Top House Democrat calls on Biden to pardon ‘working-class Americans’
Top House Democrat calls on Biden to pardon ‘working-class Americans’
Hakeem Jeffries calls for ‘high level of compassion’ towards people in prison after president pardoned son Hunter
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and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses
It's a noble idea in principle. But how the hell can a sizeable number of innocent or excessively punished people be pardoned on a case by case basis in the span of under 7 weeks?
This is an extremely impractical idea to implement, and reeks of empty grandstanding in by Jeffries.
It's also entirely too broad to mean much of anything.
The letter noted that the US has disproportionately incarcerated people of color, low-income individuals, members of the LGBTQ+ community and those with disabilities, and that 90% of the federal prison population was convicted on non-violent offenses.
What are you talking about? If the rich and the powerful get justice why not the rest of us too? Since when has justice been too broad?
That's kind of exactly my point. 90% is still a lot of people and I doubt the database of federal inmates has an "unjustly prosecuted" filter. But there are some non-violent white collar criminals who absolutely belong in prison (including about half of Trump's advisors) so there needs to be something to focus on like marijuana possession or whistleblowers or something else that can narrow the scope.
Here you go.
Despite these actions, the Last Prisoner Project (LPP) notes in a statement that Biden “has yet to release a single person still incarcerated for cannabis through commutation.” Although the pardons granted relief to thousands of people with a conviction on their records, the president’s clemency actions did not address the approximately 3,000 individuals serving time in federal prisons for cannabis related offenses.
So all the "he pardoned weed offenses" was just as much of a lie as "he rescheduled cannabis."
No, it just means he didn't pardon all weed offenses.
cough of already released people cough
Right. He timidly only pardoned the ones who were already out. Because incrementalism is about doing as little as you think you can get away with and demanding everyone act like you solved the whole problem.
Cannabis is still schedule I and these people are still in prison.
That sounds like a great place to start; it also wasn't mentioned in the headline, summary, or original article.
The article was about what Hakeem Jeffries thinks Biden should do.
Yes. And I'm saying that a "case-by-case" analysis of "nonviolent offenses" is impossible in two months and if he wants anything to happen he needs to narrow the scope because non violent is not the same as victimless. The drug offenses you mentioned seem like a fine place to start.
It's not impossible, but it would be interesting to know why you think that.
Because 90% of 150,000 is still 135,000 individuals. How thorough do you want each of those "case by case" checks to be?
https://www.bop.gov/mobile/about/population_statistics.jsp
If you want a blanket pardon for everyone with just a possession of marijuana charge that's cool. But it's not what the letter is asking for.
He could start today and get through at least 35. I'm betting we'll see less than that though.
Anything would be better than nothing. People are saying democrats should challenge norms. I agree. Get these pardons moving.
Just pardon them all to bankrupt the prison system and realize that while you let a few awful people go free most of the people you pardoned and those around them will have markedly better lives.
The wild thing is that at this point it's hard to argue that special interest lobbies are holding him back. He's got virtually nothing to lose and yet he does nothing aside from making the self-interested play.
It's the bare minimum. We are supposed to have justice for all in this country. Not just justice for Hunter Biden.
How about Biden starts now and focuses on getting as many done as possible. What's this angle of pretending it's too difficult?
No matter what Biden does you’re going to complain it isn’t enough
How are you satisfied with Joe Biden pardoning Hunter Biden and calling it a day? The rich and the powerful get justice and that's it? Why defend Biden on this one?
The Democrats refuse to use power for the sake of norms until they personally can benefit from breaking the norm. This doesn't help anyone other than Hunter Biden. They should challenge norms for the benefit of the American people. Biden has the pardon power and plenty of time left. He should use it! edit: typo
It's hard to blame people for wanting to hold on to the hope that the Democratic party* isn't also self-serving. They're wrong, but their hearts are probably in the right place.
Edit: In light of the downvotes, let me clarify: I don't think either the Democrats or Republicans give a rat's ass about their voters. I'm trying to be charitable towards people here.
It's been clear since Pelosi and other Democrats were caught insider trading that most contemporary politicians are self-serving. The distinction we should care about is that for Republicans the cruelty is the point. Where as democrats at least make an effort to make things better even if it's incremental.
Pardons would be an incremental change to a systemic problem that, while insufficient, should be well within the Democrats wheelhouse and not unwelcome.
Democrats need to stop caring about taking the moral high road and start caring about using power to help people. They can't be bothered to see the former through to the end so they might as well do the latter. The core message of Biden's 2020 campaign was a battle for the soul of our nation. Thankfully souls aren't real because Biden lost that battle hard. edit: typos
Let's see what happens. By all means advocate, protest, anything. But don't most presidents do their mass pardons in like the last week if not the last days?
Presumably they were working on most of those pardons before they were issued. However I think actions presidents do at the end of their presidency get more attention. It seems like there have been lots of pardons and they don't all take place at the end of presidencies.
No matter what Biden does you’re going to complain it isn’t enough
Good point.. I assume Hunter gets to keep that 1.4 million of taxes he didnt pay and is now pardoned for, why not give him more of the treasuries money? Why not give all the rich people the money from the treasury?
Nope, he already paid the owed taxes in December of 2020.
Good to know you’re willing to make stuff up to support your bias.
Well thanks for the info I guess. You'll notice I said "I assume" rather than your claim that I was asserting it as fact. But point taken. In return I can suggest you can work on your tone when engaging strangers.
That’s my fault I read your comment wrong. I thought it said “I assume you think it’s ok Hunter gets to keep…”. My bad
Nice of you to say that. My bad too then.
"Sorry for the shitty system we're kind of responsible for. Go see Moana 2!"
he can gather a team of lawyers to go through the files and compile a list. lawyers have evolved past the need for sleep, so they have an extra 8 hours a day to go through files. should be doable in 7 weeks.
Or he could gather double the amount of lawyers and they could all sleep at night. Either way.
Bidens lawyers have been sleeping for 4 years. They can do some work for once in their lives.