Norquist: Democrats Only Support Criminal Justice Reform ‘Because All Their Relatives Are In Prison’

[kpete]

Norquist: Democrats Only Support Criminal Justice Reform ‘Because All Their Relatives Are In Prison’

At this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference just outside DC, Grover Norquist with Americans for Tax Reform told a packed room that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now embracing changes to the War on Drugs model that has led to an explosion in mass incarceration over the last several decades. But he warned that the two parties were backing the reforms for different reasons.

“Democrats only support (criminal justice reform) because all their relatives are in prison,” he said, to chuckles from the audience, adding that Republicans believed mandatory minimums are ineffective and un-American.

The panel’s moderator, Pat Nolan with the American Conservative Union Foundation, hit back at Norquist, noting that “because of this drug war, a whole lot of Republicans have family in prison too.”

One of those Republicans was sitting right next to Norquist. Julie Stewart with Families Against Mandatory Minimums spoke passionately about her own brother, who was arrested and sentenced in Washington State in the 1990s for growing marijuana plants — an act, she noted, that is now legal. She said she agrees that he deserved some punishment, but thought that punishment should be decided by a judge who understand his personal circumstances.



MORE (post-racial?):
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/02/27/3628265/norquist-democrats-support-criminal-justice-reform-relatives-prison/

[Turbineguy]

1. Actually, no.

We support it in the hope that Norquist and his ilk will end up in prison.

[fredamae]

2. Lol--Me Thinks Norquist Doth "Project"

too much...for it is the majority in GOP and their relatives that Should be and they know it. We know it. The Trees in the Forests know it.
Perhaps-They ought to shut the hell up before we all permanently turn our heads in their direction?

So Far:
Cocaine
Fraud/Corruption
Redecorating/Vacationing/Surfing/Partying on the Tax Payer's Dime
Prostitutes
And all of the yet Unknown Etc's

[justhanginon]

5. May I add, the failure to form a select committee

to investigate Diapergate.

[fadedrose]

3. Republicans go to prison

The rich ones who steal millions go to country-club prisons.

If democrats who were caught with marijuana were sent to this type of prison, nobody would be complaining.

[JonLP24]

4. Read this article regarding Demaryius Thomas' family and tell me we don't need criminal justice refo

reform

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11830457/denver-broncos-demaryius-thomas-dreams-reuniting-estranged-family

I never been to prison nor had any immediate family members or cousins that I know of that have been to prison. I don't know any prisoners in my life but I do know people who have been there. The common thing is might is right is all that matters not only in disputes involving them but disputes involving other people. If you don't "save face" it is treated as a sign of weakness. They adopt the odd prison logic within their own logic.

[safeinOhio]

6. Being accused of supporting the

Muslim Brotherhood, by consevative nuts like himself, because of his wife, has Norquist making up stuff to fit in.