“There are some people in the Illinois General Assembly who have prisons in their district, and their whole objective is to keep them filled,” Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, alleged in a morning committee hearing. She was referring to several downstate lawmakers from prison districts who were opposing a bill that would make it easier for ex-convicts to get business loans.
“‘We got to have those prisoners. They’ve got to come down here from Chicago,”‘ Davis said in the committee, summarizing what she alleged is the attitude of downstate legislators. “. . . ‘We no longer plant corn, we no longer have farms, we don’t raise cows and pigs, we keep prisoners.”’
She added: “They don’t want to stop crime because (that would stop) their livelihood. ... It is sad when your whole economy is based upon imprisonment of Americans.”
And these are the kinds of people being voted into office from Chicago.
3 comments:
Silly me, I thought the idea behind prison was to get scum off the street so they can't victimize others.
Hmmm, I got a few acres of land and I could build a watch tower easy enough. Maybe I should start my own business.
Well, I'm sure this isn't going to endear me to everyone, but I agree with her point.
Not a huge Rand fan, but her passage of "There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." is very, very apropos.
It is a FELONY to carry undersized lobster tails in a plastic bag. You lose your rights to vote and own firearms (the latter, forever). Over a fucking lobster tail. Because it's easier to lock up someone who follows the law than the criminals.
So the government makes more things a crime so they can lower the threshold of "See, I'm doing something!".
So, she's right, but for the wrong reasons. Stopped clock and all that.
Robb, she's NOT talking about Rand's point. She's saying lawmakers from Southern Illinois (which to her is roughly 3/4 of the state) are making racist laws to target young black men from Chicago, which is why there are so many in prison.
It would make more sense if lawmakers from "Southern Illinois" weren't completely outnumbered in the legislature, or if Chicago-area legislators didn't sponsor a LOT more new criminal legislation than anybody else. Chicago is the place that bans pocketknives longer than 2.5 inches, with kids under 18 limited to two inches. Chicago is the place where nobody under 18 is allowed to possess a box-cutter. Chicago is the place where a woman can't possess pepper spray.
She's full of it.
This woman sponsored the bill that required schools, last year, to have a "moment of silence and reflection" in the morning. When people objected that this was silly, she accused them of "making it about religion" and "putting their own agenda in there." She said that SHE "would not put my agenda in there about religion, and I hope others will stop doing that."
This after SHE made it a crime for school administrators not to have prayer time in the morning! Either she's not very bright, or she thinks the rest of us aren't.
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