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At least make it seem like you care (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

She is directly responsible for locking up thousands of nonviolent drug offenders when she had the ability to reduce, expunge, or never take to trial many trivial cases, yet she chose to.

Where are you getting that from?

I hear it from Republicans fairly often, but it doesn't seem backed up by reality...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/22/us/politics/kamala-harris-prosecutor.html

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

This Forbes article from 4 years ago covers the general feel of the issue, and has been updated recently.

To quote more directly from the Mercury article, This SF Gate article briefly covers the relevant actions taken by Harris over her career:

Harris oversaw at least 1,956 marijuana convictions in San Francisco during her 8-year tenure as the district attorney, and a Mercury News analysis of those figures found that marijuana arrests under Harris led to a higher rate of conviction than did arrests made under her predecessor. Very few of those convictions actually resulted in jail time, but convictions can still impact a person's life even if they aren’t incarcerated. It wasn't until she was a member of the United States Senate and widely considered a 2020 presidential contender that Harris came out publicly for legalizing marijuana, but that announcement probably seemed disingenuous to those who had followed her career in California politics up to that point. She actively fought a 2010 ballot measure that would have legalized recreational cannabis in the state, going so far as to author an opposing argument in the California voter guide. Then, when she was running for a second term as the state's attorney general in 2014, she replied to a question about her opponent's support for legalizing recreational marijuana use by saying, "He's entitled to his opinion," and then laughing.

Also I can't read that article bc of a paywall, sorry for not being able to respond to any relevant info, but feel free to give me the important parts if you'd like.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

You said:

She is directly responsible for locking up thousands of nonviolent drug offenders when she had the ability to reduce, expunge, or never take to trial many trivial cases, yet she chose to.

Your source disagrees:

Very few of those convictions actually resulted in jail time, but convictions can still impact a person's life even if they aren’t incarcerated.

So...

Do you acknowledge you were wrong?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Yeah I definitely misspoke and should've said "convicted" rather than "locked up", but she still had far more nonviolent cannabis convictions than the previous DA, as the article also points out. And every single one of those people convicted by her will still be affected when they have to check "yes" on a felony conviction at work and elsewhere.

Do you see the problem that I'm getting at though? She's refusing to seriously lean into an issue that would only help her campaign, due to a long standing history against cannabis legalization. This race is close after all, so her doing so just seems like a huge mistake.