Comments

1
Sometimes, whatever it takes, and if that means ignoring the other Sanders' very long piece on Sanders getting a lot of piece, then so be it.
2
too late this time
3
Hey, Dan,

Did you see this?

http://www.neatorama.com/2010/10/23/trus…

You think they might be copying you?

Chak
4

Disproportionate?

Yes, for example, a black person jaywalking gets punched and cuffed.

Whereas 10,000 white Seattlists get to take illegal drugs in a public park within hundreds of feet of police headquarters.

Drugs which are responsible for 30,000 deaths in Mexico.

One sweep of Hempfest would even the racial score in prison, I think.
5
Unfortunately, many people have probably already sent in their ballots. Bring back going to the polls on election day.
6
How come there doesn't seem to be a write-in campaign to elect the guy we wanted to replace Johnson?
7
@4 John are you being sarcastic? I can't believe that I am agreeing with you. Not that I'm advocating a sweep of hemp fest, but the standards for drug enforcement have some serious racial and class disparities.
8
Because write in camaigns never win. To prove my point I bet you can't name the guy who ran against Johnson without googling the answer.
9
Good for the Times! They actually endorsed Patty, too, so maybe cooler heads are in control some of "the Times."
10
Circulation must be down. That's the only reason they seem more level headed and thoughtful for a change.
11
@8

I know it's a long shot. And yes, of course you're right that I can't name the guy--in fact I didn't. But Johnson is running unopposed, so why isn't there at least some attempt, like Murkowski's doing in Alaska. (And no, I"m not even suggesting spending money on commercials to publicize the guy's name and its spelling.)
12
@4, responding to your #7 post on this topic in the other thread: I feel like most of us are pretty comfortable with the indirect implications of our arguments/positions, and don't advocate for behaviors for others or profess them for ourselves when they are not actually reflective of our own behaviors.

Perhaps you are confused about what hypocrisy is:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/h…

You say you won't explain, because we've already made up our minds. About what, hypocrisy? I think it's pretty clear: Sanders professes values, and mandates them for others, that he does not himself follow. I'm honestly confused about the 'hypocrisy' you see in The Stranger/Slog, and I'm not sure about what it is that we are supposed to think. You SHOULD point stuff out; I, at least, and I would hope others, strive for a consistent ethics, and pointing out inconsistencies is a good way to help one to achieve that goal. One cannot confront and resolve an inconsistency in one's ethics if one is unaware of it.

Also, responding to your post in THIS thread, pot is not responsible for 30,000 deaths in Mexico, a violent trade in illegal drugs is responsible. Implying that Hempfest is responsible for those deaths is like implying that everyone who drives a gas-burning vehicle is responsible for all the deaths in oil-wars in South/South-West Asia and North-East Africa; it's utterly absurd (I realize that some anti-fossil-fuel activists claim exactly that - they're just as nuts). Assignation of culpability after direct causes becomes an exercise in asininity, as our entire global society constructs the cultural space that informs and interprets any action, and in which it takes place, making EVERYONE culpable to varying degrees for every action that everyone else performs.

Finally, the racially-disparate enforcement is a good example of exactly what the article points out, that there are factors other than crime-commission rates that account for the disproportionate representation of Blacks in the prison system. I don't think the solution is to start arresting more White people, though; I think the solution is to arrest fewer Black people (establish racially-noninflected enforcement practices), in conjunction with eliminating laws banning various forms of civil disobedience (victimless crimes).
13
According to the US Department of Justice and the FBI, approximately 5,000 to 8,000 black people are murdered in the USA every year, and at least 94% of their murderers are also black.

http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offense…

Murders in the USA in 2009
White murderers = 5,286 (33.5% of the murderers in the USA in 2009)
Black murderers = 5,890 (37.4% of the murderers in the USA in 2009)

Now I know most of you naive white Seattle libtards naively think the USA is something like 50% white and 50% black, because that is what you see portrayed on tv shows and advertisements, but the reality is that the USA is about 75% white and only about 13% black. This means that blacks commit murder at a rate of about 5 to 7 times the rate that whites commit murder, depending on the year.

Let's take a closer look at Seattle!

http://tinyurl.com/no5knk

Extrapolated from the article "List of 2008 homicides in Seattle" from the Seattle PI

selected from the list of the 28 Seattle homicides in 2008....

Allen Joplin, Jan. 4 -- black killed by black

De'Che Morrison, Jan. 10 -- black killed by black

Maurice "Moe" Allen Jr., Jan. 26 -- black killed by black

Degene Barecha, Jan. 30 -- black killed by black

Perry Henderson, Feb. 6 -- black killed by black

Stephan Dwaine Stewart, April 2 -- black killed by black

Eldora Earlycutt, July 4 -- black killed by black

James Paroline, July 10 -- white killed by black

Troy Peters, July 22 -- black killed by black

Pierre Lapoint, Aug. 5 -- black killed by black

Jane Kariuki, Oct. 16 -- woman of undisclosed race killed by black man

Quincy S. Coleman, Oct. 31 -- black killed by black

Edward McMichael, the "Tuba Man", Nov. 3 -- white killed by multiple blacks

Nathaniel Lee Thomas, Nov. 23 -- black killed by black

Blacks (8% of Seattle) were the killers in at least half (that's at least 50%) of the murders in the Seattle area in 2008. At least five of the other murderers were latinos.

Now let's take a look at 2009!
http://tinyurl.com/2aa88vd

The link above is to the Seattle PI's article on homicides in Seattle in 2009.

At least twelve of the 21 murders in Seattle in 2009 were committed by blacks, only 8% of Seattle.

Of the 27 officers that were shot and killed by criminals in the last 20 years in King and Pierce county, 21 of them were shot by black men, even though black men make up less than 3% of the population.

SO! Are you naive white libtards at the Stranger trying to claim that there were a bunch of homicides committed by whites that were not prosecuted, or that some of those murders committed by blacks in 2008 and 2009 were not committed by blacks, but by some other race? I just can't figure out your "logic" here.

-----------------------------

Let's look at some stats in Atlanta. According to cityrating.com Atlanta's population is 431,043. There are about 149 murders per year in Atlanta (4.5 times the national average).

Let's check out Portland, OR with a population of 545,271. Portland, with a population over 100,000 more than Atlanta, has about 27 murders.

Portland = 76% white, only about 7% black

Atlanta = 31% white, 61% black.

How about New York City?

http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homici…

New York Times - New York City Interactive Homicide Map:

Blacks = 60% of the killers, 60% of the victims

Whites = 7% of the killers, 8% of the victims

Blacks = 26% of NYC population

Whites = 35% of NYC population

So what do we surmise with these stats? Answer: More black people equals more murders.

-----

Before all you Naive White Seattle Libtarded Progressives start going "yeah but whites make up most of the child molesters", please be aware of the following fact:

Be aware that the FBI and USDOJ count non-white Mestizos (the ethnic term for most of the "Mexicans" or "Latinos" or "Hispanics" in the USA) as being WHITE in the "Offender" category (but not in the "Victim" category for some reason), which unfairly raises the reported "white crime rate" much higher than it actually is.

Almost every Police Department in the USA also do the same thing.

Just about every state and local agency does this. Here are some examples from Washington state. Do this guy "GERONIMO RIOS RAMIREZ" listed with the Yakima County Sherrif's Office Sex Offender page look white to you???

http://tinyurl.com/2e8q5nb

Search for yourself:
http://www.icrimewatch.net/index.php?Age…

The Washington State Patrol does the exact same thing. Go to their "Most Wanted" page and check out all the amazing diversity there! Then click on one of the brown, non-white latino mexican whatevers. THEY ARE CLASSIFIED AS BEING "WHITE"!

http://www.wsp.wa.gov/crime/wanted.php

How about Texas, where all the rednecks live?

Go look at the Texas Sex Offender Registry:

https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/DPS_WE…

Search by any zip code (75214 or 75247 is a good start) you choose and choose a sex offender with an obviously Spanish name and look at his photo and compare it with his racial classification. Notice anything funny??? The sex offender is classified as "white" even though he is a brown, non-white, "latino/hispanic/chicano/mestizo/choose your favorite politically-correct term" person and OBVIOUSLY NOT a white guy.

Like this very very brown "white" guy: http://tinyurl.com/22mtuv5

I have done a thorough study of the Texas Sex Offender site and well over half of all the so-called "white" sex offenders listed there ARE NOT ACTUALLY WHITE AT ALL.

This unfair and inaccurate classification of non-whites as being "white" wrongly inflates the "white crime rate", especially "white sex offender rate" FAR HIGHER than it actually is in reality.

SO WHICH IS IT, NAIVE UNINFORMED CLOSE-MINDED WHITE SEATTLE LIBTARDS? ARE THEY "PEOPLE OF COLOR", OR ARE THEY WHITE? YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!!!

------

Now, to address the some stuff from the Seattle Times article on the original incident with Judge Sanders:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…

"Justice Debra Stephens said she heard Sanders and Johnson make the comments, including Johnson using the words "you all" or "you people" when he stated that African Americans commit crimes in their own communities."

SO WHAT? I hear black "leaders" referring to "my people" or "our people" all the goddamn time, so why is it terribly offensive if some white guy says essentially the same thing?
-----

"Bondon said she remembered thinking that she didn't need data or statistics to prove that she and other African Americans don't have a predisposition for criminality.

"Just the idea that it was necessary to disprove the assertion was sickening," Bondon said."

WELL, BRONDON, I JUST DID YOUR WORK FOR YOU, AND YOU TOTALLY LOST THE DEBATE. Doesn't it reflect terribly on the so-called professionalism of Bondon that she thinks the doesn't even need to back up her naive assertions with ACTUAL FACTS????????

Now go ahead, naive white libtards at The Stranger, call me "ignorant" or just outright censor this comment. That will only prove that you can't face up to the facts.
14
Take a look at Blau and Blau's studies of crime along with Shaw and McKay and all the other corelational studies that have taken a close look at variouys factors and their corelation to crime over the last three decades. They almost all clearly point to poverty and economic inequality as the strongest corelation to crime. Race disapears when you control for poverty and social inequality. Even when looking at urban vs rural that disapears when you look at rates and not raw numbers. Using your same superficial look at the stayistics one can prove that firefighters cause fire damage becuase the more firefighters you see at a fire the greater the damage. Social science statistics isn't a game for ammatures.

Portland does not have the economic disparity that Atlanta has. If you compare NYC to large southern cities and look at rates and not total numbers NYC has much lower murder rates. The highest murder rates are large southern cities with entrenched economic caste systems and rust belt cities that have suffered econimc colapse. See Detroit, Gary Indiana, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans.
15
Let's wrap it up!

Blacks committed at least 14 of the 28 homicides in Seattle in 2008.

Blacks committed at least 12 of the 21 homicides in Seattle in 2009.

Seattle is only 8% black, which logically means that "crime age" black males ages 14-55 make up about 3% of Seattle or less.

From the Seattle Times article:

"State Supreme Court justices Richard Sanders and James Johnson stunned some participants at a recent court meeting when they said African Americans are overrepresented in the prison population because they commit a disproportionate number of crimes.
...

"Sanders later confirmed his remarks about imprisoned African Americans, saying "certain minority groups" are "disproportionally represented in prison because they have a crime problem."

"That's right," he told The Seattle Times this week. "I think that's obvious."

--------------------

THEREFORE: Only a complete idiot or a sheltered naive white Seattle libtard would dispute Judge Sanders' statement or get offended by it.
16
Savage- Have you ever broken the law? You don't have to answer, just be honest with yourself. Now, Consider this... I have been in the company of Blacks a lot. Navy, Seattle, area, Boeing, Neighbors, Prison. All have one thing in common a lack of respect for WHITE MAN'S law. You do not understand their mentality, you think you do, you think this is a racist comment. However, this isn't racist unless you look at it from their point of view. They think it is their OBLIGATION to resist white man's Law. They do not take into account that the LAW is there for everybody. I have been in the company of what appear to be perfectly good citizens when they have asked me to join them in the commission of a felony. I have broken all contact with those people after that. those people being Black. Sorry, your liberalism is going to far. Listen and use common sense. Yes, there is a disparaty in the percentage of Blacks in prison. The truth is they commit and celebrate the commission of crimes against white man's law. Since when has "ILLEGAL" become a racist term?
17
If poverty and economic circumstances were the cause of crime, then wouldn't "white" crime have skyrocketed during the Depression? Here in Florida during the Great Recession we have had numerous robberies and murders primarily committed by black men.

When you have men growing up without moral values, in one-parent or absent parent homes, without discipline at home or at schools, what do you expect?

The judges only spoke the truth. In an age of a black president and black governors, to continue to play the racial card as an excuse for crime is reprehensible!
18
I am a fan of Justice Sanders for many reasons, one of which is his willingness to speak his mind without regard for the political consequences. In a strict sense, these controversial remarks on race and prison population are accurate. It does not appear to me that the Seattle Times was criticizing him for being inaccurate. But I agree with the Times that this simplistic answer was a missed opportunity to demonstrate some level of understanding that Blacks are not genetically or culturally more inclined toward crime and that there are nuances to this issue in terms of institutional racism within law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Those alone do not explain the disparity, of course. Much of the rest of the explanation has roots in a still unremedied history of separate and unequal public schooling opportunities. The nation has failed to live up to its promise of equal educational opportunity, even 56 years after Brown v. Board of Education. The opportunity to integrate (pun noted) a discussion of these important issues of social justice into his remarks was missed.

To GymGoth, who thinks that the election of a Black president and a Black governor mark the end of racism in America, you can't possibly be that much of a simpleton. And no one is suggesting that racism is an "excuse" for crime. There is a connection, obviously, between poverty and crime. There is a connection between a lack of educational opportunities and poverty. There is a connection between lack of educational opportunities and the zip codes in which Black people disproportionately live. The purpose of connecting the dots here is not to make excuses for anyone. The purpose is to illustrate the connection that has a profound impact not only on crime but on the nation's prospects for economic competitiveness in a globalized economy.

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