It kinda sucks that Trump got convicted of 34 felonies because now I’m seeing so many people thinking felon = bad, when in fact convicted felons are disproportionately people of color who were convicted for things that shouldn’t be crimes at all such as drugs, or based on the thinnest of evidence by strongly biased juries.
Look up Fontae Buelow for one obvious example – all white jury, the corrupt judge dismissed a dissenting juror, the same corrupt judge was appointed to the retrial, and the more you look into this case, the more obvious it is this man is not guilty.
That’s just one example. This happens all across the US, over and over again – people stripped of their rights, denied justice. I was in jail in a community that was 75% white, but nearly every person in my cell besides me was Native, Hispanic, or Black. This is typical of any jail or prison in nearly any location in the US, because our institutions were deliberately created to do this.
And yes, I’m glad Trump got at least a taste of our “justice” system, and I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade here – but the main takeaway here should NOT be that felons are bad people who are undeserving of equity. Trump is a bad person whether he’s a felon or not, and many felons are good people – and even if they’re NOT good people, they’re still people worthy of regard and basic respect, worthy to be treated as fellow humans who are equals.
Totally understandable! But I’ve definitely seen people implying that being a felon is itself bad, or that felons shouldn’t have the same rights as non-felons.
I saw mention of felons being unable to vote but able to run for president and it kinda took a while to sink in but now it’s so irritating I’ve gotta post about it :-\ It’s really glaring (and galling) that it’s somehow okay to take a person’s “voice in politics” unless they’re rich and powerful enough to be on top in the political game-system-thing. A president can do much more than vote (especially if they get elected for breaking the rules that only restrict lower classes) but some random person getting punished for their skin colour can’t. They get the same Facebook algorithms as anyone else. No TV time, no millions of views on every incoherent xit they take, no ability to just pardon people for openly committing crimes for them.
Simply put, even convictions in this hellhole have positive or negative value depending on one’s class and that’s proper vile.
Edit to clarify, I’m not saying that both voting and running for office should be disallowed for all felons. Both should be allowed if we’re gonna pretend to be a free and fair society. … Though I wouldn’t cry too loudly if there were a maximum private wealth limit. Nyeh!