This stuff just makes my blood boil. Those 3 assholes on the parole board are complete sociopaths. There’s absolutely no justice here.
It’s actually a requirement I think.
In WA during lockdown, they requested compassionate release of someone who was paralyzed on half his body and confined to a chair. The DOC decided that he was a threat to society and needed to be kept in the COVID greenhouse.
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Well, political positions, yes. But there are tons of government employees around the country that are just normal people working at a regulatory agency. The overwhelming majority of them. They’re just doing their job.
At least for now. SCOTUS is very close to changing that.
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art source : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/g2Z8Ke
Didn’t return your grocery cart? Straight to jail.
“Stray to Yale.”Okay, I actually do agree with this one.
Remember come election time who is responsible for this. Just like actions, elections have consequences.
I don’t understand how 40 years of prison for a non-violent crime isn’t considered to be both “cruel” and “unusual”. It is objectively cruel. I certainly hope that it is also unusual. I certainly hope that there aren’t many more like him, imprisoned for decades for what amounts to personal-use levels of pot. 5.5 lbs of pot when you include the stem and roots isn’t that much and certainly sounds like a personal supply to me.
That will teach m!
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https://www.al.com/live/2011/10/magnolia_springs_marijuana_house.html
Hotchkiss has a drug history and stated that he had been to federal prison on a drug conspiracy charge. He stated that the conspiracy case was about 20 years ago when he lived in Orange Beach, officials said.
Wtf. If they were growing five hundred plants, 40 years is too much. It’s fucking pot. People get rich selling that shit legally now. Growers should be released.
These people are kept in jail to be used in labor. It’s not about being cruel. It’s about making money in the cheapest way possible. Since Alabama is a hellhole with no workforce they turn to modern day slavery.
Yeah, when you read the article you see that the parole board has stopped issuing paroles almost entirely in the last couple of years. This is 100% about manufacturing cheap labor and keeping the oligarchy running smoothly.
Oh it’s both. It’s definitely both, the cruelty and the slave labor, which is cruel in and of itself as well.
It is the most cruel people in the world that hide behind a law book and the pretense of being fair and worse even: past cases.
But since you first have to study for a decade, then kiss ass for a decade or two before even beginning to qualify for ‘JUDGE’ it is not more as normal you will have lost ALL BONDS WITH REGULAR SOCIETY.
If you think 15$+tax+tip is fine for a glass of wine with lunch on a daily basis; you are NOTTTTTTT qualified to speak for the benefit of society : in contrary!
Yeah I think you’re mistaking what a Judges role is. It is merely to uphold the law. The problem in the US is that the role is so politicised that the idea they are legal experts rather than representatives of parties is being lost. They should be representative of society to an extent but ultimately the main qualification is legal experience.
The issue is the law itself and that comes back to the elected politicians in Alabama. It’s a problem of one party rule, and first past the post electoral system plus gerrymandering which means a stagnant political system dominated by one segment of society. The US increasingly looks like a it’s just a large collection of failed democracies.
You don’t specifically need representative judges. You need electoral reform so you have an actual representative democracy, and everything else comes from that.
The MAKING of the law favors the establishment. I say use the guillotine first, then new laws. Slave master still a slave master now, only the slaves believe they’re free
I’m stating it’s the WRONG ROLE law should NOT be upheld in the same way for poor and rich. For uneducated and the wise.
IT SHOULD NOT BE THE SAME favoring the poor and weak.
HOWEVER IT FAVORS THE EXACT OPOSITE.
It shouldn’t favor anybody.
If anything, it goes to show why legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas and why people need to have the ultimate authority to handle business on their own again. That way, at least, it’s fair, for every man is provided for by either victory, ingenuity, or death.
Okay, I’m genuinely curious, can you elaborate on what you’re advocating? What time in human history do you think we should return to? Tribalism?
I don’t think there has ever been a period of time where there wasn’t some form of social organization. Humans are naturally social and tend to create social groups with rules and enforcement mechanisms. Even if we were to start with a blank slate where there were no governments, companies, tribes, or social groups, humans would quickly recreate them because we have evolved to make use of social structures. We are stronger as a group than individually and groups only survive by having rules and methods of enforcement.
You’re not genuinely curious or here in good faith, you’re derisive, vindictive and guilty of every moral failing you’re about to accuse me of having for not thinking the way you do.
So you do not get the luxury of a debate with me.
Now I said that legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas, and that sadly is not going to change no matter who does what. It’s just the reality of the situation.
So move on from this conversation like you would have told me to had I wasted your time arguing with you about it.
If I came across as derisive, I didn’t mean to. I was genuinely trying to ask what you meant.
I don’t know how it is possible for me to be vindictive when I don’t know you. I don’t want revenge against you. You’ve done nothing to me.
I wasn’t going to accuse you of any kind of moral failing and am not sure why you took my response as a personal attack on your moral character.
You stated that “legal systems are plain and simply bad ideas” and that “people need to have the ultimate authority to handle business on their own again”. That sounds like you are advocating a return to something that existed in the past where people could act autonomously, without regard for the legal system.
I am responding that I don’t think that people have ever had the “ultimate authority to handle business on their own” and am wondering if you can give an explanation of what you are suggesting. I’m arguing that, when presented with anarchy, humans will always tend to create social structures and legal systems.
Judges are “supposed to be” impartial, not representative. That’s one of our many problems. They shouldn’t be conservative or liberal, they should be judges, but people don’t seem to be capable of impartiality, especially ones with any degree of power. Just like men who claim to want to lead really wish to rule. Those who would judge really just want to decide.
It’s Alabama… so sadly predictable
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Or, you know, you could vote Democrats into a super majority, and we could legally remove all the insanely corrupt politicians and judges, and do things like federally legalize weed and pardon non violent weed convictions.
Hotchkiss — who goes by his middle name, Bud —
Poor dude never even had a chance. 😔
That law provides several different levels of trafficking, and Hotchkiss was convicted under the lowest level – having between 2.2 lbs and 100lbs. That weight includes all parts of the plant, root and stem and all.
40 years, jesus fucking CHRIST.
Who, actually, believes society is better off for caging this man??
Many–there are people whose lives REALLY suck and they can’t imagine them being better so they want to make others’ lives worse. This is how a significant portion of the population votes.
no one. but a great many people like that it happened
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yeah and general schadenfreude, racism, hippy-bashing and general reefer madness buffonery.
An old pot grower’s adage goes something like: if the sentencing minimum is for between 1-99 plants, you might as well grow 99.
People like Bud serve as the real life example for this kind of saying sadly.
I’m 6400km tall if you include the earth under my feet
I’m billions of light years tall if you include the space above my head.
Damn you should play in the NBA
I don’t know if he has the mass to play, he sounds like a lightweight.
And extremely heavy…
Damn they’ll never let me on the rollercoaster now…
This is stupid, why is the lowest charge range so big. 2.2 lb to 100 lb that is a huge range and you’re telling me there is ranges higher than that? He already has life in prison the hell do they do with the higher ranges
And dirt they made sure to water.
Remember these headlines any time someone makes excuses for the lack of action by the Federal Government, even when we give Democrats Congress and the presidency.
Yeah, I’m sure Joe Manchin is really pro-cannabis.
I’m going to wager the federal government couldn’t do anything for state charges
Totally.
Just like the Federal Government did nothing about alcohol prohibition.
You see, this is kind of the reverse. The federal govt could blackmail states into legalization but it’s going to be hard to make states adjust their own prior convictions. Apples and oranges.
LOL
I miss the days when Democrats had balls. FDR had a literal plot on his life and still didn’t bitch out on using his office to make real, substantial change.
These days people look at things have have been done and still somehow convince themselves better things aren’t possible. That should be the Democrats’ slogan in the race this year.
While I largely agree with you, I’m not sure a civil war for a 20,000 state level prisoners makes immediate sense
I hope you don’t consider the 50-50 split Senate to be one of the times we “gave Democrats Congress and the presidency”. Do you think they were going to find 10 Republicans and overcome the filibuster for that legislation?
The last time the Democrats had control that gave them a realistic chance of doing something like this, marijuana legalization didn’t even have majority support in the US. Even among Democrats it was pretty divided.
The time before that, Bill Clinton was president and was under fire for admitting he had ever tried marijuana in his life, and had to claim he “didn’t inhale”.
And those were all the times in my life that the Democrats had any sort of majority in Congress and a Dem president.
You make it sound like there have been these chances over and over. But there isn’t even one single time you can look back at and say “right here, you had all the opportunity in the world and we asked you to do it, and you didn’t do it”.
You’re right.
I shouldn’t expect better.
That’s really all you have to say? Your statement that I responded to strongly suggested at least one, if not multiple, clear opportunities to make major changes to marijuana law that Democrats didn’t take. Are you not interested in the fact that that is not true?
Your reaction is like if someone pointed out factually wrong statements made by an antivaxxer and the antivaxxer responded with “I guess I shouldn’t try to protect my body”. No, that part is perfectly fine, it’s that you should just use actual facts or you could end up deciding on a course of action that is diametrically opposed to the outcome you want!
I expect better – from you!
What could the parole board’s justification for denial possibly be? I don’t see any risk from this guy, unless there’s something more nefarious than 2.2 lbm of pot going on.
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Guarantee that they looked nowhere beyond the actual text of the law and didn’t consider anything else. This is only “it’s illegal because we say it is and we will punish you for not conforming”.
Thats what you get when you dare to do gardening
The United States is a fascist hellhole.
Life sentence for growing some pot. Meanwhile the Jan 6th insurrectionists are getting maybe 2 years, or if you’re a card carrying proud boy terrorist you might be looking at up to 20 years.
i guess we should take justice into our own hands instead of waiting for someone else to do the right thing.
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gfy
Brb, sharpening the blade of my guillotine.
Problem is, that’s what the Jan 6th people thought they were doing.
just don’t be stupid like they were
The Jan 6 people made the one critical mistake that a revolutionary must never make: they failed to win. Every other mistake they made was recoverable, but that one damned them.
not sure if your comment was meant with sarcasm, but you’re 100% correct. you have to set every other concern aside and understand that you do whatever it takes to win. whatever. it. takes. if you weren’t prepared to do that, you should have never tried in the first place.
the J6 people were idiots. they thought that there was some magical lever that, if pulled, would grant them their wishes - kinda like some moron sovereign citizen that thinks magic words will get them out of jail or consequences.
it just doesn’t work like that. you can’t just capture the capitol and think that wins the game. it’s much deeper. the real revolutionaries will fight thousands of unseen battles in clandestine ways using different tools than torches and pitchforks.
Here’s the actual law: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title18/part1/chapter115&edition=prelim
Some guy beat someone so bad they need 24hr supervision, and he got 7 years. Cops get of with paid vacation for shooting or running over: dogs, unarmed adults and children, flash bang babies, drunk driving, beating their SO, planting drugs on innocent people. Did I miss anything?
War on drugs, no, it’s a war on personal freedoms.
It’s not even just a war on personal freedoms. It’s a war on anyone the people running the system don’t like. The US has been at war with its own citizens longer than I’ve been alive.
Well since before it was a country. Remember tar and feathering as a form of political discourse?
The weird outlier is a recent charge of a guy who assaulted 6 cops and got 5 years. A glitch in the system.
There are actual recordings from the Nixon Whitehouse where they decided that since they could no longer legally discriminate against people based on race, they’d have to find another way and drugs was it.
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2.2 -100lbs is a massive range especially when the weight every part of the plant. That’s a difference of growing enough for a month to smoke and supplying the neighborhood. Two massively different goals.
