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
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom