• TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 months ago

    Thank you for being understanding. I take far more umbrage with someone expecting to be some kind of MTurk Google for them than wanting more information on a subject. Also, I’m a person with responsibilities and tasks. And whims for that matter. I shouldn’t be expected to promptly reply with something that is easily searched for. I’m not the primary source for this claim, clearly.

    It’s similar to people simply replying “recipe?” When someone posts food pics on a given social media platform. It’s not strange to want tips on how to recreate something tasty, but for goodness sake, treat me like a human. At least say “oh wow that looks great! How did you make it?”

    Here’s an article from the Daily Beast about this, tho there’s a number of other publications that wrote on the same subject if you’re curious about reading about it through different lenses.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/kamala-harris-ag-office-tried-to-keep-inmates-locked-up-for-cheap-labor

    Edit: FWIW, I don’t think these claims are all that serious in the sense that this kind of practice is common in the USA. Prisoners are slaves and are forced into all sorts of varied labor, be it firefighting or being literally leased out to farms as agricultural workers. This is done explicitly (as in, the prisoners aren’t given a choice to not work) and implicitly (where they’re given a choice to rot in a cell in inhumane conditions OR work outside the prison for far less than minimum wage, which they can only spend at the prison commissary. This is a form of coercion). It’s vile and abhorrent, but not uncommon, so I don’t think it’s all that strange to posit that someone in her role would engage in that kind of behavior.

    Does that imply that many people in charge of overseeing prisoners and their activities in America are psychopaths or show psychopathic tendencies?

    Perhaps.

    • UsernameHere@lemmings.world
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      5 months ago

      Harris was acting on behalf of Govenor Jerry Brown as defense attorney. So just like OJ Simpson’s lawyers had to defend him because that’s their job regardless of their feelings. Lawyers can’t make decisions for their clients. They just argue on their behalf in court.

      The call to relocate the overpopulated prisoners to the firecamps was not made by Harris but other lawyers that worked in the same office. They only suggested it as a temporary solution after the Supreme Court wouldn’t accept their solution to build another prison to address the overpopulation.

      The Supreme Court suggested Govenor Jerry Brown release nonviolent prisoners to address the overpopulation. To be clear, this includes sex offenders, white collar criminals and arsonists just to name a few “non-violent” crimes.

      Any decisions Harris made in this role were her job as a lawyer defending the previous attorney general’s decisions Govenor Jerry Brown. Most of what you are accusing her of doing was actually done by other lawyers that were from the same office.

      • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        This kinda feels like a “Just Following Orders” point.

        If I were asked to do something as unethical as promote slavery or participate in a process that accomplished that, I’d refuse and resign.

        On one hand, I understand that this kind of behavior is wildly common in the American justice system and far more people than just Harris are complicit in these sorts of abject horrors. She’s not special for this.

        But on the other, I still think it requires a certain lack of morality and contempt for humanity to be a willing participant in it.

        • UsernameHere@lemmings.world
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          5 months ago

          Again, she didn’t do what you are claiming she did. The accusations are that her coworkers did. I don’t know why you are ignoring this point.