"I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return." - Frank Church
"A bunch of former federal prosecutors, drug war lieutenants, and Justice Department officials have written a letter to the leadership of the U.S. Senate in opposition to the Smarter Sentencing Act. The law would cut most mandatory minimums in half, and apply the sentencing reforms already passed in 2010 retroactively...
Julie Stewart of the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums noted the letter’s particularly telling first line: “As former government officials who served in the war on drugs . . . “ The signatories return to that theme later in the letter: “Many of us once served on the front lines of justice.” Ah, the “front lines.” Apparently, Bill Bennett (one of the signatories) wasn’t just feeding quarters into Vegas video poker machines as he demanded that other people go to prison for their vices . . . he was also ducking sniper fire at the time. The notion that when it comes to having opinions about how or when we go to war, people who didn’t serve in the military should defer to those who did is already a tired fallacy. It’s all the more ridiculous when it’s invoked by a group whose “battlefield” was an air-conditioned office or a wood-panelled courtroom."
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