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Draconian
crime bills up for vote soon in Congress
OPINION - ACLU Pasadena
May 5, 2005
Two draconian drug, gangs and death penalty bills are now coming
before Congress. (Pasadena area Congressman Adam Schiff sits on
House Judiciary Committee). To learn more and email your Congressman
on the gangs and death penalty expansion bill, go to the ACLU site:
http://us.f419.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=chuh42kuc3a7v
To read today's
scathing LA Times editorial against the drugs related bill, see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-
sentence5may05,0,4461399.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials
"The bill,
[..'cynically titled Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection
Act of 2005..'] now before the House Judiciary Committee, would
require five-year terms for the sale or distribution of every illegal
drug, no matter how small the amount or the penalty under state
law. Share a line of cocaine with a friend or give away a single
tab of Ecstasy and you may join the 900 or so new inmates marched
behind bars each week
in recent years. Offenders with a prior conviction on almost any
drug charge would automatically get 10 years. Adults who sold to
minors could get life.
...The measure is just as likely to
pull families apart. Parents who see but don't report drug use in
the home — even if their child wasn't present — would
get a mandatory term. So if Dad watches Mom smoke marijuana in their
living room, they both head to prison, and Junior goes to foster
care. Drug treatment would surely seem the smarter solution for
such a family.
....Instead of cutting drug use, the
real goal of this bill is to score political points in a larger
war against the judiciary."
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To reach Congressman Schiff
call:
626-304-2727
write to:
35 South Raymond Ave., #205
Pasadena, CA 91105
or email:
ACLU_Pasadena-Foothill@yahoogroups.com
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ALSO
from the ACLU:
ACLU Pasadena/Foothills
membership meeting is Tuesday, May 10, 7 pm, at Neighborhood Church,
301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena (at Walnut)
The USA Patriot
Act: Time for Change. Isabelle Gunning, ACLU/SC President and Professor
of Constitutional Law at Southwestern Law School
The USA Patriot
Act, passed in haste 45 days after 9/11, has seriously eroded constitutional
checks and balances. Portions of the Act are due to sunset this
year - President Bush is calling on Congress to make them permanent.
What's at stake and what needs changing? Come join the campaign.
Help the
ACLU Fix the USA Patriot Act
Provisions of
the Patriot Act due to sunset at the end of this year are being
reviewed in Congress. The ACLU, in cooperation with other organizations,
is urging Congress not to renew these provisions, and to correct
other objectionable provisions in, and beyond, the Patriot Act that
grant too much unchecked power to the White House.
www.aclu.org/sunsets
and
www.aclu.org/patriot
If you're interested
in helping to clean up this Act, contact us at aclupasadena@yahoo.com
or cll (626) 389-4107 to help in this campaign.
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