Obama Rails Against ‘Disparities’ In The Justice System That He Presides Over

Right off the bat, Obama bemoaned the costs and effects of the War on Drugs, while curiously neglecting the role he played in it’s operation. Per Breitbart:

“Today, there are 2.2 million people behind bars in America and millions more on parole or probation. Every year, we spend $80 billion in taxpayer dollars to keep people incarcerated. Many are non-violent offenders serving unnecessarily long sentences.

I believe we can disrupt the pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails. I believe we can address the disparities in the application of criminal justice, from arrest rates to sentencing to incarceration. And I believe we can help those who have served their time and earned a second chance get the support they need to become productive members of society.”

That’s why over the course of this year, I’ve been talking to folks around the country about reforming our criminal justice system to make it smarter, fairer, and more effective.

In February, I sat down in the Oval Office with police officers from around the country. In the spring, I met with police officers and young people in Camden, New Jersey, where they’re using community policing and data to drive down crime. Over the summer, I visited a prison in Oklahoma to talk with inmates and corrections officers about rehabilitating prisoners, and preventing more people from ending up there in the first place. Two weeks ago, I visited West Virginia to meet with families battling prescription drug and heroin abuse, as well as people who are working on new solutions for treatment and rehabilitation. Last week, I traveled to Chicago to thank police chiefs from across the country for all that their officers do to protect Americans, to make sure they’ve got the resources to get the job done, and to call for commonsense gun safety reforms that would make officers and their communities safer.

A good start might be reclassifying marijuana as something other than a Schedule One drug or not raiding pot dispensaries in states that have legalized them. Things that, interestingly, are legally within the president’s power but for some reason haven’t been done well into his second term. Perhaps it’s just easier for the president to pontificate about such things instead of actually doing anything about them.

Source: Breitbart.com