Originally Posted by tecoyah

One also is forced to wonder how you would deal with your Mother in prison....unjustly, having fallen victim to the "other 25%".

I would be interested in your thoughts on this scenario Alan.

Originally Posted by dksuddeth

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that Alan is all for a governmental crackdown on society, so long as his rights and liberties are protected. How would he feel if the injustice was forced upon him though?

Originally Posted by pigglet

Well, the thing that I keep thinking about is that these scenarios have been played out countless times throughout history, and every time a society gets all ape-shit totalitarian, corruption spreads like wild fire, the people get super pissed off, and they kick the shit out of the government.

So the real question I'm left with is whether alansmithee is serious in his positions, or whether he's trying to be incendiary?

Oh what the heck, one last question: If the government is justified in throwing people in prison if they think they're bad guys, or if they might be bad guys, etc...do you expect the people of accused of being bad guys to sit back and take it...or do you expect them to say "the heck with this crap, I think I'm going to get a little revolution going on?"

Let's say this

"More than 5.6 million Americans are in prison or have served time there, according to a new report by the Justice Department released Sunday. That's 1 in 37 adults living in the United States, the highest incarceration level in the world...If current trends continue, it means that a black male in the United States would have about a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison during his lifetime. For a Hispanic male, it's 1 in 6; for a white male, 1 in 17."

Then, if 25% of 5.6 million is 1.4 million (which it is)...then you're saying you're fine with about 1.4 million people being in prison incorrectly (assumiing that 5.6 million deserve to be there in the first place) and don't think that's going to cause any problems? I've detected that you have some issues with the partiality of the legal system towards convicted black people...you don't think that an incarceration rate of 25% more blacks in prison, fully in the knowledge that there's a ton of false convictions is going to cause massive problems?

Hmmm....

edit It might be interesting to juxtapose this position with the fact that (in my opinion) we're justifiably freaking out as a nation over somewhere from a hundred to a couple thousand potentially dead in New Orleans, and the potential "sluggishness" of our government to deal fairly and adequately with the people there. I think, and I could be wrong, but I *think* that people in the U.S. would get so crazy with the cheeze whiz it would make Detroit after a Red Wings Stanley Cup look like an upset child knocking over a house of cards.

double edit alan maybe you're trying to claim you're happy with the status quo, in that we assuredly have false convictions already?

Originally Posted by martinguerre

Never said you did. I was explaining to djtestudo why i beleived that there was very little reaction to your statements. I mean provocative only in relation to other view points here. Most liberals here don't like the idea of a police state, or trust the government that much right now. Your statements clearly conflict with that value set. Many of the conservatives here are liberatarian, which again clearly conflicts with your statements.

Openly declaring that you believe that less freedom is a good thing is clearly meant to garner a response. Do i really need to be saying any of this? It seems rather straightforward to me.