You can criticize it all you want but your critique is with the underlying law and the decision of the jury, not with the judge. His sentence was in line with that of others whose intent was to “fuck some shit up.” According to the way the law is written, what the judge decided was not unreasonable.
You want to change it? Nag your congress critters. That’s too much trouble? Then you’re just the guy at the end of the bar, banging his glass on the table and shouting about what’s wrong with this country.
I’ve about had my fill of people, especially millenials, bitching endlessly about what’s wrong and yet always managing to find a detailed justification why they don’t need to do anything. In the recent Wisconsin election, Democrat JoAnne Kloppenberg was narrowly defeated in an election for state Supreme Court against a Tea Party Republican. She was expected to win the election. That margin of defeat is more than accounted for by the large number of Bernie Sanders voters who showed up, check off Sanders, and went home, leaving the rest of the ballot blank.
That’s pretty goddamn sad. If people can’t be bothered to make the most minimal effort to try to change things, just check some more boxes for god’s sake, why should anybody listen to them? You argued that Congress does nothing. Mostly that’s true, but mostly it is because Congress has a finely honed sense of who votes and who doesn’t.
But a bipartisan consensus has built up behind a criminal justice reform bill to reduce mandatory sentencing and incarceration rates across the board. Likely a bill will move this year or next. That didn’t come out of nowhere. It was the product of 15 years of building constituencies to the point where congress critters on both sides of the aisle see profit in listening. That’s how democracy works.
You could join the EFF or the ACLU and put some money behind your mouth. That would be something. But if all you want to do is bitch and do nothing, well, . . . . have a nice day.
