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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (2299)	3/26/1999 12:16:00 PM
From: The Street	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13056

Wow: In total, in 1998, American taxpayers spent $24 billion to incarcerate over 1 million nonviolent offenders, many of whom had either never been locked up before or who had committed no prior acts of violence. Our nonviolent prison population, alone, is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska. The European Union, a political entity of 370 million8 , has a prison population, including violent and nonviolent offenders, of roughly 300,000. This is one third the number of prisoners which America, a country of 274 million, has chose to incarcerate for just nonviolent offenses. The 1,185,458 nonviolent offenders we currently lock up represents five times the number of people held in India's entire prison system, even though it is a country with roughly four times our population.

To: Neocon who wrote (2299)	3/26/1999 12:21:00 PM
From: The Street	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13056

2. For the purposes of this study, a violent offender is defined as a person whose current offense involves a threat of or actual harm to a victim. These offenses generally include homicide, sexual assault, robbery or assault. An offender whose offense does not involve the threat of or actual harm to a victim is classified as a nonviolent offender. Nonviolent offenses include property offenses (burglary, larceny, fraud, etc..); drug offenses (possession, sales); or public order offenses.

To: Neocon who wrote (2299)	3/26/1999 12:23:00 PM
From: freeus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13056

limited in scope????? You have not been paying attention. The U.S. prisons now have 60% victimless crimes. 60%! That is not limited in scope. Here's more ugly American stuff: Ooops the first part of the article was cut off somehow: it said that four New York policemen were accused of shooting a visiting African black man who was unarmed,standing on his balcony. The shooting inflamed racial tensions in the city and sparked daily protests outside the New York Police Department headquarters. THE SOURCE, who has knowledge of the still-sealed indictment and the workings of the case, spoke to The Associated Press only on condition that he not be identified. The four white officers, Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy, fired 41 bullets at street peddler Amadou Diallo, a black immigrant from Guinea, as he stood in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building on Feb. 4. Nineteen of the bullets hit him. The Bronx District Attorney's office could not immediately be reached for comment. Marvyn Kornberg, an attorney for Carroll, said he had not been notified of any indictment of his client. SHOOTING SPARKED PROTESTS The shooting inflamed racial tensions in the city and sparked daily protests outside the New York Police Department headquarters. Details of the reported indictment were expected to be made public Monday at the earliest. A conviction on second-degree murder carries a possible prison sentence of 25 years to life. The officers who shot Diallo declined to be questioned by the grand jury. They have not spoken publicly about the shooting. The incident has triggered a number of investigations into the practices of New York police, particularly the elite street crimes unit to which the four officers belonged. MAYOR GIULIANI CRITICIZED Rest of article (should you want to read it) is on microsoft news on i.e. Also the only reason these officers will face possible prosecution is because the victim was from another country, was black and because there have been mass protests. Otherwise this violence against innocent people by the government (as others are) killing by authorities would go unpunished.