Lucinda F. Boyd's Blog (473)

Please support the Mother's March on Washington DC. It is tentatively scheduled to take place in October, 2013. We will gather as many from around the world as will come to make a stand against Murder of Children, and the laws and politicians that support them. We will stand at the foot of the MLK Monument, and let the nation hear the weeping, wailing, anger, sadness, and determination of mothers throughout this nation who are FED UP, and want a realistic means to the end of the senseless…

THE POWER OF WORDS

The Power Of Words - Huffington Post - Powerful Interview - Full Segment: From Rick Ross to Lil Wayne, rappers are catching flack about their socially insensitive lyrics. But when do words cross the line and should lyrics be policed?

NO it's totally not cool to glorify date rape through lame song lyrics, but that's just what Rick Ross did when he co-wrote the track "UOENO" with fellow rapper Rocko.

Here are the lyrics:

"Put molly all in her champagne/ She ain't even know it/ I took her home and I enjoyed that/ She ain't even know it."

So, if you're not in the know, "molly" is slang for MDMA, which is the main ingredient in the date rape drug. Molly + champange = blackout city for most unseasoned…

TAMPA (FOX 13) -

Have you met "Molly?" She's a hit at the clubs, and she's popular on the concert scene -- but this is no cute girl.

"Molly" is a drug, and moms and dads should know about it because chances are, your kids already do.

If you hear your teens say they're hanging out with "Molly," or you see it pop up on a Facebook posting, that's a red flag.

Molly started in the underground rave scene, but now is wildly popular with more mainstream teenagers and…

(CNN) -- "Have you heard of molly?" the girl next to me asked. She was swaying from side to side, bobbing her head to the bass vibrating throughout the sold-out venue.



The room around us was buzzing with anticipation. Music was blasting. People were dancing and laughing and taking pictures. There was less than an hour until showtime, and I was about to see one of…

40 Years, $1 Trillion, 45 Million Arrests: This is the War on Drugs.

Forty years ago, President Nixon called a press conference to tell the American people that their “public enemy #1” was drug abuse. He then proceeded to declare an all-out war on drug users and sellers, with resounding repercussions on criminal justice policy and on vast numbers of Americans.

Subsequent presidents, drug czars, and local politicians have followed Nixon’s lead, fueling an unprecedented boom in…

A Brief Outline of Drug Policies in the United States

DRUG LAWS PRE-1960S

1914 – The Harrison Act restricts the sale of heroin and cocaine – both legal at the time – and establishes a legal framework for federal intervention on drug policy.

1919 – Alcohol prohibition is enacted as the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. The failure of Prohibition led to its repeal in 1933 – the only Constitutional Amendment ever repealed by the States.

1937 – After…

The United States is the world's leader in incarceration with 2.3 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails -- a 500% increase over the past thirty years. Some of these are murderers, robbers or rapists, but many are non-violent offenders whose behavior can be changed by approaches that are much more effective than long sentences. Compounding the problem is the fact that thousands of these nonviolent offenders receive lengthy mandatory minimum terms in state and federal…

Drug War Statistics

Did you know....

Amount spent annually in the U.S. on the war on drugs: More than $51,000,000,000

Number of people arrested in 2011 in the U.S. on nonviolent drug charges: 1.53 million

Number of people arrested for a marijuana law violation in 2011: 757,969

Number of those charged with marijuana law violations who were arrested for possession only: 663,032 (86 percent)

Number of Americans incarcerated in 2009 in federal, state and local…

The Phoenix Boys Center hosted "Amateur Boxing Fight Night" on Saturday, Dec. 15 at the American Legion Post 2 in Tempe and was Sponsored by The Streets Don't Love You Back Movement. The bout was sanctioned by USA Boxing Arizona, the governing body for amateur boxing in Arizona.

Some boxing notables were in attendance and working the corner for a few of the boxers in the eleven bout card. NABF Lightweight Champion, Ray Beltran, former World Flyweight Champion,…

Bill Gates recently gave a Commencement speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about…

"When you drop out of a gang, you're less protected, but you still have all of your enemies," said The Barber, a former member of the Northerners gang, a street branch of the Nortenos.

PART 1: Take a look into gang life, meet the sources in this story

"I can't go to the same places anymore. Places as simple as the flea markets are hard to…

Police believe the 19-year-old shot in broad daylight as he sat on a bench may have been mistaken for a gang member. Security cameras for the park had been delayed.

A learning-disabled teenager was killed in a drive-by shooting

By Angel Jennings, Los Angeles Times…

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) reported better than expected earnings yesterday. CCA president and CEO, Damon Hininger, said in a conference call with analysts that earnings per share increased 10.8% for 2011, making, “11 consecutive years of EPS growth for CCA with the worst economic environment of our lifetime.” While I would not argue that these have been challenging economic times, I would argue that prison growth has been harmed by any economic downturn. It’s like saying…

It's a curious paradox: Crime rates continue to fall in California, but the number of people killed by the police keeps rising. In Los Angeles County, for example, the number of 2011 homicides was a historic low of 612 people. But the number of fatal police shootings skyrocketed by nearly 70 percent that same year, to 54. That number of fatal shootings by officers was almost equal to 10 percent of the county's homicides last year. Los Angeles is not alone. Nationwide, officer-involved…

Crime and punishment in America

Rough justice

America locks up too many people, some for acts that should not even be criminal



IN 2000 four Americans were charged with importing lobster tails in plastic bags rather than cardboard boxes, in violation of a Honduran regulation that Honduras no longer enforces. They had fallen foul of the Lacey Act, which bars…

SHANE REAMS' mother was practicing "tough love" when she encouraged neighbors to press charges. Shane had been stealing from the neighbors' garages. Those burglary convictions ended up serving as the basis for a three-strike sentence that sent her son away for 25 years to life. His third strike: aiding and abetting a $20 drug sale to an undercover officer.

Ronnie Villa, a grandfather of four, is doing 25 to life. His crime: stealing five bottles of Head and Shoulders shampoo. His…

Prison Spending Outpaces All but Medicaid

One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study.

Criminal correction spending is outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance, based on state and federal data. Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending, which quadrupled in the past two decades, according to the report Monday…

Awesome news! U.S. Department of Justice reports show that violent crime has dropped by over half in the last 15 years. What incredible, uplifting news we can celebrate! But you haven't heard about this. Why was this news censored?

To verify this inspiring news, see the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) graph and information here and here. The biggest drop occurred between 1994 and 2004.

Unfortunately some key data on the DOJ website is not very up to date, but you can find more…

Prisons, Privatization, Patronage

2012-06-22, New York Times

Posted: 2012-06-26 11:12:00

Prisons, Privatization, Patronage

The New York Times has published several terrifying reports about New Jersey’s system of halfway houses — privately run adjuncts to the regular system of prisons. The horrors described are part of a broader pattern in which essential…