Category Archives: War On Drugs

Four white marble urns are placed on a table at the front of Panay Chapel. Its a Sunday morning in Quezon City, and only the distant sound of an occasional passing car can be heard. Sarah Celiz steps forward from the pews and helps to cover the urns with a crisp white cloth. A wooden cross is gently placed on top.

Two of the urns contain the ashes of Celizs sons, Almon and Dicklie. They were killed, six months apart, in 2017 during Philippine president Rodrigo Dutertes so-called war on drugs, a merciless crackdown that mostly targeted young men living in poor, urban areas. Celiz, who was left caring for 12 grandchildren, could barely afford for her sons to be buried. She managed to pay about 10,000 pesos (150) for two temporary apartment graves, concrete boxes piled as high as eight stories, in a public cemetery in Caloocan, greater Manila. The grave leases expired this year.

Now Almon and Dicklies remains sit in urns in the chapel, where they will be blessed and handed to the family. They have been cremated with support from the St Arnold Janssen Kalinga Centre, a Catholic charity, which is helping families affected by the drug war who are unable to afford permanent burials. Without such support, families risk losing their loved ones remains completely.

Its likely many more victims will face evictions from cemeteries as the five-year leases on their graves expire. The international criminal court, which is investigating abuses related to anti-drugs operations, estimates that between 12,000 and 30,000 people were killed from July 2016 to March 2019.

Victims were often buried in apartment graves. These are far more affordable than permanent sites or cremations, but theyre only temporary. After the lease expires, families are responsible for finding an alternative arrangement.

Cemeteries do not notify families of the impending expiration of apartment graves, said Father Flaviano Villanueva, a Catholic priest and the founder of St Arnold Janssen Kalinga Centre. Instead, graves can be cleared without warning. If you go at the right time, you will see piles of sacks of bones placed, collected, gathered, and later on buried in a common gravesite, he said.

For families, it means losing their loved ones a second time.

Celiz said she learned last year that she had a brain tumour, and wanted to be sure that her sons would be laid to rest with dignity. Paying additional money to the cemetery wasnt an option. Costs related to their deaths in 2017 including their grave apartments, burials, wakes and an autopsy for Almon had already totalled 77,000 peso (US$1,500).

Though Celiz runs a sari-sari shop (a mini, neigbourhood convenience store) and sells clothes, she is also supporting her two sons children, who are all at school. Her husband used to work alongside Almon and Dicklie as a painter, but hasnt worked since their deaths.

Almon, a father of five, was killed aged 32 on 6 February 2017 when a police task force arrived at a wake he had attended. There was a commotion and he tried to run away. He was shot in the chest and arm.

Six months later, Dicklie, his 31-year-old younger brother, was killed. Celiz remembers seeing his body in a funeral parlour; he had been shot multiple times, including in the head, chest and arm. His eyes seemed to be crying, she said. Celiz was told that Dicklie, a father of seven, had been taken to a police station and a bag placed over his head. His body was found abandoned nearby.

The St Arnold Janssen Kalinga Centre, which has exhumed more than 50 bodies over the past year, is funding autopsies for the victims, which could provide evidence for prosecutors either domestically or internationally.

Some autopsies have shown clear irregularities: despite victims death certificates listing illnesses such as pneumonia or sepsis as causes of death, examination found they had been shot.

Duterte will leave office on 30 June having reached the end of his single, six-year term limit. He remains popular at home, though his war on drugs is now being investigated by the international criminal court. His successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, has said he will only allow prosecutors from the court to travel to the country as tourists, effectively shielding him from justice. Dutertes daughter, Sara, has been elected the next vice-president.

At Panay chapel, Celizs weeps as she speaks before the congregation. She is relieved, she says, that her sons have been laid to rest in a much better place. I told my sons: dont worry about the obligations left, I will do it, I will take care of your children. Please guide me, my sons. I will fight to get justice for you. Thank you, my sons, for showing your love when you were still with us.

As the service draws to an end, a prayer is read for the souls of those killed. The urns are blessed and sprinkled with holy water. Celiz, and the relatives of other victims, are invited forward to collect their urns. Celiz takes her sons urn carefully in her arms, and hugs it closely.

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Victims of Dutertes drug war in Philippines exhumed as leases run out on their graves - The Guardian

Another mother a widow has taken center stage as the country weeps for her and with her. Once again, the nation is grieving. Once again, fear, despair, and uncertainty enveloped the country as they did in mid-2016 when President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed a bloody war on drugs.

As someone who covered the drug war and witnessed Vice President Leni Robredos campaign, I couldnt help but notice parallel images in these events. There seemed to be, I thought, eerie similarities or stark differences between Dutertes first six months and last five months in office.

For one, unpredicted nighttime coverages have become a staple.

In 2016, it was to cover one of the countrys darkest chapters in history.

In 2022, it was to witness an organic peoples campaign unfold and fight to preserve our collective history.

Unexpected numbers of bodies turned up in the streets at night.

In Robredos sorties, these were warm bodies that filled venues with a massive crowd. With the drug war, these were cold dead bodies collected by funeral workers from their homes or dumped on the roads for passersby to see.

The police are disputing the actual figures once again.

Cops used to invite journalists to their so-called anti-drug operations and referred to these killings as accomplishments. But after the Duterte administration drew flak from the international community, the accurate number of killings now depends on who is talking. Human rights advocates say the victims could go as high as 30,000 to 40,000. The administration says its a little over 6,000.

The number of warm bodies that trooped to Robredos sorties was disputed, too not because the numbers embarrassed her camp, but because the mammoth crowd, critics say, embarrassed the camp of her opponent and their allies, including politicians who promised Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at least 800,000 votes.

Manipulating drug war numbers showed the weakness of the campaign. Conversely, manipulating the crowd turnout in Robredos rallies showed the strength of her movement.

Placards were back on the street again.

There was nothing quite like ink or cutouts on paper to reflect the parallels of these events.

Once a tool of oppression in 2016, the placards came back with a vengeance by becoming one of the tools to express hopes and aspirations.

Witty and quirky puns written on cardboard captured the spirit of resistance in Robredos campaign. The placards, which carried hopes and dreams for a better country, were raised in the air for the Vice President to see and read. Sometimes, they used the placards to criticize the administration, too.

Of course, protest signboards were not new to rallies. But for the first time, a leader onstage would read them for the world to hear, allowing herself to connect to her audience and allowing the audience to feel seen by her.

Meanwhile, drug war placards were brutal, jarring, and grotesque. They may have been written in different dialects as they spread terror in neighborhoods, but they all carried a single message: death has arrived.

Jokes have it that one only needs to craft a pusher wag tularan cardboard and dump it before a dead body if one wants investigators to take their hands off a murder case.

The first and last months of Dutertes term reflected the values that leaders inspire in or evoke from their supporters.

The drug war, which was carried out through Oplan Tokhang, tokhang meaning knock and plead, saw blood spilled on the streets of poor neighborhoods.

Five years later, Robredos supporters would embark on a house-to-house campaign to knock on doors and plead before voters to consider their presidential candidate and her slate.

Those who heeded Robredos call included mothers who lost their children in the drug war. Nanette Castillo told me that if the police were listening, she would like to say to them that the H2H campaign was the true essence of tokhang.

To say that hopes crashed when election results came in on May 9 is an understatement.

Fear, despair, and uncertainty enveloped the country once again. After all, the defeat of Robredos ticket did not only signify the return of the Marcoses to Malacanang. It also meant the extension of Dutertes reign.

On May 13, hours before Robredo thanked her supporters in a massive thanksgiving rally at Ateneo de Manila University, Luzviminda Siapo exhumed the bones of her eldest child, Raymart, in a Malabon cemetery after the five-year lease on his niche expired.

Thousands waited for Robredo to show up the same way thousands of Filipinos sympathized with Siapo when she came home in 2017 to bury her son. Raymart was killed by unidentified armed men hours after barangay officials confronted him with an allegation that he sold marijuana.

Although Robredo did not directly contest the results, and Siapo refused a second round of autopsy for her son, both mothers hoped that the truth would come out soon.

Robredo said her legal team was already looking into alleged poll irregularities. Siapo, meanwhile, pinned her hope on Robredos victory. But with the Vice Presidents defeat, she was left with no choice but to bank on divine intervention to nudge the conscience of Raymarts killers.

For these mothers, there is no moving on, only moving forward. Rappler.com

Aie Balagtas See is a freelance journalist working on human rights issues with a focus on the Philippine war on drugs. Follow her on Twitter (@AieBalagtasSee) or email her ataie.bsee@gmail.comfor comments.

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[OPINION] The Robredo campaign and the war on drugs: Differences and similarities - Rappler

By David M. GreenwaldExecutive Editor

San Francisco, CA The San Francisco Standard ran a hit piece yesterday, Despite a surging fentanyl crisis that killed nearly 500 people last year in San Francisco, the office of District Attorney Chesa Boudin did not secure a single conviction for dealing the deadly opioid for cases filed during 2021, according to a review of court data.

They found case information from San Francisco Superior Court showing that Boudins office secured just three total convictions for possession with intent to sell drugs in 2021: two for methamphetamine and one for a case including heroin and cocaine.

The article puts some blame on immigration status, but also, The DAs office has put an emphasis on diversion programspartly out of a commitmentto reducing incarceration for lower-level crimes and partly due to efforts to keep the jail population down during Covid.

The article also notes that most of these dealers are themselves low-level offenders.

Were not talking about folks that are dealing in kilos, were talking about folks that are dealing in grams, said Marshall Khine, the offices chief assistant district attorney. Many times, because they are low-level offenders on non-violent offenses, we also take into consideration some of the stressors, particularly because some of the individuals that we see are trafficked themselves.

Naturally, critics of Boudin have been hammering him on this issue.

The article notes that critics of Boudins policies argue that the practice has gone too far. They accuse Boudin of creating a revolving door where the drug dealers fueling San Franciscos overdose epidemic are receiving slaps on the wrist while hundreds are dying on the streets. In 2020 and 2021, about 1,350 people died from overdoses in San Francisco, many of them from fentanyl.

Anna Tong a co-author of the article, tweeted, We obtained court data showing @chesaboudin did not secure any fentanyl drug dealing convictions last year, instead giving an alternate conviction that protects from deportation.

She added, Many of the drug dealers are undocumented Honduran nationals, and the DA says theyre doing it because they are required to consider the avoidance of adverse immigration consequences in the plea negotiation process as one factor.

Brooke Jenkins, the former DA who is one of the spokespeople for the recall effort, tweeted, Misdemeanors for selling fentanyl? Is that holding dealers accountable? To Chesa Boudin it is.

She added, No one is advocating for the War on Drugs but this is the far opposite extreme and is costing lives.

Critics also add, Just because more incarceration does not improve outcomes, it does not mean no incarceration is the answer. Chesas policies have created a wave of deaths 3x worse than covid.

But have they? Critics are quick to point out the spike in San Francisco overdose deaths but fail to note the huge increases started in 2018 and 2019 before Boudin was even DA. Moreover, drug overdose deaths are spiking across the country regardless of local law enforcement policies.

Politico last week, for example, reported, More than 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, a new high for the United States as communities across the nation remain in the grip of a decades-long deadly opioid epidemic.

US drug control responses have helped to fuel that. When leaders realized that doctors were overprescribing prescription pain pills, they responded by making it much harder to get such pills. That forced addicts to heroin and, more dangerously, fentanyl.

Thus, Deaths from opioids rose from 70,029 in 2020 to 80,816 in 2021, while deaths from drugs including synthetic opioids like fentanyl, psychostimulants and cocaine also rose over the course of the year.

Francisco Ugarte, who specializes in Immigration Case for the San Francisco Public Defenders office, yesterday pushed back on the SF Standard article in a tweet stream, calling it a shockingly disingenuous piece about the drug crisis noting that it implies that no one gets prosecuted for selling fentanyl, that immigrants are bringing crime, and that Chesa Boudin is somehow responsible for overdose deaths.

He called the notion that that the DAs office had just three drug dealing convictions in SF wildly false, worthy of an immediate retraction.

He said, Come to SF Superior Court and see for yourself the revolving door of brown and Black human beings, often caged, charged with drug sales, who plead to felonies. Penal Code 32 (accessory to a felony) has always been considered a drug-sale related offense.

He also noted, The insinuation here is that if Chesa simply put more people in jail, he would save lives. This ignores realitythe Drug War was a failure. It also ignores a global addiction epidemic.

He added, More prosecutions = less addiction, and less drug availability. For a data driven outfit, it is shocking to see this underlying assumption go unchecked. No data anywhere suggests that more prosecutions of drug sales, or stiffer sentences, will solve the problem.

In fact, he argued, the opposite was true. As federal and state govts pour $$ into prosecutionsexponentially increasing jails, prosecutors, special agents, confidential informants, etc.drug availability has actually increased, and drug trafficking organizations have become stronger.

This is one of the big problems and lies of the war on drugs. Drugs are not a supply-based crime market. The opposite is true. It is driven by the demands and addiction. All you do if you arrest a bunch of so-called drug dealers is displace one drug dealer for another. And as some studies have noted, its actually very dangerous to do that because when one supplier is removed, five will then battle to take over their turf.

As the DA noted, we are not talking about people dealing in kilos here, we are talking low-level drug dealers. We cannot arrest our way out of the problem.

As the Drug Policy Aliance points out, Policymakers in the United States increasingly recognize that drug use should be treated as a public health issue instead of a criminal issue. Most, however, continue to support harsh criminal sentences for people who are involved with drug selling or distribution. Many imagine these people are predators or pushers who force drugs on the vulnerable, contributing to addiction, overdose and violent crime.

The problem as they find: Imprisoning people who sell drugs does not reduce the drug supply, increase drug prices, or prevent drug use.

Why? Because, as I noted, When a person who sells drugs is imprisoned, they are inevitably replaced by a new recruit or by remaining sellers, as long as demand remains unaffected.

Further, DPA notes, Framing people who sell drugs as perpetrators and people who use drugs as victims is also misguided because there is extensive overlap between these two groups. A 2012 survey found that 43% of people who reported selling drugs in the past year also reported that they met the criteria for a substance use disorder. In addition, laws against drug selling are so broadly written that it is easy for people caught with drugs for personal use to get charged as dealers, even if they were not involved in selling at all.

So basically, the SF Standard and critics of Boudin are attacking him because San Francisco, like the rest of the country is facing a drug crisis and is struggling to get the resources it needs for the harm-reduction approachesthat are actually proven to work rather than incarceration.

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Commentary: Fueled by Dishonest Journalism Critics of DA Boudin Seem to Want to Bring Back the War on Drugs Even Though It Fails - The Peoples...

Stating that the states War on drugs 2.0 is a massive success, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh Wednesday said the state law enforcement agencies have seized illegal drugs worth over Rs 182 crore in the international market and have arrested as many as 140 drug traffickers since March 20.

The arrested traffickers include international drug kingpins, most of whom are serving a jail term of 14-15 years, he said.

The Chief Minister also said that the law enforcement agencies have destroyed a total of 380 acre of poppy cultivation in the two months. With the formation of the new government, we have witnessed massive success in the War on Drugs campaign, he said.

Singh said what is more encouraging for the campaign is that many communities residing in the state, particularly in the hill areas, have voluntarily joined the campaign against drugs.

On May 6, the Poumai tribe, the second-largest tribe of the Nagas in Manipur, declared all the areas under them as a drug-free zone and said they will stand against poppy plantations, said Singh.

Subsequently, more tribes like the Tangkhul Naga, Inpui, Liangmai, Ronmei and Zeme tribes among others have also joined the campaign, added Singh.

Today we can see support and cooperation from almost all communities residing in the state, the Manipur Chief Minister said, adding, For the first time in February 2021, in support of the War on Drugs, a village in Ukhrul, Peh (Paoyi) Village voluntarily destroyed poppy cultivation in their area, for which the village was rewarded with Rs 10 lakh.

We have received reports that the villagers have already started alternative cropping and some plantations like ginger have already begun bearing fruit, he added.

Official sources said the narcotic police have acquired permission from the court to dispose of the narcotic drugs seized during the separate operations. The drugs include 719.25 kg of ganja, 940 gram of brown sugar, 18.7555 kg of heroin powder, 87 kg of WY Tablets (Methamphetamine) and 20 kg of crystal ice (Methamphetamine).

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War on Drugs 2.0 a massive success: Manipur CM N Biren Singh - The Indian Express

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

Oakland officials are proposing a ballot measure that would divert millions of dollars in cannabis tax revenue to a separate fund to pay for services for victims of the War on Drugs.

The proposal, called the Emerald New Deal, would move about $7 million in annual cannabis tax revenue from the citys general fund to pay for services such as mental health services, housing support, and community and economic development.

The War on Drugs generally refers to the U.S. governments decades-long push to stop the distribution of illegal narcotics and resulted in mass incarceration for decades that disproportionately targeted Black and brown people. Despite that, the Emerald New Deal isnt race specific, said Council Member Loren Taylor, who is one of the sponsors of the proposal.

Bay Area cities, including Oakland, have tried to make up for the harm through cannabis equity programs that prioritized those harmed by the War on Drugs for legal marijuana business permits, with varying success.

If passed, the measure would create a new nine-person commission, appointed by council members and the mayor, that would determine who qualifies for services under the program. People who were incarcerated or had a loved one put behind bars due to the War on Drugs would be helped by the programs and would hold at least five seats on the commission.

The proposal, introduced by Taylor, Treva Reid and Noel Gallo, could be placed on the November ballot if it gets council approval. Taylor and Reid are running for mayor.

This is critical because we talk about equity and addressing the vestiges of institutional racism, the War on Drugs, but we dont put real dollars behind that, Taylor said. When we talk about reparative investment, having that locked in as something thats a commitment from our city with a dedicated revenue stream is important to make the progress we are trying to make.

The plan would also reinvest some money into the citys cannabis equity program, which was created in 2017 to reserve permits for people who were convicted of a marijuana-related offense in the city.

The program also set aside permits for people who earn an income less than 80% of the citys average median income, which was $68,200 for one person in 2017, or had lived for 10 years in an East or West Oakland neighborhood that saw a high number of cannabis arrests.

Some equity businesses have said the program hasnt lived up to its promise.

Taylor said the proposal will come to council committee on May 24 and will include a financial analysis from the citys finance department.

Sarah Ravani (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani

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Oaklands new push to help victims of the War on Drugs: Ballot measure would divert cannabis tax revenue - San Francisco Chronicle