by MARGARET KIMBERLEY
“He has yet to use any of the powers at his disposal to bring justice to black people.”
The list of Barack Obama’s crimes is a long one, but one of the worst is his refusal to even attempt a dismantling of the mass incarceration state in America. In criminal justice as in other issues, Obama fakes left while actually moving to the right. He is suddenly interested in “reform” and is on a cross country marketing blitz meant to burnish his image and fool uninformed people.
The White House recently announced that the president would commute prison sentences for “dozens” of federal prisoners who were convicted of non-violent drug related offenses. There are 208,000 federal prison inmates and 48% of them were convicted of narcotics violations. Approximately 100,000 people are under federal jurisdiction who could be given some consideration if narcotics sentencing laws were changed.
The slap in the face was worse than expected when a grand total of 46 people had their sentences commuted. Obama perfected the art of political marketing, which like all advertising makes lies appear to be true. In 2013 the president had an opportunity to free at least 5,000 black people from federal prisons. They were all imprisoned before the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act which reduced the powder/crack cocaine sentences from a 100:1 ration to a 18:1 ratio. The act did nothing for those sentenced prior and the White House successfully appealed a federal court ruling which would have given those persons the right to request resentencing.
“He has the power to prosecute killer vigilantes like George Zimmerman and the police who murdered Eric Garner and Michael Brown yet he refuses to do so.”
The appeals court ruled in the Obama Justice Department’s favor, but no one knows that except for readers of Black Agenda Report. Formerly well respected organizations such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund lamented the decision without mentioning that the president supported it and took an active role in keeping their clients in prison.
Black Agenda Report for more