Kudos to the Los Angeles Times by Jacob G. Hornberger!
(2022-11-11 at 20:14:38 )

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times by Jacob G. Hornberger!

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for its editorial today about Brittney Griner, the United States basketball star who is serving a 9-year jail sentence in Russia for possessing a small quantity of marijuana. Ms Griner was recently transferred to a Russian penal colony to serve out her sentence. According to people who have been in such colonies, they are extremely nasty places to be.

As I was reading its editorial, I was thinking to myself that this was going to be just another United States mainstream media article calling on those evil Russkies to release Ms Griner and send her home. But then I got to the end of the editorial and was stunned.

Here are the last two paragraphs of the editorial:

Ms Griners sentence is also a reminder that the United States does not have clean hands on this issue. Thousands of Americans have been arrested, tried and incarcerated in America for similarly minor drug possession charges, including Allen Russell, who is serving life without parole in Mississippi for possessing 1.5 ounces of marijuana.

The United States should not forget Ms Griner - or the thousands of others who languish in jail for sentences that do not fit their crimes.

I find those two paragraphs to be absolutely amazing. Here is a United States mainstream media outlet that is actually criticizing United States drug laws and implicitly exposing the rank hypocrisy behind such laws in the context of the Ms Griner case.

How often do you see that?? I dare say not very often.

Ever since Ms Griner was arrested, United States officials, from President Biden on down, along with their mainstream media acolytes, have demanded that Russia release her.

But on what grounds???

After all, she pled guilty to the offense!

Here is what President Biden and other United States officials have essentially been saying to Russian officials: "You need to release her because we say you need to release her. We are the United States government. We do not care that she has pled guilty to the offense. We do not care that you have drug laws. We do not give a damn for your judicial system. And, oh, by the way, we also hate you. Now, let her go."

Much to the surprise of President Biden, his drug-war cohorts, and the United States mainstream media, that arrogant, obnoxious message has not gone over too well in Russia. In fact, it might well have caused Ms Griner to be mistreated even more than she would have been mistreated.

Meanwhile, President Biden and his Republican-Democratic drug-war cohorts continue to do precisely that they are condemning the evil Russkies of doing to Ms Griner.

They continue to keep people in jail, both at the state and federal level, for long periods of their lives for non-violent drug offenses. And they continue to enforce their own drug laws here at home, just like those evil Russkies do.

The Times mentions Allen Russell, who is serving a lifetime sentence without possibility of parole for possessing 1.5 ounces of marijuana.

I think it is worth pointing out that Mr. Russell is black, just like Ms Griner is.

The reason I think that is worth pointing out is that the drug war here in the United States is the most racist government program since segregation, in that its consequences have fallen disproportionately on blacks.

I have got an idea for President Biden. Rather than make arrogant and obnoxious demands on the evil Russkies, do the following instead:

1. Issue an immediate pardon for all non-violent drug offenders in the federal system and publicly call on every state governor to do the same. Apologize for what you people have done to all the victims of your beloved war on drugs.

2. Ask Congress to end the federal drug war by repealing all laws that criminalize the possession and distribution of illicit drugs - all drugs, not just marijuana. Call on every state to do the same with respect to state drug laws.

3. Apologize for United States drug-war arrogance and hypocrisy.

4. Then, ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to pardon Ms Griner and send her home.

At the same time, tell him that the United States government is ending its 60-year-old mindset of extreme anti-Russia hostility and desires to explore ways to establish a peaceful and harmonious relationship with Russia.

I think those steps would almost certainly result in Ms Griners release.

They would also help countless other victims of drug laws.

Such steps would also go a long way toward restoring freedom, peace, humanity, rehabilitation, and civility to our nation!!

Reprinted here with permission from Mr. Jacob G. Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Libertarian Website!!