Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for its editorial today about Brittney Griner, the U.S. basketball star who is serving a 9-year jail sentence in Russia for possessing a small quantity of marijuana. Griner was recently transferred to a Russian penal colony to serve out her sentence. According to people who have been in such colonies, they are extremely nasty places to be.
As I was reading its editorial, I was thinking to myself that this was going to be just another U.S. mainstream media article calling on those evil Russkies to release Griner and send her home. But then I got to the end of the editorial and was stunned.
Here are the last two paragraphs of the editorial:
Griner’s sentence is also a reminder that the U.S. doesn’t have clean hands on this issue. Thousands of Americans have been arrested, tried and incarcerated in America for similarly minor drug possession charges, including Allen Russell, who is serving life without parole in Mississippi for possessing 1.5 ounces of marijuana.
The U.S. should not forget Griner — or the thousands of others who languish in jail for sentences that don’t fit their crimes.
I find those two paragraphs to be absolutely amazing. Here is a U.S. mainstream media outlet that is actually criticizing U.S. drug laws and implicitly exposing the rank hypocrisy behind such laws in the context of the Griner case.
How often do you see that? I dare say not very often.
Ever since Griner was arrested, U.S. officials, from President Biden on down, along with their mainstream media acolytes, have demanded that Russia release her. But on what grounds? After all, she pled guilty to the offense! Here is what Biden and other U.S. officials have essentially been saying to Russian officials: “You need to release her because we say you need to release her. We are the U.S. government. We don’t care that she has pled guilty to the offense. We don’t care that you have drug laws. We don’t give a damn for your judicial system. And, oh, by the way, we also hate you. Now, let her go.”
Much to the surprise of Biden, his drug-war cohorts, and the U.S. mainstream media, that arrogant, obnoxious message hasn’t gone over too well in Russia. In fact, it might well have caused Griner to be mistreated even more than she would have been mistreated.
Meanwhile, Biden and his Republican-Democratic drug-war cohorts continue to do precisely that they are condemning the evil Russkies of doing to Griner. They continue to keep people in jail, both at the state and federal level, for long periods of their lives for non-violent drug offenses. And they continue to enforce their own drug laws here at home, just like those evil Russkies do.
The Times mentions Allen Russell, who is serving a lifetime sentence without possibility of parole for possessing 1.5 ounces of marijuana. I think it’s worth pointing out that Russell is black, just like Griner is. The reason I think that’s worth pointing out is that the drug war here in the United States is the most racist government program since segregation, in that its consequences have fallen disproportionately on blacks.
I’ve got an idea for President Biden. Rather than make arrogant and obnoxious demands on the evil Russkies, do the following instead:
1. Issue an immediate pardon for all non-violent drug offenders in the federal system and publicly call on every state governor to do the same. Apologize for what you people have done to all the victims of your beloved war on drugs.
2. Ask Congress to end the federal drug war by repealing all laws that criminalize the possession and distribution of illicit drugs — all drugs, not just marijuana. Call on every state to do the same with respect to state drug laws.
3. Apologize for U.S. drug-war arrogance and hypocrisy.
4. Then, ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to pardon Griner and send her home. At the same time, tell him that the U.S. government is ending its 60-year-old mindset of extreme anti-Russia hostility and desires to explore ways to establish a peaceful and harmonious relationship with Russia.
I think those steps would almost certainly result in Griner’s release. They would also help countless other victims of drug laws. Such steps would also go a long way toward restoring freedom, peace, humanity, rehabilitation, and civility to our nation.