthe DSC it attempted to represent a united voice for black america in congress and across nationa supported local balck candidates, lobbbeid progressive job reform, health care welfare etc, attempted to fashion national political staretgy to increase black political power from local to fed needs black nationslists at this point began a period of tatical cooperation with many cbc like diggs consensus that need new political formation that could mobilize AA communtiy and force white leadership of Dem party to be more responsibe

Carlos Lehder

agar: - growing popularity of crack in the US led to growing delivery from Colobmai - Lehder figured out how to turn the corner on the cocaine growth curve - spent some time in prison for marijuana - here he met George Jung - both of them used already established methods nad networks for marijuana distrubtion to market cocaine - had intense profit 2000k in colombia but 55k sold in Us - he was impressive to medellin supplier pablor escobar - in 1977 started transporting lot - in this time also increasing control by colombian govt on traffickers he ends up getting extradiated and the absence of him and his partners opens up market and allows other to further develop and strength it

BLM

created #BlackLivesMatter with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, two of my sisters, as a call to action for Black people after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was post-humously placed on trial for his own murder and the killer, George Zimmerman, was not held accountable for the crime he committed. It was a response to the anti-Black racism that permeates our society and also, unfortunately, our movements. Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks' contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes. It goes beyond the narrow nationalism that can be prevalent within some Black communities, which merely call on Black people to love Black, live Black and buy Black, keeping straight cis Black men in the front of the movement while our sisters, queer and trans and disabled folk take up roles in the background or not at all. Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, Black-undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. It centers those that have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. It is a tactic to (re)build the Black liberation movement. When we say Black Lives Matter, we are talking about the ways in which Black people are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity. It is an acknowledgement Black poverty and genocide is state violence. It is an acknowledgment that 1 million Black people are locked in cages in this country- one half of all people in prisons or jails-is an act of state violence. It is an acknowledgment that Black women continue to bear the burden of a relentless assault on our children and our families and that assault is an act of state violence. Black queer and trans folks bearing a unique burden in a hetero-patriarchal society that disposes of us like garbage and simultaneously fetishizes us and profits off of us is state violence; the fact that 500,000 Black people in the US are undocumented immigrants and relegated to the shadows is state violence;.the fact that Black girls are used as negotiating chips during times of conflict and war is state violence; Black folks living with disabilities and different abilities bear the burden of state-sponsored Darwinian experiments that attempt to 5/1/2017 A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza - The Feminist Wire http://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/10/blacklivesmatter-2/ 3/6 squeeze us into boxes of normality defined by White supremacy is state violence. And the fact is that the lives of Black people—not ALL people—exist within these conditions is consequence of state violence

legalization of drugs

dan baum legalize it making argument for decriminaliztion of drugs how does he interpret nixon criminalization erlichman said that targetting of two drugs was the way to target constituents - couldnt make it illegal to be black or ptorest the vietname war so instead target consumption of marijuana or heroine - interpret war on drug as political response to successes and opposition to law and order - coming from nixons own advisor

Matcalf-Volker Laws

dealt with rockefeller's early stuff about drug treatment In 1962 Rockefeller signed the Metcalf-Volker Act, which defined drug addiction as an illness rather than a crime and which allowed arrested addicts the option of going into treatment rather than facing prosecution. In 1966, Rockefeller declared an "all-out war on narcotics addiction" and developed a controversial compulsory confinement program, under which the state enforced mandatory treatment for certified addicts who had been arrested for a crime, and allowed for magistrates which gave convicted drug addicts the option of rehabilitation instead of a prison sentence, and Rockefeller's controversial 1966 compulsory treatment program.

Harrison Narcotics Act

generally considered the beginning of the oppressive, expensive, and devastating drug war. the early 1900s the U.S. was becoming an important voice in international affairs. Issues surrounding opium consumption and production began to cause major problems globally, and the U.S. declared a need for an international opium conference. From this meeting came the first international opium agreement from the Hague convention in 1912, which "aimed to solve the opium problems of the far east" by eliminating opium supplies. Two years later, led by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, the Narcotics Tax Act surfaced in Congress. The supporters of the bill said very little about the dangerous effects of addiction, instead emphasizing the importance of upholding the new international agreement to eradicate opium. In fact, the act on its surface was not prohibitive at all. It was "an act to provide for the registration of, with collectors of internal revenue, and to impose a special tax upon all persons who produce, import, manufacture, compound, deal in, dispense, sell, distribute, or give away opium or coca leaves, their salts, derivatives, or preparations, and for other purposes." Almost immediately, damaging effects were felt from the bill's passing. A vaguely worded clause in the bill declared that doctors could no longer prescribe opiate-based drugs, since "addiction was not a disease." This led to numerous doctors being targeted by police and eventually imprisoned. In turn, the cloudiness of wording led to underground market formation, resulting in criminal involvement by both users and producers of opiates and cocaine. Police enforcement began to go up, and quality of life for those using opiates and cocaine began to plummet. The government also began an aggressively racist propaganda attack against cocaine-using black Americans and opium-using "Chinamen." Hysterical media stories claimed that white women using these substances were running off with men of different races. Doctors were targeted for helping those in need, and citizens who previously were medical patients suddenly became criminals, forced to hang out in unscrupulous areas to attain their drugs of choice. In one fell swoop, the Harrison Act set the foundations of the drug war as we know it today. This December 17, look around and see that not much has changed. Doctors are still targeted for supplying pain medications. Certain people using certain drugs are still treated as criminals and denied medical treatment for addiction. Racial disparities in drug related arrests are a bigger problem than ever.

Nelson Rockefeller

he becomes vanguard of punitive turn had this group of black ministers that helped legitimize his campaign - reverend dempsey was most important was a liberal republican supports southern civil rights movement but in punitive turn of 70s he is out of step with republic party - moving right rockefeller using attica and the pasage of his laws to really move himself back to center it is for the political benefit of him laws speak directly to silent majority when he proposed the laws it was a huge press story many people think he wnated to run for president in 76 so he proposed this alot of people supported the laws 67% and 60% supported putting people away for life he received a lot of mail 20:1 in favor of the passage he uses his fame to be VP under ford

Gary Webb

investigative jounralist Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in the Mercury News in 1996. The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to support their struggle. It also suggested that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. The Los Angeles Times and other major papers published articles suggesting the "Dark Alliance" claims were overstated. After an internal review, the Mercury News ultimately published a statement in May 1997 acknowledging shortcomings in the series' reporting and editing. Webb resigned from the Mercury News in December 1997. He became an investigator for the California State Legislature, publishing a book based on the "Dark Alliance" series in 1998, and doing freelance investigative reporting. Webb committed suicide on December 10, 2004. [1] The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. Criticism has also been directed at the follow up reporting in the Los Angeles Times and other papers for focusing on problems in the series rather than re-examining the earlier CIA-Contra claims.[2]

New Jim Crow

michelle alexander mass incarceration is new jim crow systems of oppression starts from slavery, jim crow, then mass incarceratin cycle professor talked after civil rights but she has longer history relating it to jim crow because she compares 70s with late 1800s - southern redemption - 1970s s 1870s - possiblity of alliance in virginain if 17th c with poor working class whites that could ally with black indenture labor but discourse of race was used to divide them - race has been a theme - reconstruction is first civil rights movement, when AA win passage of amendments, provision of due process and 15 amendment winning to voite for 15 men advantages of calling it new jim crow - racisms isnt dead, its prt of history, trying to call attn to it by calling it new jim crow bc penal system is overlooked as a problem - watering it down with colorblindness - form of racism that doesnt announce itsel as racism - we see this in rockefeller drug lies - unlike old jim crow it doesn directly name race so NEW jim crow also like this - so distructive bc has a lot of racial impliatins so much like redemption with convict leasing, rape, kkk, lynching etc - shes making DIRECT comparison to it - optimism to calling it a new jim crow - fighting it thtat same way we fought the old one - we won that battle though!

SL Scandal

the 1980s and 1990s (commonly dubbed the S&L crisis) was the failure of 1,043 out of the 3,234 savings and loan associations in the United States from 1986 to 1995: the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) closed or otherwise resolved 296 institutions from 1986 to 1989 and the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) closed or otherwise resolved 747 institutions from 1989 to 1995.[1] A savings and loan or "thrift" is a financial institution that accepts savings deposits and makes mortgage, car and other personal loans to individual members (a cooperative venture known in the United Kingdom as a building society). By 1995, the RTC had closed 747 failed institutions nationwide, worth a total possible book value of between $402 and $407 billion. In 1996, the General Accounting Office estimated the total cost to be $160 billion, including $132.1 billion taken from taxpayers.[2][3] The RTC was created to resolve the S&L crisis.

Pablo Escobar

was a Colombian drug lord and narco-terrorist. His cartel supplied an estimated 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the United States at the height of his career, turning over US $21.9 billion a year in personal income.[2][3] He was often called "The King of Cocaine" and was the wealthiest criminal in history, with an estimated known net worth of US $30 billion by the early 1990s (equivalent to about $55 billion as of 2016),[4] making him one of the richest men in the world at his prime.[5][6] Escobar was born in Rionegro, Colombia and grew up in nearby Medellín. He studied briefly at Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana of Medellin but left without a degree; he began to engage in criminal activity that involved selling contraband cigarettes and fake lottery tickets, and he participated in motor vehicle theft. In the 1970s, he began to work for various contraband smugglers, often kidnapping and holding people for ransom before beginning to distribute powder cocaine himself, as well as establishing the first smuggling routes into the United States in 1975. His infiltration to the drug market of the U.S. expanded exponentially due to the rising demand for cocaine and, by the 1980s, it was estimated that 70 to 80 tons of cocaine were being shipped from Colombia to the U.S. on a monthly basis. His drug network was commonly known as the Medellín Cartel, which often competed with rival cartels domestically and abroad, resulting in massacres and the murders of police officers, judges, locals, and prominent politicians.