Earlier, Melani gave us important news about embedding the Philadelphia
police under UCD control at 3942 Chestnut. UCD also handles punishment
for the Philadelphia Community Court. Here is relevant information and
insights on Philadelphia Community Court:
The Community Court that sends its "probationers" to the UCD chain gang
is a method to EXPEDITE and INCREASE PROCESSING POTENTIAL of poor
people, mostly young, while giving them an early police record and a
taste of the brutality of the "criminal justice" system.It is not the
alternative to incarceration nor a court, which it pretends to be!
Background: I was an early advocate for alternatives to incarceration
for non-violent drug offenders. (My first solo-grant application in the
80's approached the Philadelphia Parole department offering an intensive
comprehensive outpatient program for addicted new parolees.)
Our political leaders have ignored real interventions to reduce
recidivism for decades, but took this concept of an "alternative court,"
developed in the mental health community, and converted it so that this
kangaroo court system can mass process poor people under the cloak of
science and statistics.You need to understand that this community court
system is a huge waste of resources under the criminal justice complex,
doing nothing to serve society, and making problems for poor communities
and young people worse!
(This is how people snatched from Clark Park were processed a year
before the fence went up.)
Explanation:Reagan's war on marijuana gave us the crack cocaine epidemic
of the 80's and 90's which was exploited as a final solution for the
destruction of cities, progressives, and minority communities.His war
caused the cocaine epidemic and filled the privatized jails with
non-violent drug offenders across America on minor cocaine charges.
Fact:The mental health community could provide successful rehabilitation
of the "hard to treat" if given the tiniest resources to do the job
well. But instead, most resources are diverted to the criminal justice
complex for these fake solutions.
Anecdote from my Philadelphia experience.In the early 2000's, I assisted
a former colleague in the evaluation of the literacy program under the
community court mandates, because of my experience in this
field.Probationers had to first go through the most expensive, least
effective, type of substance abuse treatment, mandated drug
treatment.But that isn't the worst of it!
100% of these poor kids needed the literacy services, as any
Philadelphian might expect, but the majority of the individuals had no
drug problems indicating a need for any drug treatment!They were largely
teens rounded up for minor beer infractions or nabbed in poor
neighborhoods with negligible amounts of marijuana.(I'm sure this has
exploded since Nutter's stop and frisk.)
Vital Fact:WHILE DRUG TREATMENT SERVICES ARE STARVED FOR RESOURCES AND
AT LEAST 3 OUT OF 4 INDIVIDUALS BEGGING FOR DRUG TX ARE DENIED SERVICES,
this is how taxpayer money is wasted on these get tough lies used to
fool ignorant voters!Giving poor kids criminal records and wasted
interventions, (instead of offering quality literacy services integrated
with other necessary services), only makes societies problems grow deeper!
Embedding the Philadelphia police under UCD, who also controls the
"punishment" for Community Court is just another Mubarak /Ben Ali policy
that we could have seen coming for us. (This latest merger is an
important foreshadowing of the structure for the police state on the
neighborhood level, and requires some careful consideration including
this background information about kangaroo court)
There is no right to due process for poor people being processed like
cattle! There is no alternative but a guilty plea at "Community
Court." Meanwhile, fake humanitarian solutions are offered because our
masters are convinced that most of you are so ignorant that you can be
fooled to the nth degree. (i.e. 10 years of Afghanistan, 8 years of
Iraq, 1st year of Libya, cleaner and safer literature, etc.)
The police state is here while we drink our lattes and celebrate our
cleaner and safer brand!
Glenn
