#News on social issues

[castefiles]

Recent Cases and Trends: A Comprehensive Overview of Religious Discrimination News

In today's increasingly diverse world, religious discrimination continues to be a pressing issue that affects individuals and communities worldwide. As we delve into the most recent cases and trends in religious discrimination news, we aim to shed light on the complexities surrounding this topic and ensure a balanced and informative read.

[reasonsforhope]

Article | Paywall Free

"Maryland Gov. Wes Moore issued a mass pardon of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions Monday morning [June 17, 2024], one of the nation’s most sweeping acts of clemency involving a drug now in widespread recreational use.

The pardons forgive low-level marijuana possession charges for an estimated 100,000 people in what the Democratic governor said is a step to heal decades of social and economic injustice that disproportionately harms Black and Brown people. Moore noted criminal records have been used to deny housing, employment and education, holding people and their families back long after their sentences have been served.

[Note: If you're wondering how 175,000 convictions were pardoned but only 100,000 people are benefiting, it's because there are often multiple convictions per person.]

A Sweeping Act

“We aren’t nibbling around the edges. We are taking actions that are intentional, that are sweeping and unapologetic,” Moore said at an Annapolis event interrupted three times by standing ovations. “Policymaking is powerful. And if you look at the past, you see how policies have been intentionally deployed to hold back entire communities.”

Moore called the scope of his pardons “the most far-reaching and aggressive” executive action among officials nationwide who have sought to unwind criminal justice inequities with the growing legalization of marijuana. Nine other states and multiple cities have pardoned hundreds of thousands of old marijuana convictions in recent years, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Legalized marijuana markets reap billions in revenue for state governments each year, and polls show public sentiment on the drug has also turned — with more people both embracing cannabis use and repudiating racial disparities exacerbated by the War on Drugs.

The pardons, timed to coincide with Wednesday’s Juneteenth holiday, a day that has come to symbolize the end of slavery in the United States, come from a rising star in the Democratic Party and the lone Black governor of a U.S. state whose ascent is built on the promise to “leave no one behind.”

The Pardons and Demographics

Derek Liggins, 57, will be among those pardoned Monday, more than 16 years after his last day in prison for possessing and dealing marijuana in the late 1990s. Despite working hard to build a new life after serving time, Liggins said he still loses out on job opportunities and potential income.

“You can’t hold people accountable for possession of marijuana when you’ve got a dispensary on almost every corner,” he said.

Nationwide, according to the ACLU, Black people were more than three times more likely than White people to be arrested for marijuana possession. President Biden in 2022 issued a mass pardon of federal marijuana convictions — a reprieve for roughly 6,500 people — and urged governors to follow suit in states, where the vast majority of marijuana prosecutions take place.

Maryland’s pardon action rivals only Massachusetts, where the governor and an executive council together issued a blanket pardon in March expected to affect hundreds of thousands of people.

But Moore’s pardons appear to stand alone in the impact to communities of color in a state known for having one of the nation’s worst records for disproportionately incarcerating Black people for any crimes. More than 70 percent of the state’s male incarcerated population is Black, according to state data, more than double their proportion in society.

In announcing the pardons, he directly addressed how policies in Maryland and nationwide have systematically held back people of color — through incarceration and restricted access to jobs and housing...

Maryland, the most diverse state on the East Coast, has a dramatically higher concentration of Black people compared with other states that have issued broad pardons for marijuana: 33 percent of Maryland’s population is Black, while the next highest is Illinois, with 15 percent...

Reducing the state’s mass incarceration disparity has been a chief goal of Moore, Brown and Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue, who are all the first Black people to hold their offices in the state. Brown and Dartigue have launched a prosecutor-defender partnership to study the “the entire continuum of the criminal system,” from stops with law enforcement to reentry, trying to detect all junctures where discretion or bias could influence how justice is applied, and ultimately reform it.

How It Will Work

Maryland officials said the pardons, which would also apply to people who are dead, will not result in releasing anyone from incarceration because none are imprisoned. Misdemeanor cannabis charges yield short sentences and prosecutions for misdemeanor criminal possession have stopped, as possessing small amounts of the drug is legal statewide.

Moore’s pardon action will automatically forgive every misdemeanor marijuana possession charge the Maryland judiciary could locate in the state’s electronic court records system, along with every misdemeanor paraphernalia charge tied to use or possession of marijuana. Maryland is the only state to pardon such paraphernalia charges, state officials said...

People who benefit from the mass pardon will see the charges marked in state court records within two weeks, and they will be eliminated from criminal background check databases within 10 months."

-via The Washington Post, June 17, 2024. Headings added by me.

[cookthepenguin]

[cubbihue]

Does Timmy have any friends in fairy world?

Timmy is more of a socialite than a friend-getter. He can easily make connections with others, and can slip into established groups and create a dynamic with them! The kind of guy who is always invited to events but not related to anyone.

The closest he's gotten so far is Sanderson.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[shibaleeart]

Tumblr trending on Twitter and Twitter trending on Tumblr XD

[alwaysbewoke]

nah nah nah. y'all wanted to be white so bad, stay there with them and EAT THAT RACISM smfh

[mysharona1987]

[liesmyth]

do u even really like something if you don't open jstor about it

[jdorian]

the sooner you all accept that 99% of actors are entitled nepobabies with weird beliefs and despicable friends and learn to enjoy the stories they tell anyway the sooner you'll find inner peace

[brown-little-robin]

I think I'm in the "conscious incompetence" stage of being a social animal in the real world and it sucks so majorly. bro what do you do after you realize you're bad at socializing and then in-person interaction gets harder because you know you're failing at it now.

[the-sun-is-also-a-star]

kinning both black brothers is like im having a minor meltdown over that fact that i have to socialise with new people tomorrow (reggie kin) but i know for a fact that when i get there tomorrow i'm going to act like a fuckin social butterfly (sirius kin)

[captainjonnitkessler]

full offense intended to people who hate voting— they literally don’t know how government works. youre not just voting for the politician youre voting for their ability to make political appointments. like if you claim to be pro-labor and pro-union and you take a dump all over voting, it’s just crystal clear you don’t know what the National Labor Relations Board is. But most people just do not know labor law. Like understandable, it’s a complex field. I just have to roll my eyes at “both parties are the same”. On some issues, yea. On others no the fuck they’re not. Embarrassing behavior imo.

Yeah actual labor leaders are EXTREMELY clear that they want people to vote and vote Democrat. I've heard union presidents talk about how much progress they've made and how much easier it's been with the Biden administration as opposed to Trump. And on a local level, my state Democrats got me paid sick time when my union wasn't willing to fight for it, while multiple Republicans states are repealing their labor laws left and right. And sure, Democrats as a whole aren't great at labor - but negotiating is a hell of a lot easier when the starting position isn't "unions should all be burned to the ground and the organizers run out of town on a rail".

And that's just labor - I've heard similar stories from people involved in climate change stuff and I'm willing to bet it's the same with a lot of other issues. The problem is that people assume if it's not big, splashy front-page news then it's either not important or didn't happen, when a lot of the most important stuff is quieter. The New York Times isn't going to report on every judge appointed to the NLRB but it's still an incredibly important issue that the parties are extremely different on!

[caitlinjohns77]

[nando161mando]

[doctor--malpractice]

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[disease]

BARBARA KRUGER / "UNTITLED" / 2020 for ART IN ISOLATION by THE NEW YORK TIMES