So yeah, this is after all the People’s Republic of Amherst form of governance: give these Uber-Libs any opportunity, any microscopic opening to climb up on their soapbox and they will fire off that tired 'Holier than Thou' philosophy.
Hmmm…by all means, abolish jails and prisons (somebody please cue the soundtrack to “Born Free”) eject all the murderers, rapists, and muggers to roam free.
And while we’re at it, tell those overpaid, lazy-ass sheepherders to surrender their weapons and cage their border collies in case a hungry coyote or wolf should come calling.
Mr. Grosscup of course voted against flying the American flags in the downtown on 9/11 to commemorate the 3,000 Americans slaughtered that day.
Amherst's Uber-Lib "Hall of Shame"
A D V E R T I S I N G
Courtyard Marriot
Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce
Sunset Farm
Attorney Greta LaMountain Biagi
Attorney Mike Serduck
Attorney Peter Vickery
Bacon/Wilson, P.C.
Jones Properties
Taylor Davis
Hampshire Hospitality Group
Black Sheep Deli
About Me
Popular Posts
-
Luke V. Gatti (center) and father (right) appear before Judge John Payne this morning Apparently Phillips Street, alcohol, Luke Gatti a... -
Phillips Street, midnight 9/1/14 As I pointed out in my weekend wrap up , Phillips Street -- the slummiest street in Amherst -- was alm... -
Larry Shaffer, Stephanie O'Keeffe, Aaron Hayden I call her Jane Doe While public documents czar Alan Cote denied my appeal for full... -
Christopher Thompson had temporary marker at town's 2011 commemoration ceremony The Amherst Historical Commission on Monday night v... -
Maria Geryk at 3/31 Finance Committee meeting with Mike Morris, Sean Mangano The search to replace former school Superintendent Maria... -
UMass Student Union 10:45 AM Amherst Town Center 10:30 AM While the state legislature ponders making us a "sanctuary state&q... -
Amherst Fire Department A1 at The Pub late Friday night The town was lucky A mherst F ire D epartment had four extra staff to opera... -
Representative Dan Winslow R-Norfolk (an Amherst native) So if ever there was a compassionate conservative in the state of Massachusetts... -
26 Spring Street is currently an open lot Archipelago Investments has invested greatly over the past few years filling in the Amher... -
Two ladder trucks pour water down on the conflagration A devastating fire consumed an entire block of businesses in the center of Had...
7 comments:
Thank you for posting this, Larry.
I share Mr. Grosscup's idealism to this extent: there are too many people incarcerated in America today. I agree that 2 million is a staggering number. (I have no reason to doubt his stats on that.)
But then we part company. There may in fact be some people who do not need to be in prison, about whom, if we looked at the facts of their crimes, we would decide that their sentences are too harsh. But I believe that folks on the left have always exaggerated those numbers.
I actually have a more damning belief about the condition of our society today: that there are too many people in it that NEED to be incarcerated. And I know that, from first-hand knowledge, some of them are still out and about, making miserable and dangerous the lives of the people around them.
If Mr. Grosscup's solution is to simply discontinue immediately the operation of our systems of prisons and jails, I have a list of names of people that would much prefer to live next door to him and spend their quality time with him, his significant other, and any children he might have. I believe that that's an outcome that Mr. Grosscup would not enjoy. I know this because I took a good look at these folks and their behavior before I worked hard to put them in a secure facility.
If, on the other hand, he's talking about committing ourselves to a better society that gradually finds a way safely to incarcerate fewer people, I'm with him on that. But the question remains whether, even in the most utopian country that we could imagine, we would still encounters situations in which we as a community would need to impose a "time out" on someone.
Rich Morse
1 in 100 Americans are incarcerated. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world. It's shocking.
Many of our "criminals" are guilty of drug possession and drug possession only. You'd think we could treat illicit drug use as a health and safety issue rather than a criminal problem.
That said calling Grosscups argument uber-lib serves to mark you as an uber-conservative more than mark him as anything other than concerned and extreme in his suggested solution.
I can speak for Massachusetts only: we do NOT have people doing sentences, long or short, in state prison for drug possession only.
I agree that a society-wide free-for-all discussion is way overdue about how we are spending our resources to fight the drug problem we have. I don't see much progress in the current status quo.
BUT I firmly believe that a blanket legalization of illegal narcotics, especially cocaine and heroin, would result in an up-tick in the millions in the number of addicts nationwide, for at least a generation or two. We would then have to confront the social and economic costs of treating that problem, on top of what we do for nicotine and alcohol now. But, given the resources we are expending now in the drug war, we might decide that we would still come out ahead.
I would also urge anyone in favor of legalization of narcotics to look at how the government has managed state-supported gambling.
Rich Morse
If not for the fact that Mr. Grosscup is but an obscure meaningless Amherst Town Meeting member, he would be truly scary.
And indeed a dozen or so years ago his grandstanding speech would have been applauded and actually received a fair amount of support on the floor of Town Meeting.
Thank God those naive, nitwit days have passed.
Evil exists. We saw it on the morning of 9/11 and unfortunately we will see it again.
When confronted by THAT kind of evil, it is either kill or be killed.
I get the distinct impression that if Mr. Grosscup had been aboard Flight 93, he would have offered--even as the ground approached at 500+ MPH--to do Yoga with the hijackers.
you keep forgetting our own people facilitated 911.
the flag proudly displayed that day is pathetic, blind irony.
bush cheney and there buddies allowed it to happen.
sooner or later you have to come to grips with that.
not saying it wasn't tragic. the more subtle tragedy is believing the garbage they fed you as fact.
I am not sure why this person who is speaking...Mr. Grosscup brought up his concerns about the American prison system at a town meeting (What does this have to do directly with the town of Amherst anyway?) But, I am as equally confused as to why he has been singled out to be degraded based on his belief.
I think that Mr. O'Connor should be asked to retire from his position on TM more so than Mr. Grosscup should be asked to be silenced if this is what you are attempting to do here.
Mr. O'Connor, if I may, looked like he is out in LaLa land somewhere... ;-)
Anon 9:20 PM
Yeah I keep forgetting that. Just like I keep forgetting that Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny really do exist.
Anon 9:09 AM
Town Meeting is public. Perhaps the town Moderator should remind members with a Miranda Warning at the start of each meeting: "Anything you say can and will be used against you." (especially by that pain in the ass LK)
Post a Comment