Freedom Rider: Obama's Prison Charade
Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on Wed, 07/15/2015 - 00:30
. black mass incarceration
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Barack Obama attempts to create a phony legacy as the prison "reform"
president by extending clemency to 46 non-violent drug offenders - not all
that many, by presidential standards. Yet, he went to the U.S. Supreme Court
to keep 5,000 non-violent crack-cocaine offenders locked up. Obama's "sudden
desire to look like the Great Emancipator is an ongoing publicity junket."
Freedom Rider: Obama's Prison Charade
by BAR editor and senior columnist 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.
Obama is a master of appearing to do what he doesn't do. That is not all
marketing skill; he also relies on a compliant corporate media and a
spineless black misleadership class to fool nearly all of the people all of
the time. His sudden desire to look like the Great Emancipator is an ongoing
publicity junket. On July 16, 2015, he is scheduled to visit the El Reno
medium security federal prison in Oklahoma. His trip will be part of VICE
news documentary scheduled for broadcast on the HBO television network.
It is important to remember that Obama is still a duplicitous back stabber,
not the lesser evil but the more effective evil. 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. Despite the
hoopla surrounding the commutations for 46 people, he falls short of the
pardons given by his predecessors. He has yet to use any of the powers at
his disposal to bring justice to black people. Of course he will show up at
El Reno and use black people as a propaganda back drop, but those people can
expect little else from him. It is insulting in the extreme for the
president to talk about incarceration as some knotty problem he can't quite
figure out when he could have given thousands of people the right to seek
their freedom.
"Despite the hoopla surrounding the commutations for 46 people, he falls
short of the pardons given by his predecessors."
Obama is able to play the same game over and over because he is enabled by
his idol worshipping defenders. They never met an Obama lie they didn't like
and they are happy to help him appear powerless when it suits him. The
president can claim and exercise a right to assassinate American citizens
without charge or trial, exact regime change in Libya, or give billions to
Ukraine but suddenly claims to be impotent if black Americans need help for
any reason.
After the meager justice dispensed for 46 people, Obama took his phony show
on the road at the annual NAACP convention. The once august organization is
a leader among the misleaders, giving Obama cover in exchange for access and
money. There was no better arena for the president to give an appearance of
substance when he really offers only illusion.
"Mass incarceration makes our country worse off and we need to do something
about it," was but one of the meaningless platitudes the president uttered.
If the president wanted to make a dent in the federal prison population he
could have used Democrat majorities in Congress in 2009 and 2010 to do that
and more. Of course neither he nor other Democrats sought to raise the
minimum wage at that time either. Curiously, anything that Obama and the
Democrats didn't change when they had the chance is now open for discussion
after the opportunities have disappeared.
Obama doesn't really have a problem with mass incarceration. After all it
keeps Cousin Pookie locked up. As far as the president is concerned, black
America deserve nothing more than to stay behind bars.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is
widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well
as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York
City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Freedom Rider: Obama's Prison Charade
Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on Wed, 07/15/2015 - 00:30
. black mass incarceration
/freedom_rider_Obama_prison_charade /freedom_rider_Obama_prison_charade
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Barack Obama attempts to create a phony legacy as the prison "reform"
president by extending clemency to 46 non-violent drug offenders - not all
that many, by presidential standards. Yet, he went to the U.S. Supreme Court
to keep 5,000 non-violent crack-cocaine offenders locked up. Obama's "sudden
desire to look like the Great Emancipator is an ongoing publicity junket."
Freedom Rider: Obama's Prison Charade
by BAR editor and senior columnist 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.
Obama is a master of appearing to do what he doesn't do. That is not all
marketing skill; he also relies on a compliant corporate media and a
spineless black misleadership class to fool nearly all of the people all of
the time. His sudden desire to look like the Great Emancipator is an ongoing
publicity junket. On July 16, 2015, he is scheduled to visit the El Reno
medium security federal prison in Oklahoma. His trip will be part of VICE
news documentary scheduled for broadcast on the HBO television network.
It is important to remember that Obama is still a duplicitous back stabber,
not the lesser evil but the more effective evil. 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. Despite the
hoopla surrounding the commutations for 46 people, he falls short of the
pardons given by his predecessors. He has yet to use any of the powers at
his disposal to bring justice to black people. Of course he will show up at
El Reno and use black people as a propaganda back drop, but those people can
expect little else from him. It is insulting in the extreme for the
president to talk about incarceration as some knotty problem he can't quite
figure out when he could have given thousands of people the right to seek
their freedom.
"Despite the hoopla surrounding the commutations for 46 people, he falls
short of the pardons given by his predecessors."
Obama is able to play the same game over and over because he is enabled by
his idol worshipping defenders. They never met an Obama lie they didn't like
and they are happy to help him appear powerless when it suits him. The
president can claim and exercise a right to assassinate American citizens
without charge or trial, exact regime change in Libya, or give billions to
Ukraine but suddenly claims to be impotent if black Americans need help for
any reason.
After the meager justice dispensed for 46 people, Obama took his phony show
on the road at the annual NAACP convention. The once august organization is
a leader among the misleaders, giving Obama cover in exchange for access and
money. There was no better arena for the president to give an appearance of
substance when he really offers only illusion.
"Mass incarceration makes our country worse off and we need to do something
about it," was but one of the meaningless platitudes the president uttered.
If the president wanted to make a dent in the federal prison population he
could have used Democrat majorities in Congress in 2009 and 2010 to do that
and more. Of course neither he nor other Democrats sought to raise the
minimum wage at that time either. Curiously, anything that Obama and the
Democrats didn't change when they had the chance is now open for discussion
after the opportunities have disappeared.
Obama doesn't really have a problem with mass incarceration. After all it
keeps Cousin Pookie locked up. As far as the president is concerned, black
America deserve nothing more than to stay behind bars.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is
widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well
as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com
