A convicted drug dealer who was freed by President Donald Trump and later accused of attacking a nurse and groping a nanny was sent back to federal prison on Monday. Jonathan Braun, a Long Island man who reportedly violated the terms of release after he was charged with several new crimes, has been ...
Do you think this guy should still be locked up for smuggling weed in a state where its now legal? I don’t and I’m not going to compromise my morals just so I can disagree with trump on every issue. If you are taking the stance that anything trump does is automatically bad then your letting your politics be defined by him and becoming a sort of reactionary. Your politics should be defined by what you believe in, not what the other side says.
I also believe that trump pardoning his co-conspirators is wrong because it’s corrupt, not just because Trump is doing it. Criticize an action on its substance, not just who is doing it.
It’s kinda complicated, but I do have to say… smuggling on that scale something more is going on. If you told me someone is smuggling 200,000 lbs of cigarettes from a state where they are cheap into a state they are expensive… I’d say there’s a 99.99% chance somewhere in the line there’s some major violent crimes done to enable it. An opperation that large isn’t just a couple guys providing for their friends, that’s clearly dealing with some form of organized crime or gangs… that most likely aren’t holding their territory by friendly agreements.
Ok, then prosecute him for racketeering or murder for hire.
If the point is to just take out the kingpin, for the sake of taking out the kingpin, I don’t think that’s an effective strategy for public safety. When the kingpin goes to jail violence goes up as their underlings usually fight for the throne. Availability of drugs and other illegal services may go down temporarily during the war and reconsolidation but long term they’ll return to antebellum levels. The only thing taking out the kingpin does is boost cops egos.
I think there’s a significant difference between someone who caught a case for having an ounce on them and a guy busted with enough weed to fill a swimming pool, regardless of my personal feelings about marijuana. Framing it the way you are makes it sound like he’s the former and that doesn’t capture the scope of what he was up to.
Either way this guy is clearly a shit head. If you want to make the argument that all marijuana charges should be pardoned and expunged then I suggest you find a different poster boy for the campaign because this guy is not helping your case.
How am I framing it like he got caught with an ounce, my original comment mentioned the amount. Why should the amount matter, it’s legal now, a dispensary is probably moving tons of marijuana a year, should the owners of those dispensaries be prosecuted simply because of the volume of the operation?
I will make the argument that all marijuana charges should be pardoned expunged in legal states because we as a society decided it’s a relatively harmless substance and that we shouldn’t be locking people up for possessing or selling it.
Yeah he’s not the best poster boy, and Willie Horton isn’t the best poster boy for furlough programs, and the guy who killed laken Riley isn’t the best poster boy for immigration reform, hell kilmar garcia has charges equivalent to this guy. That’s the thing about criminal justice reform, you don’t choose your poster boy your opponent does. That’s why you have to defend it on principal not individual cases, because there will always be someone who uses that reform and goes on to commit some atrocious act which your opponents will use as “proof” that the reform is dangerous.
220,000 pounds. It’s not about marijuana, it’s about him being a large scale illegal drug dealer. If Trump wants to first pardon everyone in the US who has minor charges for marijuana, great. And then much later he can go and deal with the major drug dealers.
But look, you asked for criticism based on substance, and the substance here is that the guy had political connections. In other words, this is classic corruption. And I know you know that.