[PDM Info] Fwd: Setti Warren’s bad call

Thu Apr 12 00:12:59 CDT 2018

*For your information.*

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Ehrens <uncaffeine at zoho.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 4:01 PM
Subject: Setti Warren’s bad call
To: kevincosta at alumni.brown.edu

Setti Warren’s bad call
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=c206ca99c5&e=34ea233e3a>
*By
David *

September 4th seems a long way off, but the Massachusetts Democratic
primary will be here before we know it. Voters have a choice between three
decent Democratic challengers and a Republican governor whose positions on
taxes, criminal justice and immigration are squarely, and terribly,
Republican.

>From the sound of it the Democratic Governors Association has already
conceded the November election to Baker
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=36196533f6&e=34ea233e3a>,
as an article by Joshua Miller at the Globe suggests. It also appears
likely that the DGA will close its purse to whomever wins the Democratic
gubernatorial primary. As if that were not bad enough, a recent statement
from one of the challengers now threatens the criminal justice omnibus bill
just passed by the legislature.

Last week former Newton Mayor Setti Warren wrote a piece in Blue Mass Group
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=54c5563a2b&e=34ea233e3a>
spelling out his objections to the omnibus bill now awaiting governor
Baker’s signature: “I had to tell my friends in the legislature, many of
whom I admire greatly, that I would have vetoed their bill if I were
governor. I could not in good conscience sign any bill that creates new
mandatory minimum sentences. They are discriminatory, ineffective, and lead
to mass incarceration.”

Blogger “Hester Prynne” replied to Warren, “how would you intend that your
veto be received by the overwhelming majorities who voted in its favor
(including every member of the Democratic party) and who would say your
veto throws the baby out with the bathwater?” — to which Warren replied, “I
want people to know that there are some lines I just won’t cross in the
name of ‘compromise.’ We know that mandatory minimums target black and
brown people. Even though we are only 20% of the population of Mass, black
and brown people make up 73% of those sentenced to mandatory minimum
sentences.”

Other responses to Warren’s posting included:

   - “I have to admire the instinct that says, no. Really no more at all.”
   - “No user is going to be selling 10 grams of fentanyl to other users,
   given the strength of fentanyl. This undermines Mayor Warren’s position
   that this mandatory minimum targets communities of color, as the person
   being targeted for this crime is selling a substance that, when cut, could
   kill hundreds of people suffering from a substance abuse disorder.”
   - “It really does sound like you are getting the perfect in the way of
   the good. […] I fear more people will suffer under current mandatory
   minimum laws than [under] the proposed changes.”

A single dose
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=04e0179944&e=34ea233e3a>
of pure fentanyl is less than 2 milligrams and costs between $20 and $30.
Ten grams represents 5,000 doses or $100,000. Even cut 10-to-1 or more, the
number of doses would still be in the hundreds.

My own view of the controversy is that Warren is right about the evils of
mandatory minimums — but he’s wrong to throw out the baby with the
bathwater. Even with new minimums for a limited subset of fentanyl
trafficking, the legislature’s criminal justice reforms
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=91c6396039&e=34ea233e3a>
address many current problems with sentencing, prisons, probation, young
offenders, decriminalize offenses and raise the threshold for others,
create diversion programs, and *should* result in a substantial net
reduction in mass incarceration. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater
was not just a bad call, but irresponsible, because Warren sent the
Republican governor a message of support for a veto of long-awaited and
much-needed reforms. And Baker is now signalling that he wants more
law-and-order changes.

After meeting Warren last year
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=ad87115955&e=34ea233e3a>,
I really wanted to like the guy. But his positions
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=87627216b9&e=34ea233e3a>,
or rather, his “adaptability” in changing and holding conflicting
positions, really makes it difficult. Warren has had consistently
progressive views on civil rights, abortion, energy, education,
immigration, and revenue. But raising revenue shouldn’t involve corporate
giveaways — and in 2011 he supported permanent R&D tax credits and
reductions in business taxes. Now, in 2017, he’s singing a different tune.
In 2011 Warren, who never misses a chance to talk about his family’s
relationship to the military, was all for throwing anything and everything
at terrorism; in 2017 he’s in favor of drawing down the many U.S. wars of
choice.

Warren endorsed
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=235fb3333b&e=34ea233e3a>
5 of 8 pieces of Our Revolution’s “People’s Platform” — single payer, free
college, $15 minimum wage (minus the cost of living increases), abortion,
and automatic voter registration — but Keith Ellison’s “Inclusive
Prosperity Act,” a revenue tool which taxes Wall Street transactions and
would raise $300 billion in revenue — that was a bridge too far. Likewise,
Warren refused to support Jeff Merkley’s “Keep it in the Ground Act,” which
prohibits coal and oil field giveaways. Most telling, Setti Warren refused
to support Bernie Sanders’ “Justice is Not for Sale Act of 2015,” which
would have disentangled the U.S. government from the private prison
industry.

After all this, it’s only fair to ask — does Warren *really* support
criminal justice reform or not?

For me, this latest kerfuffle is a symptom of the bad judgment that comes
of trying to hold inconsistent views simultaneously. You can’t be a
centrist and a progressive at the same time. Setti Warren is a case in
point.

<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=42dfc58bb5&e=34ea233e3a>
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=7ed6039409&e=34ea233e3a>
<https://wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=ee4137df98&e=34ea233e3a>
*Copyright © 2018 David Ehrens, All rights reserved.*
contacts

*Our mailing address is:*
David Ehrens
24 Sunset Lane
<https://maps.google.com/?q=24+Sunset+Lane&entry=gmail&source=g>
S. Dartmouth, MA 02748

Add us to your address book
<//wordpress.us15.list-manage.com/vcard?u=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&id=b6ba557cd0>

[image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]
<http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monkey_rewards&aid=9fbbdc447b325872826da1da5&afl=1>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://progressivedemsofmass.org/pipermail/info_progressivedemsofmass.org/attachments/20180412/dca77e0a/attachment-0001.html>