war on drugs
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Kamala Harris Releases Criminal Justice Reform Plan to Address Police Brutality, Mass Incarceration, the Drug War
Kamala Harris has a lot of plans. Every other week the California senator introduces a proposal that would end climate change (with a trillion dollars,) create Medicare-for-all (without pushing out private insurers) and fund black businesses (while ensuring that the local Jamaican restaurant never runs out of oxtails). And on Monday, the Democratic presidential hopeful…
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91 Percent of Inmates Freed by First Step Act Were Black. Should We Give Republicans Credit?
As soon as the U.S. Sentencing Commission released its new report on the effects of criminal justice legislation promoted by Jared Kushner, introduced by Republicans and signed by Donald Trump, the GOP immediately began taking credit. Trump will undoubtedly count the report showing that the First Step Act significantly reduced the sentences of more than…
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Louisiana Cops Wore Blackface to Sell Crack in a Black Neighborhood. But First, They Posed for Pics
A Louisiana police chief issued a formal apology after 25-year-old yearbook photos surfaced of an undercover sting in which white police officers painted themselves black to sell crack to black people. The community was shocked by the revelations, and many asked the same question: “Wait…Police departments have yearbooks?” Apparently, in Baton Rouge they do because…
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Seattle Throws Out 15 Years of Marijuana Convictions
Citing the war on drugs’ disproportionate impact on people of color, judges in Seattle have agreed to vacate the marijuana convictions of hundreds of people who were punished for pot possession before the state made weed legal. According to the Seattle Times, in April, city attorney Pete Holmes filed a motion asking the city’s seven…
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46 of 47 Arrested in Low-Level Marijuana Stings Were Black, So Minneapolis Police Put an End to the Operations
Minneapolis police will no longer conduct sting operations targeting small-scale marijuana sellers after a gaping racial disparity was uncovered in the practice. Basically, they realized that everyone being arrested was black—as in, literally, 46 out of the 47 people arrested this year in these stings have been black—and they actually decided to do something about…
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White House Opioid-Crisis Plan to Include Death Penalty for Drug Dealers: Report
The White House is proving that when it comes to drugs destroying white communities, there are no limits to what it is willing to do to stop the threat, including death: to the dealers, not the users. Because the White House is completely invested in solving the opioid epidemic, which disproportionately affects white people, it…
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Pain and Policy: Why Reparative Justice Is Needed to End the War on Drugs [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.
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The Hood Incubator: Oakland, Calif., Organization Empowers Black Communities to Take Ownership of Cannabis Industry [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.
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What Was Oprah Really Saying?
Writer Hears Speech as Call to the Rest of Us. . . Black Women Want Return on Their Investment Gilbert Cruz Named N.Y. Times Culture Editor ‘Latinas in Journalism’ Draws 1,400 Members MSNBC Wins Black Viewers in Primetime Cable Omarosa Gets Passing Reference in ‘Fire and Fury’ Anti-Trump Land Ignored by Mainstream Media Pot Crackdown…
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Watch for the Hook: Sessions Continues His Dishonest ‘Make America Safe Again’ Tour
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, the attorney general with the Mariah Carey memory, traveled to Milwaukee today to give a speech to law enforcement officers about violent crime in America. The speech painted a dystopian image of an America riddled with violent crime and promised a higher “tooth-to-tail ratio” in combating it. Sessions’ remarks gave criminal-justice-reform advocates…