Do the Crime and Serve the Time
The bogus felon purge tactics of brother Jeb in Florida were enough to steal the election for George in 2000. Purge lists were also a problem in 2004 and will continue to be a problem until laws disenfranchising felons who have served their time are repealed.
Like much of what is wrong in America, the punitive mentality behind these laws, the antithesis of a compassionate, forgiving, corrective and rehabilitative mentality, has its roots in American slavery. Following the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, as whites saw Reconstruction end, black voting power was seen as a threat to white privilege. It was at that time that laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests, with whites conveniently "grand fathered", came into existence. One part of this black disenfranchisement package was the disenfranchisement of felons. Here is a history of felon disenfranchisement from Right to Vote, an organization working to end such laws: http://righttovote.org/informed.asp?subsection=history\.
Here in Washington State, legislation has just been proposed [by the ACLU ] to repeal the disenfranchisement provisions. Yes, the anti-black purge mentality expanded out of the Reconstruction South as blacks moved north and west, where black voting was perceived as a possible dent in white privilege. A Republican [who else?] legislator speaking in support of retaining the disenfranchisement, posited a case of a woman victim whose face was slashed and was incurring medical expense, while her assailant was done serving his time but had not paid restitution. Very few criminals ever pay restitution. Prison work is notoriously low paying and ex-cons have great difficulty finding decent employment. I fail to see how disenfranchising the criminal who has served the sentence makes the victim feel better, especially since this modern day version of the poll tax might be preventing the criminal from voting for the same candidate the victim prefers.
Society talks sympathy for compensating victims of crime but does not put its money where its mouth is. Part of the problem is that most victims of crime are socio-economically not that different from the criminals. Figuring out how to discretely discriminate between the slashing victim who is a prostitute and the slashing victim who is a small business owner [a category seen by most Republicans as somewhat sacred] is the problem. So money is spent setting up and running government agencies to seek restitution from the criminals, even though we know the agency will produce few collections and the cost of the agency would be better spent by paying that money directly to the victims.
Felon purge laws have another racial/economic aspect. The laws usually include some procedure to petition and present evidence to have the right to vote restored, something which is much more likely to be known to and affordable by whites as a group.
The good news is that through the educational efforts of groups like the ACLU and Right to Vote, progress will be made toward ending all these ill-conceived laws, maybe some day even in Florida.
Like much of what is wrong in America, the punitive mentality behind these laws, the antithesis of a compassionate, forgiving, corrective and rehabilitative mentality, has its roots in American slavery. Following the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, as whites saw Reconstruction end, black voting power was seen as a threat to white privilege. It was at that time that laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests, with whites conveniently "grand fathered", came into existence. One part of this black disenfranchisement package was the disenfranchisement of felons. Here is a history of felon disenfranchisement from Right to Vote, an organization working to end such laws: http://righttovote.org/informed.asp?subsection=history\.
Here in Washington State, legislation has just been proposed [by the ACLU ] to repeal the disenfranchisement provisions. Yes, the anti-black purge mentality expanded out of the Reconstruction South as blacks moved north and west, where black voting was perceived as a possible dent in white privilege. A Republican [who else?] legislator speaking in support of retaining the disenfranchisement, posited a case of a woman victim whose face was slashed and was incurring medical expense, while her assailant was done serving his time but had not paid restitution. Very few criminals ever pay restitution. Prison work is notoriously low paying and ex-cons have great difficulty finding decent employment. I fail to see how disenfranchising the criminal who has served the sentence makes the victim feel better, especially since this modern day version of the poll tax might be preventing the criminal from voting for the same candidate the victim prefers.
Society talks sympathy for compensating victims of crime but does not put its money where its mouth is. Part of the problem is that most victims of crime are socio-economically not that different from the criminals. Figuring out how to discretely discriminate between the slashing victim who is a prostitute and the slashing victim who is a small business owner [a category seen by most Republicans as somewhat sacred] is the problem. So money is spent setting up and running government agencies to seek restitution from the criminals, even though we know the agency will produce few collections and the cost of the agency would be better spent by paying that money directly to the victims.
Felon purge laws have another racial/economic aspect. The laws usually include some procedure to petition and present evidence to have the right to vote restored, something which is much more likely to be known to and affordable by whites as a group.
The good news is that through the educational efforts of groups like the ACLU and Right to Vote, progress will be made toward ending all these ill-conceived laws, maybe some day even in Florida.
posted by Tom Blake | 11:40 AM
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