CNN Opinion: Sex Offenders Should Be Able To Live Next Door To You

[Obama 2012 1,714]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/05/18/alexander.who.am.i/index.html?hpt=C2

(CNN) -- Who am I? How do I identify?

Lately, I've been telling people that I'm a criminal. This shocks most people, since I don't "look like" one. I'm a fairly clean-cut, light-skinned black woman with fancy degrees from Vanderbilt University and Stanford Law School. I'm a law professor and I once clerked for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice -- not the sort of thing you'd expect a criminal to do.

What'd you get convicted of? people ask. Nothing, I say. Well, then why do you say you're a criminal? Because I am a criminal, I say, just like you.

This is where the conversation gets interesting. Most of my acquaintances don't think of themselves as criminals. No matter what their color, age or gender, most of the people in my neighborhood and in my workplace seem to think criminals exist somewhere else -- in ghettos, mainly.

They have an unspoken, but deeply rooted identity as "law-abiding citizens." I ask them, "Haven't you ever committed a crime?" Oddly, people often seem perplexed by this question. What do you mean? they say. I mean, haven't you ever smoked pot, didn't you ever drink underage, don't you sometimes speed on the freeway, haven't you gotten behind the wheel after having a couple of drinks? Haven't you broken the law?

Well, yeah, they say, but I'm not a criminal. Oh, really? What are you, then? As I see it, you're just somebody who hasn't been caught. You're still a criminal, no better than many of those who've been branded felons for life.

Perhaps there should be a box on the census form that says "I'm a criminal." Everyone who has ever committed a crime would be required to check it. If everyone were forced to acknowledge their own criminality, maybe we, as a nation, would second-guess our apparent zeal for denying full citizenship to those branded felons.

In this country, we force millions of people -- who are largely black and brown -- into a permanent second-class status, simply because they once committed a crime. Once labeled a felon, you are ushered into a parallel social universe. You can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits -- forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind.

This kind of stigma, discrimination and social exclusion may befall you for no reason other than you were once caught with drugs.

I doubt Barack Obama thinks of himself as a criminal, though he should. He has admitted to using illegal drugs during his college years -- lots, in fact. What if he thought of himself as a criminal? What if he identified that way? Would it lead him to feel a bit more compassion for those who are branded drug felons for life, unable to find work or housing, and deemed ineligible even for food stamps?

Maybe if Obama thought of himself as a criminal he wouldn't have just endorsed spending even more money on prisons at a time when scarce resources would be much better spent on education or health care, or just about anything else.

I am a criminal. Coming to terms with this aspect of my identity has helped me to see more clearly -- with blinders off -- the ways in which I have been encouraged not to feel any connection to "them," those labeled criminals. I see now that "they" are me, and I am them.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michelle Alexander.

[The_Dude 1,142]

The rationale in the article is a bit on the absurd side. That being said, our drug laws are draconian and have been proven not to work. They have been incrementally ratcheted up over the past decade and have done zero to decrease supply, let alone demand. Prohibition doesn't work, period.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

Prohibition doesn't work, period.

let's try execution then.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It's not a very well argued rationale, but I agree that it is wrong to permanently tarnish people with a second class citizen status.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Its a MADHOUSE

[The_Dude 1,142]

let's try execution then.

Well, only two countries have been able to lower drug use, The Netherlands who decriminalized certain drugs, and Malaysia who dole out death sentences for what would barely be a felony possesion by our standards.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

Well, only two countries have been able to lower drug use, The Netherlands who decriminalized certain drugs, and Malaysia who dole out death sentences for what would barely be a felony possesion by our standards.

how about a compromise - if there is a problem with repeat offenders, we'll decriminalize it

[The_Dude 1,142]

It's not a very well argued rationale, but I agree that it is wrong to permanently tarnish people with a second class citizen status.

That is the price you pay when you load up your bong. Whether our laws are just or unjust is beside the point. Drugs are illegal in our country currently, and if you decide that you're going to use them, you should be prepared to face the consequences if you get caught.

how about a compromise - if there is a problem with repeat offenders, we'll decriminalize it

I don't see decriminalization happening in my lifetime, but a vast majority of people whom I work with do.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

That is the price you pay when you load up your bong. Whether our laws are just or unjust is beside the point. Drugs are illegal in our country currently, and if you decide that you're going to use them, you should be prepared to face the consequences if you get caught.

you gets one of my valuable +1's

I don't see decriminalization happening in my lifetime, but a vast majority of people whom I work with do.

if they are seeing it, take away their bong, they've had enough already.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

That is the price you pay when you load up your bong. Whether our laws are just or unjust is beside the point. Drugs are illegal in our country currently, and if you decide that you're going to use them, you should be prepared to face the consequences if you get caught.

I think the point is that for most crimes, noone really gives a toss about the background of the people living in their neighbourhoods.

[The_Dude 1,142]

I think the point is that for most crimes, noone really gives a toss about the background of the people living in their neighbourhoods.

Well, they just assume that since they live in a nice quiet suburb, they must be of good stock. Funny when the guy down the street gets arrested for growing 600 plants of pot in his basement, suddenly everyone is shocked and he is now the outcast.

[Peikko 1,575]

I don't get the title of this thread. What has this got to do with sex offenders living next door? Is this being put in goal for possession of drugs a sex offense now?

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I don't get the title of this thread. What has this got to do with sex offenders living next door? Is this being put in goal for possession of drugs a sex offense now?

She used a generalization in her opinion about 'criminals' not just those convicted of drug-related crimes.

[alienlovechild 75]

They have an unspoken, but deeply rooted identity as "law-abiding citizens." I ask them, "Haven't you ever committed a crime?" Oddly, people often seem perplexed by this question. What do you mean? they say. I mean, haven't you ever smoked pot, didn't you ever drink underage, don't you sometimes speed on the freeway, haven't you gotten behind the wheel after having a couple of drinks? Haven't you broken the law?

In this country, we force millions of people -- who are largely black and brown -- into a permanent second-class status, simply because they once committed a crime. Once labeled a felon, you are ushered into a parallel social universe. You can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits -- forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind.

This kind of stigma, discrimination and social exclusion may befall you for no reason other than you were once caught with drugs.

I doubt Barack Obama thinks of himself as a criminal, though he should. He has admitted to using illegal drugs during his college years -- lots, in fact. What if he thought of himself as a criminal? What if he identified that way? Would it lead him to feel a bit more compassion for those who are branded drug felons for life, unable to find work or housing, and deemed ineligible even for food stamps?

The difference is a lot of black and brown folks the professor has sympathy for are idiots who openly deal drugs on street corners or have a horde of people hanging out in front a house with people coming and going to buy drugs. Then they drive around in flashy cars or beaters without driver's licenses. They're so visible and they're easy to bust. Of course, there are white trash types dealing out of trailers with the stench of meth in the air. Most of the time these people don't have jobs and free time to get into all sorts of trouble. Then there are the junkies who steal for their habits.

Contrast the career criminals with young people who smoke pot in school or do it after work. Drunk drivers get busted and there is a stigma about that but I wouldn't be afraid of someone who got busted years ago for blowing a .1. I knew plenty of pot smokers and beer drinkers that can handle their choice of poison without getting violent and making a scene. I can't I've ever seen a gun at party either. As far as Obama goes, it's more class thing than racial as even I don't believe Obama was some jerk out of his mind on crack and brandishing a gun. Too bad a law professor can't see the difference.