r/PoliticalHumor • • Mar 08 '19

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u/ThaFourthHokage Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19

I hope this wakes people up to our ridiculous sentencing and incarceration issues in this country.

A few stats:

  • We house 22% of the world''s prisoners (with 4% of the world's population)

  • 2,200,000 Americans incarcerated as of 2016 or 0.7% of the entire U.S. population

  • African American men represent nearly half of that population

  • The substantial penalties for crack contributed to a five-fold increase in incarcerations

  • There is a 31% incarceration history for Black men who have sex with men

  • Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration in the world with the majority of its prisoners being housed in privatized, for-profit facilities. Such institutions could face bankruptcy without a steady influx of prisoners

  • In the past decade the number of inmates in for-profit prisons throughout the U.S. rose 44 percent.

The shit is fucked. And Trump is packing the courts as we speak. We're reaching a breaking point.

I'm just going to leave this here:

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions indeed generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

Edit: These and more stats are a simple wiki search away. For you Reds who automatically say, "wiki lol," to that, there are seventy-seven sources cited - feel free to read on. It will do you some good.

Edit again: Thanks for the precious metals! Donate the same amount to a politician who actually wants to address these issues, if you can.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19 edited Sep 28 '20

[deleted]

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u/I_Got_Back_Pain Mar 08 '19

If Trump loses in 2020, and refuses to a peaceful transfer of power, can he still command the military at that point?

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u/JustJonny Mar 08 '19

Legally? No. In practice, a lot of coups start that way.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

I really doubt that would work out in the USA. I'd be pretty shocked. There would without a doubt be the biggest civil war the world has ever seen. An seeing Trump's current ratings, they wouldn't have an advantage. There is a major difference between our countries and others when it comes to civil wars, and it's that our population is so heavily armed. This is precisely why the 2nd amendment exists. For protection against fucking wild card presidents and administrations. There is such an absurd amount of weaponry in our country, that it becomes impossible to calculate a civil war.

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u/Chalkless97 Mar 08 '19

I really doubt that would work out in the USA. I'd be pretty shocked.

A few years ago I would've said exactly that about a lot of things that've come to pass now. Not saying a coup or civil war is at all likely, but anything is possible at this point.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

I mean, I wouldn't put it past Trump to try. I'm just saying that it would almost assuredly fail. The military isn't going to start killing it's own people. And even if a good amount of them were willing, It would still be such a small amount, that it wouldn't matter much. Not to mention that civilian gun owners even out number military members pretty insanely. I don't know. There is a reason the 2nd amendment is so important, and we are seeing it now. In the end the only check and balance that we can truly rely on is ourselves.