Benjamin Lowy / VII Network for Newsweek

Anti-gang advocate David Kennedy in Hempstead, N.Y.

According to Prison Blogger Michael Santos,

David Kennedy, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, uses common sense to reduce crime and keep communities safer. In the February 9, 2009 issue of Newsweek, Suzanne Smalley reported on Kennedy’s techniques and the significant drop in crime (in 2008, one Nashville community saw a 91% decrease in drug crimes and prostitution) directly linked to his approach–he uses intelligence rather than force.

Rather than relying on law enforcement’s use of weapons, handcuffs, and prisons alone, Kennedy suggests that persuasion can also prove effective in stopping drug crimes. He instructs law enforcement officers to gather evidence against drug offenders and prepare criminal indictments. Before arresting them and locking the drug offenders into a system that perpetuates failure, he urges the officers to call the suspects in for a candid look at the evidence against them. The officers then give the criminal suspects a choice. Either they can enroll in a program with mentors who will help them develop community values and live as productive citizens, or the officers will go forward with the criminal cases against them and put them through the prison system. That liberal approach, to the chagrin of lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key conservatives has proven far more effective in reducing crime.

Prison administrators and legislators ought to consider the valuable lessons Professor Kennedy teaches. The use of intelligence is far more effective than the use of force in fostering safer communities.

By extinguishing hope for those who serve time in prison, administrators create us-versus-them environments. The more oppressive and controlling the prison regime, the more recalcitrant prisoners become. It is precisely the lack of hope that leads to the proliferation of gangs and violence inside America’s prison system. Such policies contribute to the cycles of failure and unsafe communities, as prisoners revert to crime upon release.

Some prisoners present a danger to law-abiding society and show no interest in living in accordance with the principles of good citizenship. Many more prisoners, however, would welcome opportunities to work toward reconciling with society and earning their freedom. The heavy-handed policies of get-tough politicians, however, keep society locked into a so-called “corrections” policy that is fundamentally flawed. It is the reason that taxpayers must spend $60 billion per year to fund a system that perpetuates failure.

According to Newsweek Magazine, using Professor Kennedy’s tactics for four years, police in High Point had wiped the drug dealers off the corner. They compared the numbers to the prior four years and found a 57 percent drop in violent crime in the targeted area.

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So its no surprise, (truth is, its STILL A HORRID SURPRISE) that Goldman Sachs got flu vaccines that would be better given to those with health vulnerabilities.  Most H1N1 deaths are people who had underlying health issues, but Goldman Sachs, who orchestrated the destruction of the world’s economies, took billions in federal bailout money (provided by hard working regular American taxpayers) and AGAIN got back to the business of gaming the US system, THAT Goldman Sachs, apparently is so SPECIAL that H1N1 vaccines are allotted in order to protect Goldman from the risk the rest of us live with, Swine Flu.

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I don’t think so.  He’s sucking off the public trough.  Profiteering off of the hard work of regular Americans.

According to Rolf Winkler of Reuters:

Chart created by Rolfe Winkler, found at Barry Ritholz’s blog, The Big Picture

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You know, GETTING ALONG for the greater good…

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He’s like a baby, unable to listen or even wait his turn. How did he get in Congress?

No wonder NOTHING gets done by our Legislative Branch, these people are idiots playing a game, instead of Representatives representing Americans.

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Here’s something that needed to be done:

Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday.

“Look, I don’t know, maybe I haven’t made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again,” said the Lord, His divine face betraying visible emotion during a press conference near the site of the fallen Twin Towers. “Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbor. Well, I don’t. And to be honest, I’m really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand.”

“I don’t care how holy somebody claims to be,” God said. “If a person tells you it’s My will that they kill someone, they’re wrong. Got it? I don’t care what religion you are, or who you think your enemy is, here it is one more time: No killing, in My name or anyone else’s, ever again.”

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Liz Cheney should not be interviewed, she cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Her father got FIVE deferments in order to NOT go to war, yet she has the hubris to criticize Barack Obama. After 7 years of Bush-Cheney refusal to show photos, or even SHOW UP to honor our war dead, Obama met a military plane to respect those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney NEVER went to Dover AFB to honor our dead soldiers as their caskets flew home.

Lawrence O’Donnell slams her:

“Liz, don’t let your dad do this to you. Don’t let him parade you on to the stage to defend the indefensible. Let him suffer the full weight of the shame that we know he must feel when he watches Barack Obama do what he never had the decency to do.”

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Today I met Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard.  I remember the day in October 1998 when Matthew was found, beaten nearly to death, tied like Christ to an x-bar fence out in Laramie, Wyoming.  My own sons were 6 and 4 and I was horrified that someone was so homophobic that they literally beat a good kid to death, simply because he was gay.

Judy’s new book, “The Meaning of Matthew” puts a human face on Matt and tells the story of their family awakening into action after his death.

I always wished I could have a gay kid, because I believe that you are supposed to live fully as you were born to live, no ifs ands or buts.  God doesn’t make mistakes: you’re born who you are because the world needs you to bring forth your special abilities, to help your community live fully.  Interestingly, none of my kids are gay or lesbian, but I’m trying to raise them aware that all people are fine, as they are.

Can you believe its 2009 and it took Ted Kennedy’s death (he has always advocated for the Hate Crime Bill and equal rights for all) and adding the Hate Crime bill to a military spending bill to get it passed?

How barbaric are we, that it takes 11 years after the brutal death of an innocent to make such a change, that our politicians still live in fear of standing up for what’s right?

Its odd enough that we don’t naturally allow people to be who they are, but the fact that we still have to FIGHT to get equal rights for all seems so UN-AMERICAN.

Parents are still raising their kids with hatred for people they do not know or understand.  Religious groups insist that the US is a Judeo-Christian country, yet Jesus never beat a young gay man to death.  If you use Jesus’ life as your North Star, you cannot judge or harm someone for living as God made them.

To me, the meaning of Matthew Shepard is not just that gays deserve the same legal protection as straights.  Its that we’ve become so barbaric that the violent beating death of a young innocent man is still not enough to get the US to be fair and equal.  We’re very un-Christ-like.

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The woman at my polling place asked me do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people. I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: what do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?”

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After the implosion of the American economy and the continuing multi-billion dollar economic rape by banking institutions, lobbyists and politicians in their pockets, its time to install FDR’s Economic Bill of Rights.

Here’s an excerpt from his January 11, 1944 message to Congress on the State of the Union:

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

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