NFL Players Demand Sweeping Prison Reform, Denying Trump's Request for List of Potential Pardons
Source: Common Dreams
Published on Thursday, June 21, 2018
by Common Dreams
"If President Trump thinks he can end these injustices if we deliver him a few names, he hasn't been listening to us."
by Julia Conley, staff writer
In a New York Times op-ed, several current and former NFL players rejected President Donald Trump's request for a list of people they would like to see him pardon, demanding instead that he enact far-reaching reforms to end the crisis of mass incarceration, which has seen black Americans sent to prison at more than five times the rate of white Americans.
Trump has displayed a strong reliance on his executive pardon power, granting clemency to racially-profiling sheriff Joe Arpaio and right-wing propagandist Dinesh D'Souza, and saying numerous times that he believes he has the power to pardon himself should he be found guilty of wrongdoing.
But pardoning a handful of victims of racial injustice at the hands of the U.S. criminal justice system will not undo the damage the system continues to inflict on communities of color throughout the country, argued the players.
"These are problems that our government has created, many of which occur at the local level. If President Trump thinks he can end these injustices if we deliver him a few names, he hasn't been listening to us," wrote Doug Baldwin, Anquan Boldin, Malcolm Jenkins, and Benjamin Watson of the Players Coalition.
Read more: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/06/21/nfl-players-demand-sweeping-prison-reform-denying-trumps-request-list-potential
= new reply since forum marked as read
Every piece of good news is needed nutrition for our national psyches
BOOYAH
