Alt text: a screenshot of a microblog post with the text “you walking down an alleyway with a gram of weed in your pocket, who would you rather catch you?” Below are two pictures side by side. One of Kamala Harris and the other of Batman.

  •  averyminya   ( @averyminya@beehaw.org ) 
    42•1 month ago

    I’m from Oakland, she also gave people the opportunity to not face jail time with the Back on Track program, instead allowing for education.

    Here’s the thing, Back on Track had people accept a felony charge. If they complete the program (which gives them no jail time but resources) then the felony is expunged.

    Her truancy laws put in place as Attorney General were clearly pointed at my community, yes. But it also was done because before my graduating class (the year before it was put in place) was below 50%. My class was brought up to 78%, and the year after was about 68%. The reason this law was even considered was because there were a significant portion of children working with gangs to sell drugs instead of getting their education.

    Give her all the shit you want for her problems, I 100% agree. However it’s only fair to also highlight the actual policy she put into place and the opportunity for change that she created. I do not think it was the best way of moving forward, as it encourages people to be arrested and it encourages them to take the felony charge for something undeserving. At the same time, it’s clearly better than just allowing children to participate in gang life and giving people only 1 option, imprisonment. No one ever seems to want to talk about that, though.

    She fought against the Death Penalty when everyone was pushing for it for a cop killer. Not only did she save his life, she did so against Diane Feinnstein who then said she would not have supported Kamala had she known this.

    She has been one of the few people who is willing to stick to her convictions when other party members told her to stay in line. She’s also extremely anti-fracking, something that seems important considering the amount of sway oil companies have with L.E. and the military.

    Finally, regarding your comment - I remember throughout 2016 and the following years the amount of assaults that Trump supporters felt completely safe committing hate crimes against black and asian communities. Is it really people choosing the lesser evil? The police can get reform, in fact we have a whole bill that AOC is pushing for right now regarding this.

    Hate crime promoted by the president does not.

    •  TwiddleTwaddle   ( @TwiddleTwaddle@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) OP
      15•1 month ago

      Thanks for the well written and thoughtful response. I appreciate your insights and personal experience.

      I will say that this is not a space that’s friendly to defending liberalism (even so called progressive liberals like Harris or AOC) or the use of state violence to solve any of society’s problems.

      With your comment in mind, and not out of any respect for electoral politics, I’ll try to be more thoughtful with my criticisms in the future.

      •  averyminya   ( @averyminya@beehaw.org ) 
        20•1 month ago

        I appreciate the consideration! Like I said, there are plenty of valid criticisms to have against her, but a lot of what has been circulated I would say is either not entirely accurate or is critical of the wrong things. Especially these days, it’s important to be fully aware of the intent and actual execution of policies.

        With regards to this space - I completely understand. I am coming at it from the perspective of these are our options, and that leaves us with a serial sexual assaulter promoting hate speech with every word, and a candidate who has a (significant) number of shortcomings but also promotes the type of policy the U.S. has desperately been lacking. So to me, I’d much rather have the chance at imperfect progress with a candidate who at least holds a portion of the same beliefs I do (namely education & environment, mostly everything else I’m honestly not big on. And FWIW, I don’t even think the Back on Track policy is good, it’s just been talked about inaccurately which is the important part to me.) – over the person who has actively called for the death of us, our friends and family, and the wider political system as a whole. As flawed as it currently is, I do think a dictator like him would be worse, with no opportunity for course correction.

        Which is just another reason that it’s important that we be honest in our criticisms, as we do want to hold the people we elect accountable, and the only way to do that is to be properly informed. Because it’s absolutely true that this progress was lost in a gambit for the Dems to maintain voter sway. We lost Roe because of it, and education policy before that.

        Anyway thank you for your time and response! Let it be known that I would have definitely much preferred a better candidate, but I also realize that we must work with what we’ve got. We can’t let perfect be the enemy of progress because the last time we did that we lost 20+ years of progressive policy, more damage was done singlehandedly in 1 year by the appointment of Betsy DeVoss than the entire Republican effort of the last 25, and that is just education among the litany of other departments. To me, this election is more about paving the way for candidates that you and I would actually go out of our way to vote for, something I’m not as certain about given that under Trump’s presidency queer politicians stepped down in local elections due to threats and fear of their lives, and numerous other every day Americans were attacked because of his rhetoric.

        Best to you and I hope you have a lovely day