The senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others have sparked a national reckoning on the criminal justice system. There is a growing consensus that the law enforcement apparatus in the United States is plagued with systemic racism and needs reform. But when voters in California, the country's most populous state, go to the polls in November, they will consider a ballot initiative that
I always thought Costco leaned a little more to the left than right. Could you print a phone number for Costco headquarters or for however you try to contact them
At first, I thought the For-Profit-Prison system was behind this, but then I checked and saw Gov. Newsome signed a bill to end the use of these despicable prisons as of Jan. 1, 2020. I simply do not understand why Californians would roll back programs that have demonstrably reduced crimes in exchange for unfair laws and worsening the state's overcrowded prison system. We can only hope the citizens of California are smart enough to ignore the corporate and police union-sponsored propaganda and vote down Prop 20.
The seeming contradiction between companies that oppose racism—and I believe their opposition is genuine—but support increased criminalization for shoplifting, is easily explained if the factors of poverty and prison are not included in our discussions of racism.
I see shoplifters, and their dutiful security guard nabbers, regularly in local chain stores. I do not defend theft, in the absence of any confounding context, but who, in a truly honest moment, can fault someone who’s constantly food-insecure, homeless and broke, or dealing with addiction for which they cannot find rehab, for breaking the law to escape some version of human deprivation? And that describes many, many thousands—perhaps millions—of Americans right now. Putting prototypical “lifters” behind bars costs more than the loss to theft, does nothing for recidivism and does nothing to lift the offender out of the circumstances that nurture transgression.
And consider this frequent spectacle: a couple of surly, “just doing my job” security personnel accost and surround an undernourished, ragged and resentful, impoverished and world-weary, homeless person, who’s hopelessly dredging up denials of shoplifting with half-baked legal terms from the street, while co-conspirators timidly hang around, also desperate but wisely out of apprehension radius. Everyone present for this entire scenario—shoppers, checkout workers and guards, passers-by and their wide-eyed kids, exasperated progressives, arrogantly satisfied Magats and the cops on the way—should all feel utterly humiliated. I do.
There was a time when I would try intervening, but never to any avail. Away goes one person to jail, apprehended for pilfering the retail shelves of gluttony, stocked with 23 brands of yogurt that could easily be made at home but instead is marketed to enjoy in individual, plastic packaging, all to enjoin the notion that a rich and democratic society is a spoiled and punitive society.
If you do not share my humiliation over that, then I won’t ask to share the unctuous ooze from hapless lab-rats participating in corporate America’s “Protocol for the Preservation of Ancient, Gratuitous Inhumanity.”
So let me get this straight. Prison reform legislation reduced the overcrowded prison population in Cali and now they will be voting to wipe out all that progress because why??? Prisons need people in them because we just can’t have them standing around empty or partially empty? Is that a valid reason to eradicate progress? Always said California was a little on the nutty side. If they vote for this, I can see I wasn’t too far wrong.
The #JusticeForVictims hashtag is awful political theater. The people using don't care about victims except to use them as a political football.
Does anybody else think like I do? Businesses should stay out of politics!
Costco actually surprises me. They have won huge props for bucking the pay ratio trend in the US, paying the CEO well less than $1 million per year.
Always playing both sides of the field, aren't they?These grocery stores should be boycotted.
Cooper sounds like piece of crap. The type of cop that ends up in news for his bad behavior!
I always thought Costco leaned a little more to the left than right. Could you print a phone number for Costco headquarters or for however you try to contact them
Private prisons make people into nothing more than "cash cows" for fat men. There is no rehabilitation. There is nothing. There is profit.
At first, I thought the For-Profit-Prison system was behind this, but then I checked and saw Gov. Newsome signed a bill to end the use of these despicable prisons as of Jan. 1, 2020. I simply do not understand why Californians would roll back programs that have demonstrably reduced crimes in exchange for unfair laws and worsening the state's overcrowded prison system. We can only hope the citizens of California are smart enough to ignore the corporate and police union-sponsored propaganda and vote down Prop 20.
The seeming contradiction between companies that oppose racism—and I believe their opposition is genuine—but support increased criminalization for shoplifting, is easily explained if the factors of poverty and prison are not included in our discussions of racism.
I see shoplifters, and their dutiful security guard nabbers, regularly in local chain stores. I do not defend theft, in the absence of any confounding context, but who, in a truly honest moment, can fault someone who’s constantly food-insecure, homeless and broke, or dealing with addiction for which they cannot find rehab, for breaking the law to escape some version of human deprivation? And that describes many, many thousands—perhaps millions—of Americans right now. Putting prototypical “lifters” behind bars costs more than the loss to theft, does nothing for recidivism and does nothing to lift the offender out of the circumstances that nurture transgression.
And consider this frequent spectacle: a couple of surly, “just doing my job” security personnel accost and surround an undernourished, ragged and resentful, impoverished and world-weary, homeless person, who’s hopelessly dredging up denials of shoplifting with half-baked legal terms from the street, while co-conspirators timidly hang around, also desperate but wisely out of apprehension radius. Everyone present for this entire scenario—shoppers, checkout workers and guards, passers-by and their wide-eyed kids, exasperated progressives, arrogantly satisfied Magats and the cops on the way—should all feel utterly humiliated. I do.
There was a time when I would try intervening, but never to any avail. Away goes one person to jail, apprehended for pilfering the retail shelves of gluttony, stocked with 23 brands of yogurt that could easily be made at home but instead is marketed to enjoy in individual, plastic packaging, all to enjoin the notion that a rich and democratic society is a spoiled and punitive society.
If you do not share my humiliation over that, then I won’t ask to share the unctuous ooze from hapless lab-rats participating in corporate America’s “Protocol for the Preservation of Ancient, Gratuitous Inhumanity.”
So let me get this straight. Prison reform legislation reduced the overcrowded prison population in Cali and now they will be voting to wipe out all that progress because why??? Prisons need people in them because we just can’t have them standing around empty or partially empty? Is that a valid reason to eradicate progress? Always said California was a little on the nutty side. If they vote for this, I can see I wasn’t too far wrong.