By Matthew Vadum ——Bio and Archives--July 13, 2015
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We challenge the culture of racism, repression and retribution that sustains mass incarceration. We seek to remove the structural injustices inflicted on the incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, their families and the communities from which they come. We seek human rights for all members of our society non-violently, in opposition to our current system of justice, which is inherently violent.Marxists believe that any system of justice in a capitalist society is by definition violent and oppressive. They argue that criminal law enforcement and imprisonment are forms of social oppression and tools of class warfare. The late William Kunstler, the radical attorney for the anti-Vietnam war “Chicago Seven,” argued that every criminal by definition is a victim of injustice. He once said, “Any criminal trial in this country is an oppression.” Mirkarimi buys into this paranoid small-c communist nonsense. He embraces both conspiracy theories, holding that America's prison system is inherently racist and a corrupt scheme to make the corporations that supply prisons filthy rich. "While the old Jim Crow laws may have been repealed, they have been repackaged and redesigned into the criminal justice system," he has said. Mirkarimi wants to provide prisoners with more and more services. "The job of sheriff is not to lock up people and throw away the key." Not surprisingly, this Democrat and convicted wife beater, is inordinately sympathetic to his fellow criminals. The sheriff's office in San Francisco doesn't have a lot of responsibilities. The agency operates the jails and provides security for the courts, City Hall, the 9-1-1/communications center, and various local hospitals and health clinics. Mirkarimi boasts about how little he does as sheriff. He thinks of himself as more social worker than jailer. He brags about shutting down jails, as well as coddling and freeing criminals, and lavishing social program spending on his felonious flock. To modify an Obama campaign mantra, Mirkarimi is the change he's been waiting for. Barely a law enforcement official at all, he is using San Francisco's jails to lead his own progressive crusade. In his official online bio, he spells out his beliefs and accomplishments in a city where the Sixties never ended. Conspicuously absent are any of the assurances one might expect from a law enforcement officer about law and order or protecting society from criminals. Instead, the reader is treated to social-justice bromides and leftist pap. "Sheriff Mirkarimi understands the role of poverty in the revolving door of recidivism," the bio indicates, "and the need for a credible systemic response to the disproportionate incarceration of people of color." Mirkarimi complains that people held in pretrial detention get cut off from their families and that life is hard for them when they are eventually released. The fact that these jailbirds should have thought of the ramifications of their crimes before committing them is left out. His bio on the San Francisco sheriff's website highlights things that don't have to do with law enforcement. It states that before becoming sheriff, Mirkarimi was an elected member of the county board of supervisors. While serving there he is proud to have "authored over 80 ordinances and policy directives, many specializing in public safety and economic inequality[.]" Criminals are among Mirkarimi's biggest supporters. The sheriff has led voter registration drives within the detention facilities he oversees. He boasts that his department, which has registered thousands of prisoners to vote, is the leader in inmate voter registration in the state. "We are committed to breaking down the barriers to anyone who wants to exercise their right to vote," he said. "We believe that facilitating a person's right to vote engenders a sense of responsibility and inclusion." Punishment and protecting the public from criminals is an afterthought for Mirkarimi. Sure, he has to do it for appearances' sake, but to him it's a drag. He much prefers community-organizing his felonious flock. SF Weekly reported in October 2012 that "[s]trangely enough, prisoners just might have accounted for the highest voter turnout of any group during the last election, with 90 percent of registered voters showing up to the polls in Nov. 2011, according to the sheriff." Prisoners may have even saved his job after Mirkarimi, who is of Iranian ancestry, roughed up his wife. The inmates the sheriff bathes in city resources laughed off the injuries he inflicted on his spouse. After the story broke that Mirkarimi assaulted his wife, SF Weekly received a letter six pages long and purportedly signed by 20 inmates. "Nearly everyone in jail feels Mr. Mirkarimi squeezing his lady's arm doesn't even constitute a misdemeanor, even though it behooves them both to not do that ...The controversy over Ross Mirkarimi is not substantial enough to brow-beat it."
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Matthew Vadum, matthewvadum.blogspot.com, is an investigative reporter.
His new book Subversion Inc. can be bought at Amazon.com (US), Amazon.ca (Canada)
Visit the Subversion Inc. Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.