Usa Thread

[Steve]

Stories like this breaks my heart. Its also eerily similar to what a HS classmate of mine went through. He was a great HS athlete and got a football scholorship to a D1 school. He was dating this girl and got caught sneaking out of her room and the dorm. She cried rape (she was from a wealthy white family and didn't want to risk the ire of her parents dating a black guy). During the initial investigation he was suspended from the team, ultimately lost his athletic scholorship. One of the girl's friend or roommate, can't recall said they were secretly dating. However by that time (and this was months later), he was already home and out of college. He was being looked at by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys I heard at the time.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/5-years-prison-former-prep-football-star-exonerated-210345660.html

 

27-year-old Brian Banks was officially acquitted of the violent charges against him after his accuser recanted her story after a bizarre turn of events that began when the woman reached out to Banks on Facebook.

 

While the accuser, a woman named Wanetta Gibson, told Banks she wanted to "let bygones be bygones", she was hesitant to repeat the story she told the former Long Beach (Calif.) Polytechnic High football star to prosecutors because she was afraid that she would have to forfeit the $1.5 million civil settlement her mother won against the Long Beach school district in connection with the case.

 

There's no word on whether Gibson's mother will have to forfeit that cash, but with the charges against Banks quickly withdrawn on Thursday, the one-time can't miss athlete has had his criminal record expunged and finally has renewed hopes of re-starting a football career which many believed would land him a lucrative NFL contract.

[kamui]

A fine example of American exceptionalism:

The USA has the most prisoners in the world. It's interesting to look at despised enemies of the USA like Iran or to countries the USA wanted to democratize like Iraq (144).

 

 

 

LOUISIANA INCARCERATED

How we built the world's prison capital

http://www.nola.com/prisons/

 

PS: Louisana has 10 times as many prisoners as Germany (161 per 100.000)

See full list here:

http://en.wikipedia....arceration_rate

[allistar]

I'd have to see the breakdown on what offences the prisoners had committed. Certainly, there are far too many people in the U.S. in jail for drug offences. On the other hand, the idea of letting a prisoner out after 5-8 years for murder is absurd. The extreme would be Scotland, for letting out the person from Libya and Germany, for letting out murdering terrorist (from the 1980's?). Obviously, country sponsored terrorism and terrorist groups are getting the signal that there is a low cost to their actions. I really doubt that Germany has one tenth of the criminals that Louisiana has. They just don't put them in prison, or if they do, for short terms. You would have to show me the various rates of crime in Germany and the typical sentences for those crimes to convince me that Germany is a safer place to live than Germany. However, as more states are privatizing their prison system, Louisiana and Texas could become the capitols of the prison industry in the U.S.

[kamui]

I'd have to see the breakdown on what offences the prisoners had committed. Certainly, there are far too many people in the U.S. in jail for drug offences. On the other hand, the idea of letting a prisoner out after 5-8 years for murder is absurd. The extreme would be Scotland, for letting out the person from Libya and Germany, for letting out murdering terrorist (from the 1980's?). Obviously, country sponsored terrorism and terrorist groups are getting the signal that there is a low cost to their actions. I really doubt that Germany has one tenth of the criminals that Louisiana has. They just don't put them in prison, or if they do, for short terms. You would have to show me the various rates of crime in Germany and the typical sentences for those crimes to convince me that Germany is a safer place to live than Germany. However, as more states are privatizing their prison system, Louisiana and Texas could become the capitols of the prison industry in the U.S.

 

Both examples in regard to Germany and Libya are not valid. Freeing the Lybian terrorist happened outside the usual process. It was in the end a political decision. Letting out German terrorists happened as well outside the usual process. They received amnesty by the German president after years of public discussion. None of the terrorists has committed a crime after they left prison. Generally in Germany very few people stay in prison for life without parole. This happens only to those who are deemed to go on with capital crimes (murder, pedophelia, e.g.) if they are let go. This is a small group.

 

The USA seems to have a very high prison rate for minor offenses, especially due to three strike law and due to drug offenses non-withes. And they put many people in jail for life without parole.

 

On the other hand, as I understand the USA has a strange amnesty system. Every outgoing US governor and president gives amnesty to prisoners, among them are usually prisoners who in a way connected to governor/president.

 

Anyway, in Germany life is pretty secure. Driveby shootings are rare, as well as shootings within a family or among relatives/fellows, since an usual household doesn't own a gun... (personally I have never seen a gun private hands in my whole life). But this is a different topic. In the USA if terrible crime with guns happens gun laws are being softened. In Europe, when such a crime happens gun laws are being hardened (see Scotland and Germany).

 

PS: just compare the number of prisons and prison cells in Germany and the USA for get a idea of the number of inmates. It's simple math.

[allistar]

The system whereby Presidents and Governors are allowed to commute or pardon a prisoner is part of our checks and balances system, where a prisoner might be pardoned if there is reason to believe that he didn't receive a fair trial, or new evidence has been produced that throws doubt on the conviction. Its only when a President or Governor is leaving office that the power to commute is sometimes abused, as it was under Clinton and the Mississippi Governor. Ir doesn't make any difference if the persons in the two terrorist examples that I used have not committed a crime after being released. Punishment, at least in the u.S., is used sometimes as a deterrent. I know, if I were a terrorist, if I were captured, I would want to be tried in Western Europe. Like I said, I would like to remove the people in jail for drug and other minor offenses, and then see the numbers.

[Flashermac]

Demonised countries like Iraq don't have prisons. They just execute people.

[Guest lazyphil]

germans are sensitive about prisons because of gas chambers and executing jews not long ago so dont imprison folk too much, they like to display a thin veneer of being civilised. though this might change when the european utopian dream finally crumbles. watch the german arrogance blossom and the murder/prison machine mobilise once again.....gee i cant wait!!!! :stirthepo

[Bangkoktraveler]

Some people would think the Communist countries like China are number 1 for having prisoners but

are surprised to find the USA is #1.

[acockasian]

germans are sensitive about prisons because of gas chambers and executing jews not long ago so dont imprison folk too much, they like to display a thin veneer of being civilised. though this might change when the european utopian dream finally crumbles. watch the german arrogance blossom and the murder/prison machine mobilise once again.....gee i cant wait!!!! :stirthepo

 

 

What a completely unfair comment to make.

 

Thin-veneer?

[Guest lazyphil]

are u a spelling nazi??