The national political debate often seems largely irrelevant to our local quality of life. We focus on general principles that align with an ideology, while the actual regulation of our daily living is left to a small cabal of insiders and activists. I contend our lives are impacted more by the local application of ideology than by the corresponding Federal directives.
In a piece challenging Barack Obama, George Will offers commentary related to both offender catch-and-release and CM Gordon’s arguments against lurking ordinances.
Will writes:
Last July, Obama said that "more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities." Actually, there are more than twice as many black men ages 18 to 24 in college as there are in jail. Last September he said, "We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives." But Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, writing in the institute's City Journal, notes that from 1999 to 2004, violent offenders accounted for all of the increase in the prison population. Furthermore, Mac Donald cites data indicating that:
"In the overwhelming majority of cases, prison remains a lifetime achievement award for persistence in criminal offending. Absent recidivism or a violent crime, the criminal-justice system will do everything it can to keep you out of the state or federal slammer."
Obama sees racism in the incarceration rate: "We have certain sentences that are based less on the kind of crime you commit than on what you look like and where you come from." Indeed, in 2006, blacks, who are less than 13 percent of the population, were 37.5 percent of all state and federal prisoners. About one in 33 black men was in prison, compared with one in 79 Hispanic men and one in 205 white men.
But Mac Donald cites studies of charging and sentencing that demonstrate that the reason more blacks are disproportionately in prison, and for longer terms, is not racism but racial differences in patterns of criminal offenses.
Gordon sees the world much as Obama does. Experience suggests Minneapolis aligns with the national statistical pattern. I suggest energy spent for Presidential candidates and campaigns would have more significant effect if applied to our City Councilmembers.
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