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In fact I CAN recall a governor who is known for the opposite, which was Dukakis being labelled soft on crime for furloughing Willie Horton. American voters qui
by sgustard 11y ago
In fact I CAN recall a governor who is known for the opposite, which was Dukakis being labelled soft on crime for furloughing Willie Horton. American voters quite consistently indicate they want stricter punishments, and from a politician's viewpoint the risk of freeing someone guilty is the worse alternative.
- mikeyouse 11y ago"Soft on Crime" is a catastrophic label for politicians in the US. This came to the fore recently with Francisco Sanchez, the illegal immigrant who murdered the girl on the pier in SF in July... everyone was outraged that he was let free, he was a "multiple felon" after all.. Except his felonies were all nonviolent, namely entering the country illegally and selling marijuana. When people express their dissatisfaction with Obama's progress on freeing non-violent criminals, remember how much nuance was granted to those responsible for San Francisco's and California's decisions to show restraint in imprisoning Mr. Sanchez or how much nuance was granted to Dukakis. The teams working on commuting nonviolent Federal sentences spend an enormous amount of time vetting prisoners and are extraordinarily conservative. It's probably good due diligence, but freeing one Willie Horton or one Francisco Sanchez is enough to severely damage a candidate, a party, or even the concept of criminal justice reform.
- thaumaturgy 11y agoFormer governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is an occasional participant on Reddit, usually promoting either fitness or the after school program charity that he puts a lot of effort into. Easily the most common critical comment of him, that follows him into nearly every thread, is that he reduced the sentence of Esteban Nunez.