Just kidding…
Tag: carceral state
Hundreds of Kids as Young as 7, Jailed in Tennessee, Some for Crimes That Don’t Exist
According to a damning report from ProPublica, a county was exposed for illegally locking up children, and in some instances, using lies to justify it. Some of these children who were locked in cages were as young as seven.
Like the instance in Wilkes-Barre, a county juvenile judge, Donna Scott Davenport, played a key role in this horrifying practice — so did the cops.
According to the report, Davenport, a self-described Christian who referred to herself as the “mother of the county,” took an exceedingly harsh stance on children who got in trouble and even ones who didn’t.
Case in point: In 2016, police responded to an alleged fight at Hobgood elementary school in Murfreesboro between a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old. Though this was hardly an incident for which police and the court system needed to be involved, for some reason, the school called for them.
When police showed up, the the 5 and 6 year old kids were handcuffed and arrested. But that’s just the beginning. Zacchaeus Crawford also got a call that day from police telling him that his three children, ages 9, 10 and 11 were also arrested at the school, along with an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old.
All seven of these children were handcuffed and brought to jail. For allegedly watching the fight between two kids — not participating in it at all — the other five children were charged with “criminal responsibility for conduct of another”—a crime that does not exist in Tennessee law.
“It makes me want to fight. I’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t,” Crawford said of his children’s arrests. “How would you feel if it was your child? I’m frustrated.”
A year later, he and his wife sued and won an $86,500 settlement.
“All plaintiff children suffered great mental anguish and emotional trauma as a result of the false arrest and malicious prosecution as instigated and directed by defendants,” the lawsuit filed Feb. 16, 2017 stated.
Despite paying the settlement, the only person involved in the illegal arrest and detention of the children was a single cop, who was suspended for just three days.
Instead of decrying the incident, Judge Davenport issued a statement about children being bad. “We are in a crisis with our children in Rutherford County. I’ve been in officer 17 and a half years and I’ve never seen it this bad,” she told News 4 Nashville at the time.
Indeed, Davenport has a disdain for children like no other. According to the ProPublica report, nearly half of all children who go through her court, 48% — go to jail! That number is nearly ten times higher than the state average which is just 5% of children.
According to a report in Forbes, judge Davenport holds immense power over the local juvenile justice system, appointing all magistrates and approving policies for the detention center, thereby enabling this process even further.
ProPublica points out that Davenport is an apparent braggadocio about her record of jailing kids and keeps a high profile outside of the courtroom. She appears on a monthly segment on a local radio station, in which she has claimed children are behaving far worse now than they have in the past — on multiple occasions over several years.
“It’s worse now than I’ve ever seen it,” she said in 2012. Parents don’t parent: “It’s just the worst I’ve ever seen,” she said in 2017.
Davenport says she believes she’s on “God’s mission” to discipline children in the community, according to ProPublica.
Edward Abbey on government…
New South Wales threatens jail time for those without a vaccine passport trying to enter businesses
Australia’s often draconian measures in response to the epidemic continue to intensify, with reports now saying that one of its states, New South Wales (NSW) is threatening to jail unvaccinated people who try to enter business premises without a COVID vaccination pass.
All this comes as the state is rolling out vaccination passports amid fears that preventing people from entering certain premises might lead to altercations and confrontations. This has already been happening when people were forced to wear masks or show QR codes, and is only expected to get worse when NSW starts forcing citizens to show a passport to enter restaurants or the hairdresser’s.
The National Retail Association data shows increased violence towards staff in Victoria and NSW in 2021, and the organization’s chief executive Dominique Lamb is worried that vaccine passes will make things worse.
“We know customer violence escalates every time a new public health protocol is put in place,” Lamb said, according to reports.
In what appears to have been an attempt to intimidate anyone who might try to enter a store or a restaurant without a vaccination pass, NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello is quoted as telling ABC, “If people want to do the wrong thing, if they get found out it could be jail time there.”
Oklahoma Man Pleads Guilty to Misdemeanor for Taking Nancy Pelosi’s Beer on January 6 — Will Serve 6 Months in Federal Prison for the Crime
An Oklahoma man pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after taking one of Nancy Pelosi’s beers from her office on January 6.
Andrew Craig Ericson, 24, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. Prosecutors will drop three related misdemeanor charges in exchange for his plea. Ericson said in a signed statement that he is pleading guilty because he is in fact guilty.
He will face six months in federal prison and a $5,000 fine after he was tipped off to the FBI by someone who had known him since high school.
Six months in prison for one beer?
Ericson posted a photo of himself on Snapchat while sitting comfortably with his feet on a table at Pelosi’s conference room and taking a beer out of a mini-refrigerator.
Vietnamese man gets 5 years in jail for spreading Covid
A man in Vietnam has received a 5 year jail sentence for breaking home quarantine rules and spreading Covid. 28 year old Le Van Tri has been convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases to other people” after he went to his home province in Ca Mau from Ho Chi Minh City in July, says the Vietnam News Agency.
Le Van had been accused of breaking a 21 day home quarantine when he travelled to Ca Mau. He tested positive for Covid on July 7. The 28 year old’s decision to leave quarantine had dangerous consequences for his fellow citizens.
“Tri’s breach of the home medical quarantine regulation led to many people becoming infected with Covid-19 and one person died on 7 August 2021,” says the court report.
In contrast to the court report, Vietnam’s state media says 8 people died from the man’s negligence. Throughout the last year, Covid numbers remained low in Vietnam. Now, Vietnam is facing their worst Covid outbreak since the pandemic started. They have reported almost 540,000 infections and over 13,000 deaths. Most of the infections and deaths have come since the end of April. Both Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City have been under a tight lockdown for the last couple of months.
Govt. Says Alleged Capitol Rioter Violated Terms of Release by Watching Mike Lindell’s Election Conspiracy Symposium
Douglas Jensen stands accused of leading a mob that chased and hectored Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman inside in the Capitol on January 6. Jensen was wearing a Q-Anon shirt and had a knife in his pocket at the time.
In July, a federal judge granted Jensen pretrial release over the government’s objection. That judge imposed certain conditions on Jensen, one of which was that he could not use devices with access to the internet.
But according to a prosecutors’ filing that was flagged by Buzzfeed on Thursday night, Jensen violated that condition a month after his release.
“A mere thirty days after his release from the D.C. Jail,” said the filing, “defendant Douglas Jensen was found alone, in his garage, using a WiFi-connected iPhone to stream news from Rumble.” As the document notes, Rumble is an alternative to YouTube that is popular among some conservatives.
During a check on Jensen, a court officer arrived at the defendant’s residence and found him watching the video streaming service on his phone. “Jensen eventually admitted to his Pretrial Services Officer that in the previous week, he had spent two days watching Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium regarding the recount of the presidential election,” the filing said.
Vax or Jail? The Dilemma Facing Some Americans
Brandon Rutherford was recently presented with a dilemma in an Ohio courtroom: get vaccinated or face incarceration.
The 21-year-old was sentenced to two years probation for fentanyl possession by Judge Christopher Wagner of Hamilton County, Ohio on August 4, but his sentence came with a twist: he was ordered to get a COVID vaccine as a condition of his probation.
Should Rutherford fail to comply, he could be sent to jail for up to 18 months.
“I’m just a judge, not a doctor, but I think the vaccine’s a lot safer than fentanyl, which is what you had in your pocket,” Wagner told Rutherford.
Wagner gave Rutherford 60 days to get vaxxed and said, “You’re going to maintain employment. You’re not going to be around a firearm. I’m going to order you, within the next two months, to get a vaccine and show that to the probation office.”
The judge only knew Rutherford’s vaccination status in the first place because he questioned him when he arrived in court wearing a mask—a rule Wagner put in place for any unvaccinated people in his courtroom.
Rutherford was outraged by the mandate.
“Because I don’t take a shot they can send me to jail? I don’t agree with that,” he said. “I’m just trying to do what I can to get off this as quickly as possible, like finding a job and everything else. But that little thing (COVID vaccine) can set me back.”
The judge’s order created a stir, prompting Wagner to issue a response.
“Judges make decisions regularly regarding a defendant’s physical and mental health, such as ordering drug, alcohol, and mental health treatment,” he wrote in a statement. He also said it was his responsibility to “rehabilitate the defendant and protect the community.”
Wagner is not the only Ohio judge to take such actions. He joined judges in Franklin and Cuyahoga counties who made similar demands.
Things that make you go hmm…
BIDEN HAS SAID POT PRISONERS SHOULD BE FREE. NOW HE’S POISED TO SEND SOME BACK TO PRISON.
DIANA MARQUEZ HAS spent the last 14 months going on long walks, hitting the treadmill, and cooking with her daughter. She’s gotten to know her grandson, a fourth grader, helping him with his math homework. She has also lived with a weight hanging over her head — and an ankle bracelet strapped to her leg.
Marquez is one of roughly 4,400 people who were released from federal prison to home confinement starting in April 2020 as part of a Department of Justice directive aimed at preventing the transmission of Covid-19 in prison. Normally, the federal government allows people convicted of nonviolent crimes to serve out the last 10 percent or the last six months — whichever is less — of their sentences from home. Their time at home requires strict state scrutiny, including ankle bracelets and daily call-ins. The Department of Justice memorandum, issued under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, asked the Bureau of Prisons to relax the eligibility standards for home confinement so that people convicted of nonviolent crimes could leave prison despite having served less of their sentences.
The status of these people has been in limbo since December, when Justice Department officials from the outgoing Trump administration issued a memo stating that people whose sentences would outlast the Covid-19 emergency order would be returned to prison.
Last week, the New York Times reported that Biden administration lawyers had concluded that the Trump administration memo correctly interpreted the law — and that thousands of people in home confinement must be returned to prison after the yet-to-be-determined end of the “pandemic emergency period.” About 2,000 people stand to be impacted, with the rest having now completed enough of their sentences to qualify for early release under the standard guidance.
The Biden Justice Department’s position is especially shocking for people like Marquez who are doing time for marijuana-related offenses. President Joe Biden, after all, campaigned on loosening drug laws and said that people with marijuana records — who comprise a relatively small percentage of the federal prison population — should be freed.
Hellbound and Down 
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