Word: violent
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...1980s, the war on drugs was in full swing, as the crack epidemic threatened to overwhelm American cities' criminal justice systems. Drug crimes had become increasingly violent, prompting calls for even stricter mandatory minimum sentencing laws. In 1986, the Reagan Administration passed a law requiring federal judges to give fixed sentences to drug offenders based on variables including the amount seized and the presence of firearms...
...activists began to increasingly complain that the laws were too harsh and that non-violent offenders were being lumped in with narcotics kingpins and unfairly left at the mercy of the penal system. Celebrities including hip hop mogul Russell Simmons and actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon lobbied for the cause. In 2004, prompted by increasing pressure from activists and legislators, then-Gov. George Pataki signed the Drug Law Reform Act, a move that significantly changed the Rockefeller laws' sentencing guidelines. The harshest mandatory minimum was relaxed to 8 to 20 years and those convicted of serious offenses were allowed...
...prosecutors believe the 2004 reforms were enough and no further reforms are needed. "There is no question you'll get more second and third time offenders," says Michael C. Green, Monroe County District Attorney. "The option is being taken away to potentially jail an offender who has committed prior violent felonies." Green cited statistics that showed the state's drug incarceration rate dropping to about 11,000 last year as a result of the 2004 reforms and says it's even a misnomer to call the current statutes Rockefeller Laws at all. Paterson believes, however, the reforms...
...less virtuous society since gambling spilled out from Las Vegas to "riverboats" and state lotteries across the country. There is a medical argument, though not a very convincing one: alcohol is more dangerous in a variety of ways, including the tendency of some drunks to get violent. One could argue that the abuse of McDonald's has a greater potential health-care cost than the abuse of marijuana. (Although it's true that with legalization, those two might not be unrelated.) Obviously, marijuana can be abused. But the costs of criminalization have proved to be enormous, perhaps unsustainable. Would legalization...
...excited; after protesters broke windows at the nearby headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland - which recently needed a government bailout to avoid going under - one or two people looted the lender's computer equipment. A few dozen more scuffled with police outside, but overall the protest was less violent than many had feared...