Prison Injustice II

Prisons are the universities of the underworld.

There the leading sects recruit and teach the future criminals of America. The sects are the gangs, which break down mostly, though not exclusively, by race. There are the Nazi types, all the different white supremacist sects, Aryan nations, KKK, Skin Heads, the Satanists, MS13 and other Mexican gangs, and now there is one called Knights Templar, and the black gangs like reds and blues in L. A., and the old fashion Italian, Russian, and maybe even Jewish gangs. There are gangs for every nationality, because the body is more prominent for these, and everyone in prison requires protection and wants or needs many things. This protection is similar to the reason that being in or related to a gang is almost a necessity in most large American cities. I used to watch Gangland on the History Chanel a few years ago, when I had a T. V.

So, should we really be sending people to jail for probation violations and unpaid court fees? The system- the judges, courts, lawyers, and prosecutors, they will not put a stop to this. They are making too much money doing it, fleecing the poorest. We, the people, must put a stop to this, their admissions to the new community colleges, our social program of enrollment in the colleges of crime. We can best do this, maybe, by remembering what a crime is: not when one cannot show up for probation, make some AA meeting, or go to anger management class, not when one cannot afford a lawyer, not when one smokes pot or talks to much. A crime is when one harms another, or violates the rights of a citizen to life, liberty, property and the like. Not when one is homeless, mad, drunk or unlucky enough to fail to escape the clutches of the dog catcher. He may have a quota, or be paid per dog. Drug use must be more sharply distinguished from dealing, which harms a fellow citizen to line ones own pocket. Though it may be some infraction of some sort, a crime is, basically, when one harms another. If these have not harmed their fellow citizens, perhaps they soon will learn to do so, in these, the only liberal arts colleges it seems we do fund.

The liberal arts, again, is one of the very few things we can do about drugs, not the stick applied to the bottom ten percent in the justice scale, but to the top half. These then might pull the others along, reorienting them, opening other possibilities, giving kids things to do that keep them so enraptured they cannot bear to miss, for example, this game, movie, play practice, music practice, dance practice, or anything else the liberally educated might think to put them up to, animal rescue, helping old people, or making money cutting lawns and building things, farming vacant lots, playing the other neighborhoods in baseball games, etc. How do we pull on this, as well as push?

Second, within these hell holes, how do we address the paradox that they must be kept together and have a society of some sort, without allowing and promoting the gangs? I am so pissed about this paradox, I am ready to keep them each in their own stall like horses, so that they cannot harm one another, and allow economic interaction only with non prisoners, until I can think of a better solution. Even this would be less expensive than allowing the mob fiefdoms now operating.

Third, I am even pissed that gangs on the outside take and mark territory, setting up their own “law” and “tax” systems. These are usurpations. If I were governor, I would treat them as though a foreign government had just claimed Michigan territory- which is perhaps why I am not governor. Tell a U. S. citizen from one neighborhood he cannot walk in another, and must wear certain clothing or risk being shot- rubbish. I’d tell them to boof it! But again, this is perhaps why I am not governor.

And what ever happened to the guardian angels? Why are there not gangs of virtue? The Masons are not even mad that they used their name, the Knights. Where are the Baptist martial arts groups in the big cities? Do they not join together like the neighborhood watch groups to protect kids and vulnerable old people? To push back when kids are pressured to join gangs, or dress up like old people and walk when there are muggings? Why are the associations in our cities all based on the fuel of drug dealing money, and the victims all isolated individuals? Oh, except for the cops, who are busy doing property seizures, or the FBI, busy spying on everyone. One must, after all, have priorities.