Monthly Archives: May 2022

Published: 5/16/2022 2:21:59 PM

Modified: 5/16/2022 2:20:12 PM

Systemic problems require systemic solutions. If the country has at long last realized that the war on drugs, the school-to-prison pipeline, the tough on crime policies, and welfare reforms that deny people convicted of felonies housing, jobs and continuing education have decimated Black, brown and poor white communities, shouldnt efforts to make them whole again also require new legislation, social assistance reforms, access to education, and a genuine chance to build generational wealth?

More specifically, if the very thing that has put millions of people in prison marijuana is now legal and a rich industry is rising around it, shouldnt we prioritize the people who have been arrested for smoking a joint for some of the jobs and business opportunities associated with this product that half of all Americans have used at some point in their life?

Yes, we should, but were a long way from doing that in any deliberate, comprehensive and meaningful way. Marijuana remains completely illegal at the federal level, and plenty of people who consume drugs such as alcohol and coffee on a daily basis still think of smoking weed let alone selling it as a criminal activity undertaken by morally corrupt people. Nevertheless, some legislators and some mayors and some employers and some schools have indeed been banding together to reverse not just the process of criminalization, but also its attendant blights: unemployment and impoverishment.

Massachusetts, which had been the first state to criminalize cannabis in 1911, decriminalized it in 2009 and legalized its recreational use in 2016. By late 2018, a regulated cannabis retail market was in full swing. Having seen the marijuana business in other states follow the old It takes money to make money adage and simply add itself to the assets of upper-class white America, Massachusetts included a social equity program into its cannabis licensure laws.

Through this program, the state provides training and licensing fee waivers to people interested in selling marijuana legally who have a previous drug conviction (or are the spouse or the child of someone who has such a conviction) or who live in a designated Massachusetts area of disproportionate impact and do not have an income that is four times higher than the area median income. Areas of disproportionate impact are determined based primarily on the rate of drug arrests, and Holyoke, Greenfield and Amherst all qualify (the latter most likely because of its big college student population).

The law also requires all license-seeking business people to provide a plan to positively impact these areas, which can center on hiring locals or simply donating money to efforts to bring equity to the marijuana business. Enter partnerships between community colleges, nonprofits, government agencies and businesses, which have been able to attract marijuana money to finance scholarships for people from underserved communities to enroll in cannabis studies programs with an eye toward getting a job in the industry.

Perhaps the oldest such collaboration in the country is Mass. CultivatED, a Bostonprogram that launched in 2019, which provides people who have been affected by the war on drugs with access to cannabis-related courses at Roxbury Community College, legal services aimed primarily at sealing or expunging drug-related convictions, and job opportunities with marijuana retail or cultivation businesses. The money comes from the state and from several cannabis retailers, and it funds some two to three dozen scholarships every cycle.

It was a learn by experience-kind of a thing, says Ryan Dominguez, the executive director of CultivatED. In our first cohort, there were so many obstacles just to get people to work. And the formerly incarcerated population had to deal with so many other things outside of just going to work 9 to 5 every day, such as child care and transportation. I put together a little pool of funds to help people with housing and security. One of the big things we learned about this is that we cant just focus on one part. I feel like every time we go back to the drawing board at the beginning of the year, we talk about what other services do we need to provide for our fellows to be successful?

Closer to home, Holyoke Community College is part of another collective that offers scholarships to people who come from communities affected by the war on drugs. Alongside ElevateNortheast, a cannabis-centric nonprofit organization, HCC gives people with previous drug convictions and other members of impacted communities access to courses and training related to the growing and selling of marijuana.

HCC has also started its own program, Western Mass. CORE, specifically to work with people who are coming out of the prison system. Weve talked about how we can partner with them to access the population that theoretically the cannabis industry is very actively looking to embrace and to make a form of restitution to, says Julia Agron, assistant project coordinator with HCCs Cannabis Education Center. But realistically, theres still a lot of disconnect. And a big part of my job is helping connect these programs, and have people in the community see cannabis as a tide that raises all boats, and not just as [businesses] who come into a community to reap some financial windfall for themselves. We want to make sure theyre hiring from the community.

Systemic problems require systemic solutions. Schools, laws, police, courts, prisons and other institutions working in concert have put many people in untenable situations. Schools, laws, police, courts, prisons and other institutions working in concert can begin to get those same people out of these situations. Systemic means everybody.

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Columnist Razvan Sibii: A place in the marijuana industry for the victims of the war on drugs - GazetteNET

In a major crackdown against drug menace, the Manipur Police apprehended two offenders and confiscated more than 5 kgs of opium from their possession.

According to reports, the Churachandpur District Police seized 4.2 kgs of contraband Opium; and nabbed a drug peddler Bir Bahadur (35), a resident of Opd Gelmol Village in Churachandpur District.

Meanwhile, a First Information Report (FIR) has been lodged against the offender in connection with the incident.

Similarly, the Commando teams of Bishnupur Police confiscated around 1.06 kgs of suspected opium from the possession of one Nengneihat Haokip @ Hatneo Haokip (23), a resident of Tungjang hamlet in Leimatak.

Accordingly, a case has been registered and the person has been handed-over to Bishnupur Police Station.

Taking to Facebook, the Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh wrote War on Drugs 2.0 Today, the Churachandpur District Police have apprehended one person who is identified as Bir Bahadur (35) of Opd Gelmol Village, Churachandpur along with 4.2 Kgs of contraband Opium. An FIR has been lodged against him in this regard. Similarly, the Commando teams of Bishnupur Police have apprehended one person who has been identified as Nengneihat Haokip @ Hatneo Haokip (23) of Tungjang village, Leimatak along with 1.06 kg of suspected opium. The person has been handed over to Bishnupur Police station.

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War-On-Drugs : Opium Worth Over 5 Kgs Confiscated From Manipur; 2 Held - NorthEast Today

Four years removed from his first Netflix comedy special, Katt Williams returns to find a world at warwith whom or what, though? The stand-up comedian who became famous for his Pimp Chronicles now wants to break down our inner conflict between lies and the truth. But how much can we trust Williams to lead us to the right destination?

The Gist: Katt Williams filmed this special in Las Vegas at Dolby Live as part of his World War III tour in January of this year, as the Omicron variant of the COVID pandemic raged across America. A wild time to perform indoors for several thousand fans, but that only fed into the themes of his new hour.

Because the war hes talking about isnt a geopolitical one Russia hadnt yet invaded Ukraine in January. Nor is it about Americas War on Drugs, although Williams does have jokes about that, too. No. The war that finds Williams fighting the frontlines on involves a battle between lies and the truth.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Is there any comedian quite like Katt Williams? I dont know if Williams himself would even point to anyone else. If you had to compare him and this special in particular to anyone, then perhaps Eddie Griffin, who considers himself a truth-teller of sorts and calls Las Vegas home, might be as close as you could find. Although in terms of a special that contains two distinct and disparate themes, Williams World War III also shares that in common with Chris Rocks Tamborine.

Memorable Jokes: When Williams reveals his take on vaccines, that hell get whatever shots his dog gets. Why? Im as likely to bite somebody as he is. He knows what most audiences make of him.

He also knows how to pull you in with a premise as simple as equating chicken wings to the end of the world. Taco Bell selling chicken wings in 2022? Thats straight out of the Book of Revelation, he crows! Williams keeps our focus on wings to develop a larger point about how were being lied to. Case in point: The so-called chicken wing shortage.

Theres more where that clip came from.

Williams has equally memorable bits about President Biden (despite just saying a minute or two earlier that hes done joking about politics), about Americas tangled relationship with drug use and abuse, and even about what he believes came from God versus what came from science. He believes in both, by the way.

Our Take: The first half-hour? Technically brilliant!

The way Williams lays out the difference between liars and the truth, noting that its in fact the truth-tellers who need to have proper respect for their opposition. The way Williams defends Biden as an old man doing the best he can, all the while adding another preposterous year to Bidens age, first calling him 96, then 97, then 98, then 99 each time he defends the president. The way Williams points out how law enforcement no longer mentions their war on drugs because the dealer is your doctor, and how he knows that zero Black people have anything to do with fentanyl. How many other comedians do you know who are even joking about fentanyl, let alone attempting to score serious points about it?

In all of these cases, Williams puts himself between us and the liars, casting himself as the truth-teller we can count on. They lie to us because sometimes the truth is uglysometimes the truth is painful.

So what to make of the second half-hour from Williams, where he uses the Biblical Garden of Eden story as a jumping-off point for his extended thoughts about female genitalia?

Aside from a clever bit of wordplay setting up his premise that water and pussy are Gods creations, joking how we know the recipe for water (H to the 2 to the O) yet cannot duplicate it, culminating in the line: You can lead a HO to water but she aint gonna make none. Aside from that, its all below the belt from here on it.

Suddenly, Williams stops being extraordinary and becomes merely ordinary.

Even if dirty sex jokes, much like poop jokes, will always generate laughs. Thats what makes closing with such material all too ordinary. Which is not what weve come to know and love about Williams. We want him to be at his most extra.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Id suggest watching the first half-hour, then clicking away and SKIP the rest, so you can marinate and/or debate his viewpoints on the world. Unless you really want to know what Williams looks for in a woman underneath her panties.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper,The Comics Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets@thecomicscomicand podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories:The Comics Comic Presents Last Things First.

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Stream It Or Skip It: 'Katt Williams: World War III' On Netflix, Where The Comedian's Two Half-Hours Feel At War With Each Other - Decider

With the 2021-2022 legislative biennium closed, some emerging themes will have major implications for civil liberties in Vermont communities. Specifically, while Vermont continued to adopt smarter criminal justice policies this year, we have also seen a shockingly inadequate response to the opioid crisis, and a failure to enact any meaningful police reforms.

The people of Vermont want to turn the page on the failed tough on crime era of mass incarceration, and they want their leaders to prioritize people and communities over prisons and policing. Luckily, policymakers have been listening. Since March 2020, Vermonts prison population has been cut from 1,656 down to 1,313 a 20 percent drop in just two years and a 40 percent reduction from 15 years ago.

Some of this progress can be attributed to the Justice Reinvestment process (JRI), championed by legislative leaders like Sen. Dick Sears, which utilizes data analysis and stakeholder engagement to identify problems and achieve better outcomes.

The JRI process revealed glaring racial disparities in state drug prosecutions. It also showed that Vermont has had one of the most punitive community supervision systems in the country, with revocations from parole and furlough driving nearly 80 percent of new prison admissions. By reforming that system, revocations from furlough have been cut dramatically, from 1,404 in 2018 to just 268 in 2021.

Legislators should be commended for this progress, and for creating a new system of data collection and analysis to address systemic racism in our legal system and enable more smart justice reforms going forward. These investments will continue to pay off in terms of human rights, public safety, and savings to taxpayers.

There were also, however, plenty of missed opportunities and causes for concern. The Senate did not advance some key sentencing reforms passed by the House. And the Legislature has not abandoned construction plans that would expand our prison system, despite a broad consensus that we should instead be investing in community-based models and support programs.

We also witnessed a clearly insufficient response to the opioid crisis at a time when Vermont communities are experiencing record overdose deaths. The human toll and cruelty of the failed war on drugs becomes more apparent every year, and while some limited drug policy reforms were advanced this year, legislators and the Scott administration have yet to act on more robust and effective solutions that are available.

Another glaring disappointment was the failure to enact any meaningful police reforms this session. More than 90 percent of Vermonters say they want police to be held accountable when they violate someones rights and, in 2020, the legislature reformed Vermonts use-of-force laws, following widespread protests against police brutality and impunity.

But far more remains to be done, and at the outset of this session there was cause for optimism. Legislative leaders, to their great credit, introduced a bill to end qualified immunity an idea supported by three in four Vermonters to hold police accountable for civil rights violations.

Other bills sought to address over-policing and racial profiling via traffic stops; create a database of untrustworthy police; prevent coercive interrogations that lead to false confessions; and limit no-knock raids that have resulted in preventable deaths in Vermont. These and other reforms are urgently needed to remedy the continuing lack of transparency, oversight, and accountability in Vermont police agencies.

And yet, none of these proposals will be signed into law this year. Every substantive police reform bill introduced this biennium was opposed, gutted, or defeated by law enforcement leaders and defenders of the status quo.

To be clear, many legislators championed these reforms tirelessly. Whether their colleagues balked because they actually believed the cynical and misleading testimony of state law enforcement officials, or because they were afraid of a police backlash, the end result was that, two short years after we as a state recommitted to eradicating systemic racism and reimagining public safety, Vermonts Legislature in 2022 took no meaningful action to back up those commitments.

By effectively giving police veto authority over public safety reform, the legislature is doing a great disservice to the majority of Vermonters who want to see real change.

Going forward, the ACLU and our partners will redouble our efforts to convince more legislators to heed the calls of their constituents and reimagine public safety in Vermont. And we will continue working to hold police accountable in the courts and in our communities. In the meantime, those communities will be worse off as a result of police-led opposition and legislative inaction.

Falko Schilling is Advocacy Director at the ACLU of Vermont. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.

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Vermont Legislature drops the ball on police reform - Bennington Banner

HENRY SREBRNIK Guest Opinion

Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Waves seem to move through an ocean, yet the water always returns to its rest position, since the particles really travel in circles. So its a type of optical illusion.

This is an apt metaphor for politics in the Philippines, now that a Marcos is back in power.

Filipinos are a Malay people who have a political culture unique to southeast Asia. Other than in the southern island of Mindanao, where there is a Muslim population, the vast majority are Roman Catholics.

Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines, the country named for King Philip II of Spain, began in 1565, with the arrival of an expedition from Mexico. It also saw the introduction of Christianity.

The Philippines was ruled under the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain, a vital link between Spains American empire and its Asian and South Pacific possessions, until Mexico became independent in 1821. After that, the colony was directly governed by Spain.

Because it was under Spanish rule for 333 years, the Philippines has many affinities with Latin America, including its political culture.

The archipelago became an American possession after the 1898 Spanish-American War and was under U.S. tutelage for a further 48 years, until granted independence in 1946. This added a veneer of democracy to its political structures.

The country was wracked by political turmoil in the last quarter of the 20th century. After enduring more than a decade of authoritarian rule under President Ferdinand Marcos, the People Power movement in 1986 led a bloodless uprising against his regime.

Marcos had declared martial law in 1972 and took control of the countrys courts, businesses and media. The army and police arrested and tortured thousands of dissidents. The years that followed were one of the darkest periods in the nations history, with widespread human rights abuses.

Marcos, his wife Imelda, and his cronies plundered an estimated $10 billion from public funds while millions of people lived in extreme poverty. They fled to Hawaii where Ferdinand Marcos died in exile three years later.

The 1986 uprising resulted not only in the ouster of Marcos but also in the restoration of democratic government to the Philippines. However, it remained a shaky superstructure.

Whats past is prologue, because the country has again seen rule by autocratic politicians since the election that brought Rodrigo Duterte to power in 2016. He ran on a populist platform and implemented a so-called War on Drugs that led to thousands of extra-legal deaths.

Duterte is facing an International Criminal Court investigation into crimes against humanity. Despite this, he retained the support of many in the Philippines, who see him as the man who tackled street crime and stood up to the countrys rich oligarchs.

Due to term limits, Duterte retired last year, and the 2022 presidential election saw Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos, son of the late dictator, win the presidency in a landslide.

He gained more than 30.8 million votes, good for more than 66 per cent, in the May 9 balloting. Leni Robredo, the incumbent vice-president under Duterte, came a very distant second, with 25 per cent.

The young Marcos previously served in the Philippines House of Representatives and as governor of the familys stronghold in the province of Ilocos Norte. He unsuccessfully ran for vice president in 2016.

His 2022 running mate, Sara Duterte, who is the new vice-president, is the daughter of outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte.

Rodrigo Duterte is close to the Marcos family and had Ferdinand Marcos buried in the countrys Heroes Cemetery when he took office. The families came together prior to the 2022 election and began a social media campaign to rebrand the old Marcos era as a golden age of crime-free prosperity.

By staying away from all the presidential debates and refusing media interviews, Marcos also avoided having his familys record challenged.

The pro-Marcos propaganda campaign also benefited from widespread public disappointment over the failure of the post-1986 administrations to bring significant improvements to the lives of poorer Filipinos.

Judge me not by my ancestors, but by my actions, Marcos said in a statement following his victory. But it is a blow to those in the Philippines who have campaigned for accountability over the abuses of the old Marcos era.

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HENRY SREBRNIK: Philippines election: Back to the Future - Saltwire