35,948 Arrested Yesterday

Last Friday, the day the NATO 3 were arrested, approximately 35,948 people were arrested across the United States. On Sunday, when at least 45 protesters were arrested at Chicago's NATO summit protests, approximately 35,948 Americans - the number arrested on a daily basis in the US, according to FBI statistics - were handcuffed, read their Miranda rights (maybe), carted off to jail and booked. The plurality of those people were arrested for nonviolent drug crimes. Some of these people will be charged, convicted, prosecuted and jailed.

Source

Crazy! everyday on average, there are over 35,000 people arrested in the USA. The US has the highest prison population percent than any other country in the world. I think there was a thread not too long ago talking about Louisiana being the biggest prison population per capita in the world! Sick!

The problem is the corporate prison system in the US. The more prisoners, the more money shareholders make. Since they need to make more and more profit every quarter, they need more 'product' to increase profits. SO, they lobby to ensure that small and petty crimes continue to be investigated, and arrest people because if they don;t have a steady 'stock' of convicts, the profits go down. I'm sure most of you know this, but if you didn't, research!! Its a horrible, non-sustainable industry that should NEVER, EVER, be privatized for profit!

reply to post by Nspekta


And to think it's mostly for victimless "crimes" (i thought there was no crime possible without a victim?)

Won't be long until people get jailed for jaywalking lol (if they aren't already)

Prison is big business, and the corruption of the penal and judicial system is designed to misappropriate funds into the shareholders pockets. Lets face it, why should doing drugs be a felony? Sales and distribution is understandable, but why would the consumption be a felony? The answer is: the government knows, much like every other country, that drugs are inevitable, and statistically, generate the highest revenue for the judicial system. The decriminalization of drug use in other countries has proven to work much more effectively.

Here's the paradox: if drugs are bad for you, and the government takes the stance that they are policing their use to keep people safe, yet more than half the population is obese, why isn't gluttony a felony as well? Why aren't fast food chains like McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell regarded as criminals too?

Good Lord!

That is very close to the same number of citizens there are in the town I grew up in.

That number just boggles the mind. More to come in the following weeks I'm sure. And probably from all corners of the globe.

It's getting real folks. It's getting real.

Originally posted by xenujenkins
Here's the paradox: if drugs are bad for you, and the government takes the stance that they are policing their use to keep people safe, yet more than half the population is obese, why isn't gluttony a felony as well? Why aren't fast food chains like McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell regarded as criminals too?

Government relies on mob rule to stay in power without risk of revolt.

Once popular opinion shifts enough to make outlawing Taco Bell acceptable government will jump on it.

The only reason prohibition passed was because of mob rule. Ironically the same reason it was repealed.

Cigarette regulations/taxes/bans are a good example of this phenomenon. The government would like us all to believe that these regulations are causing or encouraging the number of smokers to fall when the reality is the opposite. Smoking for a long time now has been falling out of vogue all on its own without any government intervention. The dwindling numbers of, for a lack of a better term, pro-smokers makes passage of government profiteering regulations and taxes possible.

The same thing happened with "Civil Rights." The government fully supported second class citizenry policies when it was popular to do so and backtracked when public opinion changed.

A lot of big-government nanny-state types like to think that government makes society behave itself when all government is doing is trying to maintain it's control and does so by grabbing whatever power it can get away with by siding with popular opinion.

If the popular opinion turned on the "war on drugs" government would happily regulate the hell out of it as an industry, tax it up the rear, assign permits and licenses and pretend it's whole "war" never happened.

Trouble is popular opinion is fickle, stupid and prone to wild swings.

Right now popular opinion is this "war" is good. And every one of those 35K people deserve to be locked up for 50 years regardless of what they did or didnt do. Popular opinion is the police state is good and you are all bad.

1) Bullets are cheaper...but apparently not an option even in the worst cases.
2) State run prisons cost us a fortune compared to privately run institutions.
a) States use union workers, expensive to say the least, and that is the nicest thing I can say about unions that get paid by the taxpayers.
b) Private prisons pay less, and I'm pretty sure that if the prisoner wants cable t.v....he has to pay for it in a privatized prison. Not us the taxpayers.
c) Private prisons are more....well prison like, compared to the State run Ritz's (at least in the more progressive States) that is what we want....prison is suppose to suck.

We could depopulate the prisons by simply decriminalizing drug use. Legalize, regulate so people have the option to buy drugs that aren't laced with rat poison or if people want to buy good ole American grown products and tax it and use the money to pay for grandma and grandpa's Medicare.

One thing is for certain......you Liberals have to stop crying about the prisons if you keep voting for the establishment Democrat and you Conservatives have to stop crying about all the money spent on prisons because you are stuck on stupid with this hypocritical prohibition on individual's freedoms. Abortion is another one...you make it illegal but then cry at the cost of welfare.

Dtrug use is not a victimless crime.

When you do drugs, you do endanger people's lives.

Such as going to a construction workplace high on meth operating power tools or driving a car while drunk and high on pot.

Even if you do it in a private out of the way place, you are still poisoning yourself and slowly committing suicide.

reply to post by EvilSadamClone


I agree about doing drugs at work.. could endanger others, but doing it alone, privatly, is your OWN choice! Consumption of alcohol, big macs and other things could easily be in the same arguments! Its about liberty and personal choice. How far can the government decide what you can and can;t do within your own private life?!?

reply to post by Nspekta


The government is into everything these days anyway.

I don't really care if you guys want to kill yourselves, but go do it somewhere in a nice out of the way spot and don't make a mess out of it.

reply to post by Nspekta


Yep, follow the money.
Prisons are big business.

The problem is the corporate prison system in the US. The more prisoners, the more money shareholders make. Since they need to make more and more profit every quarter, they need more 'product' to increase profits. SO, they lobby to ensure that small and petty crimes continue to be investigated, and arrest people because if they don;t have a steady 'stock' of convicts, the profits go down.

and that is why we laugh at the thought of these people running our nation as being the "responsible men" of our world. Those that have authority...pfft. This is the reason why (amongst others) that we do not respect authority that fails to correct itself. What? The people working within the system don't notice what's going on? and they PRETEND to enforce the law but miss the spirit of it being violated every day at work? That is theft and a scam on the tax payer.....and they are part of it. Shame so many people at once behaving like primitive monkeys hoarding bananas. Wealth is crap when your nation shames you unto the world. Slave runners. Animals.

Our "greatest people" cannot be trusted to NOT ruin our country in the name of wealth. They are the animals. What animal would do that? They would. They are not people and shouldn't consider themselves part of a sentient species.

Oh god, ranting. Yeah this is our modern form of slavery. We are dumb. Real dumb. Let's celebrate that !? !?