Pubdate: Mon, 10 Aug 2015 Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA) Copyright: 2015 The Ukiah Daily Journal Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581 Author: Joseph C. Nemeth NONSENSE FROM ELIAS To the Editor: Let me see if I understand Mr. Thomas Elias's opinion. I think he is saying that the longest-running, most socially destructive, and least successful war ever prosecuted by the United States, the Drug War, combined with overzealous criminal sentencing for a wide range of minor infractions of the law, has created a substantial "criminal class" that has, in captivity, proven to be a convenient source of conscript labor. His complaint about Prop. 47 is that it reduces the number of trustworthy, reliable, hardworking conscripts available to perform dangerous work for us, such as fighting California wildfires. It's an interesting argument. Many of those inmates were in prison because of bad laws and blatant violations of the Fourth Amendment. Perhaps we could pass some more bad laws and bend the First Amendment just a bit, and refill the prisons with pundits and op-ed writers. - - Joseph C. Nemeth, Ukiah - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom