Whatever Harris did as a prosecutor seems reasonable given both the context of the time she during which was a prosecutor, and her overall political alignment. I would rather have a progressive presidential candidate like Bernie (too late), or AOC (maybe 2028 or later). But choosing Harris means that the overall “liberal” agenda stays on the table
Some highlights from the article
Harris, as part of her previous presidential campaign, also released a criminal justice reform plan that seeks to scale back incarceration, end the death penalty and solitary confinement, ban private prisons, and get rid of cash bail. Biden also backs a fairly aggressive criminal justice reform plan, despite his own mixed record on criminal justice issues.
A close examination of Harris’s record shows it’s filled with contradictions. She pushed for programs that helped people find jobs instead of putting them in prison, but also fought to keep people in prison even after they were proved innocent. She refused to pursue the death penalty against a man who killed a police officer, but also defended California’s death penalty system in court. She implemented training programs to address police officers’ racial biases, but also resisted calls to get her office to investigate certain police shootings.
But what seem like contradictions may reflect a balancing act. Harris’s parents worked on civil rights causes, and she came from a background well aware of the excesses of the criminal justice system — but in office, she played the role of a prosecutor and California’s lawyer. She started in an era when “tough on crime” politics were popular across party lines — but she rose to national prominence as criminal justice reform started to take off nationally. She had an eye on higher political office as support for criminal justice reform became de rigueur for Democrats — but she still had to work as California’s top law enforcement official.
Harris also pushed for more systemic reforms. Her most successful program as district attorney, “Back on Track,” allowed first-time drug offenders, including drug dealers, to get a high school diploma and a job instead of prison time. Adams, Harris’s previous spokesperson, noted that the program started in 2005, “when most prosecutors were using a ‘tough on crime’ approach.”
She covered up that a state crime lab employee was falsifying evidence leading to hundreds of false convictions. She opposed police reform including opposing body cameras. Her office, she claims without her knowledge, argued that prisoners eligible for parole shouldn’t be released from prisons so overcrowded that a judge ruled them cruel and unusual because it would reduce the availability of prison labor. She argued on two separate occasions that prisoners who had had their convictions overturned on the basis of actual innocence shouldn’t be released from prison because they hadn’t filed the motion for release quickly enough.
Her record is staunchly pro establishment and she has participated in acts of overt corruption to maintain the status quo.
The other guy rapes children and wants to shoot protestors with live ammunition
Yep, bad choice and worse choice. She hasn’t been nominated yet though so there is a slim hope for the Dems choice to improve. Hopefully there will be people vocal about finding someone who’s record is more progressive before the convention.
Good to know raping children isn’t a red line for you, or at least that stopping the end of democracy in the US and mass deportations and etc is… well… idk, I need to know a little more about the alternative before I come out against that stuff.
Wanting a progressive Dem nominee is pro Trump?
Oh, I thought you were shitting on the presumptive nominee in a fashion that’s suddenly started coming out of the woodwork in a small but notable grouping of posts and comments, which I’m sure will grow to a torrent by a few days from now and not let up until the election, now that it’s no longer relevant to shit on Biden relentlessly.
Were you supporting a progressive candidate or alternate strategy for the Democrats and I overlooked it? That actually (very seriously) does sound like a good thing, yes; IDK whose messages I was reading instead that gave me the idea you were doing that other thing.
I’ve been shitting on her the same way since Biden picked her for VP. I was hoping for Stacy Abrams then. I don’t have a specific candidate I like right now because I think Bernie and Elizabeth Warren both have the same age issue, a younger candidate probably has a better chance. I wouldn’t hate Hakeem Jefferies as the nominee, I think Mark Kelly has a good chance of beating Trump. I like Cory Booker and think Tammy Duckworth would be an interesting candidate.
Ah, okay, so just trying to help the Democrats lose, then, by instilling a general malaise against the current candidate with (only after some prompting) only the vaguest of unrealistic hand waving towards something that might be a solution but in practice will not be.
Well, good luck with it I guess. Have fun.
Trying to help the Democrats not immediately latch on to a bad candidate. We have until the convention to find someone better.
Thanks to both of you.
This is what I wanted: more information (actual, not FauxNews) about this person.
How bad she’s been, how she’s played the political ropes, her origins. Things she’s stood up for.
All of it!
I know if she wins candidacy, I’ll vote for her. Because fuck another 4 years of the self aggrandizing Putin puppet.
I’d like to know what I can about the lesser evil I’ll be supporting.
The article shows her performance as a PA is actually really good all things considered. Very compassionate where she can affect change and does her job well otherwise (during a tough on crime period in society)
Keeping people in jail that have had their case thrown out is bad, in my book.
She’s done some good. She’s also done some detestable things.
Hope she’ll listen to Bernie, though the voting record shows she votes closer to him than anyone else does. Hope!