Daily Archives: November 30, 2021

America loves to punish. It was part of the colonial DNA that white pilgrims brought to the “new land” from the old land of England. There was pillorying, burning at the stake, hanging, drawing, quartering, whippings, and a litany of other torturous punishments, sometimes for just pissing in public mud street.

After America became a full-fledged nation in 1791 with a ratified constitution, it began to experiment with both the need and purpose for such punishments. The pilgrims’ purposes for revenge and torture punishments had not worked too well in an expanding, land-grabbing nation, although these kinds of punishment were frequently inflicted on Native Americans, African-Americans, and immigrants from Ireland, China and Italy when they ventured out of their social class.

Thus, America, in many ways, was built not only on its ability to punish but in its innate willingness to inflict punishment.

By the 20^th century as time changed societies, America had pretty much settled on five purposes for punishment: deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution and restitution.

Since 1900 under this five-purpose punishment-model, America has carried out nearly 9,000 executions and today has more than 200,000 people incarcerated in its prison system serving life sentences—that represents 83 percent of the people in the entire world serving life sentences, according to the Sentencing Project.

Of the life sentenced inmates, nearly 56,000 are serving their sentences without the benefit of parole. Plus, there are another 43,000 inmates serving what is known as “virtual life sentences”—sentences so long that they exceed life expectations.

Under the five-purpose punishment model, America now incarcerates roughly 25 percent of the world’s prisoners although our nation represents only 5 percent of the world’s population

That is what the five-purpose punishment model has accomplished for America—the largest, most expensive, least effective, and one of the most brutal penal systems in the world.

There is one core fact about the America’s five-purpose punishment model—it has always disproportionately punished people of color, the economically disadvantaged, and the intellectually disenfranchised. This irrefutable fact demonstrates the historical systemic racism in this five-purpose punishment model—and I really don’t care how many “critical race theory” opponents would rather color this fact out of the history books.

Finally, here is the last example of the way the five-purpose punishment model works in real time:

On January 6, 2021, a white mob of insurrectionists—led by white supremacists groups the FBI has labeled “domestic terrorists“—stormed the nation’s Capitol Building. Many in that riotous mob had a specific intent to kill the Vice-President of the United States and its Speaker of the House of Representatives. Five people died as a result of the insurrection, four police officers committed suicide, hundreds of people were injured, dozens of Congressional members were either terrorized or traumatized, and millions of dollars in damage done to the Capitol Building.

Of the roughly 600 people arrested in the wake of the failed coup attempt, more than a dozen of them have been punished with probation, home detention, days of jail incarceration, and a couple with minor prison sentences, the longest being nearly 4 years.

Compare those punishments to the 4,000 life sentences imposed on drug offenders—two-third of whom are black or members of a minority ethnic group report the Sentencing Project—convicted in mostly minor drug deals that did not cause a loss of life or damage to property.

So, here we are: Kill a cop in an insurrection and get four years if you are white or sell a pound of weed and get a life sentence, sometimes without parole, if you are black.

The result: there are murderous white insurrectionists (through the “law of parties”) serving home detention while there are black petty criminals serving life sentences (under “three strikes”) for stealing a pizza.

There was a time in America during the Jim Crow era when a black man served more time in prison for killing a goat than a white man served for killing his wife.

The January 6 insurrection proves that America has once again embraced Jim Crow.

The 39-year-old career criminal who drove his vehicle into a  “Christmas Parade” crowd on Sunday killing five elderly band members, injuring 40 or more—mostly children—in Waukesha Town, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb.

Brooks has a criminal history involving arrests and/or convictions for drugs, illegal possession of firearms, violent assaults, sexual assaults of a minor, endangering public safety, disorderly conduct, and bail jumping.

Brooks was on a $1,000 bail at the time of the Christmas Parade for assaulting his female companion earlier this year by punching her in the face and running over her with the same vehicle used in the parade attack.

The Milwaukee District Attorney’s Office had initially requested a $10,000 bail before reducing it to $7,000and finally allowing his release in September on the $1,000 bail in the girlfriend assault case.

There is now a lot of finger pointing about who is responsible for Brooks’ release on the unusually low $1,000 bail considering his violent criminal history and an outstanding arrest warrant in another state for the sexual assault of a minor.

But there are two other equally important issues that should be investigated.

First, was Brooks a law enforcement informant, either for federal or state authorities? He obviously got preferred treatment on bail, prosecution and sentencing matters throughout his lengthy criminal history. Smells like a “rat” to me.

Why would a District Attorney drop a $10,000 bail to a $1,000  bail for a violent career criminal?

 It simply doesn’t pass the “rat smell” test.

Second, why didn’t the U.S. Attorney’s office arrest and prosecute Brooks for a being a felon in possession of a firearm?

He was a convicted felon, he illegally possessed a firearm, and he used those firearms to threaten and assault people. Given Brooks’ criminal history, a federal conviction for a felon in possession of a firearm would have resulted in a ten-year prison sentence.

So why did both state and federal law enforcement officials turn a blind eye to Brooks’ violent criminal history which certainly led to the tragic Christmas Parade deaths?

That fucking rat smell is really getting annoying.