> Stephen Ross Johnson, of Knoxville, Tennessee, a board member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and past president of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told USA TODAY that it is "over simplistic" to say the 1994 crime bill led to mass incarceration.
> Asked if the bill caused or largely contributed to it, Johnson says: “The bottom line answer to that is no. Was it a link in the chain? Yes. Is it the beginning of the chain? No.”
> Johnson argues that the roots of mass incarceration can be found in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with legislation that created, among other things, the RICO statute, which broadened the scope of federal law as the war on drugs began to take shape.
I'd say I agree with the points in the article over the non-contextual, anonyomous, blanket statement that the crime bill brought ("caused") mass incarceration of Black Americans.
> I'd say I agree with the points in the article over the non-contextual, anonyomous, blanket statement that the crime bill brought ("caused") mass incarceration of Black Americans.
Perhaps it is not an appropriately nuanced claim - I would be curious if there is equal enforcement of the "contextual" clarity of claims made in all political memes though. My guess is no, and it is also a quite common view among academics that the crime bill is a large link in the story behind mass incarceration.
I haven't, for instance, seen fact-checking of memes about Russia "stealing" the election or Donald Trump being a servant of Putin, despite those claims being potentially "non-contextual."
You may agree with the points. But does that make it beyond the pale of discussion and must be "fact-checked" away?
e: Rather than downvotes, I would be curious what others' thoughts are here.
> I haven't, for instance, seen fact-checking of memes about Russia "stealing" the election or Donald Trump being a servant of Putin, despite those claims being potentially "non-contextual."
Have you heard of the Mueller Report? There's been extensive fact-checking on this, and Trump obstructed the investigation.
> Have you heard of the Mueller Report? There's been extensive fact-checking on this, and Trump obstructed the investigation.
I have, of course. My claim is just that Russia "stealing" the election might be non-"contextual" if what's been shown is that Russia ran extensive misinformation campaigns, since the election was still ultimately decided by people voting, no evidence of extensive fraud, etc. , etc.
Of course, perhaps it is still a "steal" simply because of the effect of that interference/influence campaign. And similarly, perhaps the 1994 crime bill had an influence on future downstream state actions around incarceration. There's a discussion to be had about the topic. Neither "fact-check"-ing seems non-ideological to me.
I assume that point was an extension of OP's comment of: "that they use to ensure ideological conformity in their posts."
For those interested, here is a link to the USA Today article from the screenshot evaluating whether "the crime bill brought mass incarceration to Black Americans": https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/03/fac...
> Stephen Ross Johnson, of Knoxville, Tennessee, a board member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and past president of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told USA TODAY that it is "over simplistic" to say the 1994 crime bill led to mass incarceration.
> Asked if the bill caused or largely contributed to it, Johnson says: “The bottom line answer to that is no. Was it a link in the chain? Yes. Is it the beginning of the chain? No.”
> Johnson argues that the roots of mass incarceration can be found in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with legislation that created, among other things, the RICO statute, which broadened the scope of federal law as the war on drugs began to take shape.
I'd say I agree with the points in the article over the non-contextual, anonyomous, blanket statement that the crime bill brought ("caused") mass incarceration of Black Americans.