Now, you can lynch someone in California and it won’t be considered a “serious crime.” Wondering how this happened? You can thank Governor Jerry Brown.
Brown had a dilemma on his hands. The Supreme Court decided that California’s 33 adult prisons were subjecting inmates to “cruel and unusual punishment” due to overcrowding, according to the 8th Amendment. As a result, the court gave the state two years to remove about 33,000 inmates from its institutions. Brown smelled that decision coming, so in April he signed a bill to address the overcrowded prisons and the state’s budget woes. While he thought he was killing two birds with one stone, he created a potential problem.
The bill goes into effect this week and could throw off the balance of state prisons and local jails. This new “realignment” law will send those convicted of non-violent or non-serious crimes to county jails rather than state prisons. Some of these non-violent and non-serious crimes include assault, battery, using arson or explosives to terrorize a health facility or church, and, of course, participating in a lynching.
It gets worse. Under the new law, people who finish their terms in county lockup will no longer have the option of parole, meaning parole officers won’t be able to keep up with ex-cons. It could also force local jails to release less serious offenders early to accommodate those guilty of more serious crimes.
This is America, folks, and we’re drawing closer to total anarchy every day.
[viaMother Jones]
