Post by M. Hawbaker on Oct 24, 2019 16:47:09 GMT
Only a crazy person would seriously suggest that we abolish prisons. So, naturally, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did just that in a tweet on Monday.
The New York Democrat said, “Mass incarceration is our American reality. It is a system whose logic evolved from the same lineage as Jim Crow, American apartheid, & slavery.” She continued, “That means we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country.”
Despite facing backlash for such an outlandish proposal, Ocasio-Cortez has only doubled down on her stance. In follow-up tweets, she wrote “I know the term ‘prison abolition’ is breaking some people’s brains. The right is already freaking out.” And the congresswoman proceeded to dismiss conservative concerns at shutting down the prison system, suggesting without evidence that “We have more than enough room to close many of our prisons and explore just alternatives to incarceration.”
When Ocasio-Cortez was pressed about “what do you do with all the violent people?” she, like most prison abolition activists, just resorted to buzzwords and pointing at shiny objects. The congresswoman replied, “Our lawmaking process means we come to solutions together, & either way we should work to an end where our prison system is dramatically smaller than it is today.”
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