Oh, I’m very, very familiar with what Reagan did as the governor of California. The Black Panthers were absolutely in the right to resist the abuses of power by the white establishment cops, and banning the open carrying of firearms was expressly intended to prevent their oversight of the police. Even the idea that drug abusers would be banned from owning firearms directly stems from trying to prevent minority groups from being armed.
But its all part of the grand kabuki theater of criminal justice in our country.
Indeed. If we really cared about criminal justice, we’d focus on prevention by correcting root causes, and using proven methods to reduce recidivism. But we do none of those things.
You can find instances of all of the above tried by various state and local courts in the US.
I’m definitely aware of cases of convicted felons having their parole conditioned on attending Christian religious services, and the FFRF sues the shit out of states–and wins!–when state do shit like that. But yes, states can and do use every tool at their disposal, legal or otherwise, to remove constitutionally guaranteed rights. And I think that’s a huge problem regardless of which right it is.
