Yesterday was a very significant day in the world of criminal justice in America.
In San Francisco, Attorney General Eric Holder announced proposals that would break with harsh punishments for non-violent drug offenders and give federal prosecutors more authority on charging offenders — a change in policy that's long overdue. "Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no good law enforcement reason," Holder said.
In New York City, a federal judge ruled that the NYPD's "stop-question-frisk" policy, aimed at curbing crime, intentionally discriminates on race. Mayor Michael Bloomberg angrily denounced the judge's ruling, and said the city will appeal the decision.
And in Boston, a federal jury found mobster Whitey Bulger guilty in connection with 11 of the 19 murders he was accused of. It was never in doubt that he would be found guilty. As was known long before he was apprehended two years ago in Santa Monica, law enforcement protected Bulger for decades, a disgusting reality that the families of his victims will always have to live with.
Bulger is 83 years old, which means he'll die in jail. It might only be a few years that he'll live behind bars; a few years for all of those people he killed. And he was protected the whole time? It doesn't really seem fair, does it? Let's face it, he was in retirement in recent years, so now he can have the state of Massachusetts take care of him.
Justice was not served in this whole sordid tale.
In the news:
Might these be the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission's final months? We've heard that before, of course, but County Commissioner Sandy Murman said yesterday that she knows of a couple of local lawmakers preparing such legislation.
Speaking of transportation in Hillsborough County, there were many unhappy citizens at last week's Policy Leadership Meeting, where all of the key decision makers were nowhere to be found. Now, some of those transit activists are demanding specific terms as those meetings continue.
Marco Rubio said he doesn't want to force a government shutdown if ObamaCare isn't defunded. Instead, he said it's on President Obama, and it will be his fault if he doesn't defund his own program, which is actually the law now.
