clair083

"That’s not to say Latson should be free. He is, by the accounts of those who know him best, a sweet young man who nonetheless can become aggressive when agitated. Winchester, Va., jail superintendent James Whitley, who took the extraordinary step of testifying on Latson’s behalf at two sentencing hearings, described him as “like a child wanting to please us.” Latson should be in a secure residential treatment facility, and Virginia’s mental health officials support this outcome even as its corrections system incarcerates him ."   - Ruth Marcus,    Reginald Latson’s case points to a major problem in U.S. prisons, Washington Post Opinions   Ms. Marcus has continued to write excellent pieces on the Neli Latson case, and should be applauded for bringing his unjust incarceration and solitary confinement to the public. While I understand her latest post, her attempt to explain the way the Latson case exemplifies a greater problem, and I agree that problem exists and needs...

Dear Neil,  Its been several days since I answered your email asking if I∩tersected  could help get your story told. I've heard no response.  I am very concerned and wonder where you are and how you are doing. To be severely depressed due to chronic, constant pain is unlike anything anyone else has been through. Everyone's experience of pain, and their ability to tolerate it, varies. My understanding of your situation is because you had an allergic reaction to one of your pain meds, you are being denied any pain meds and your eyes are a source of constant agony. Trying to manage anything else in your life with that to deal with is a nearly impossible thing for anyone to ask of you.  I know because I spent my entire 19th year in excruciating pain while going blind from pressure on my optic nerves. So when I read your story on your blog (I've linked to so our readers can read it) I completely understood you. I've been there, and pray you are doing better. When a patien...

“ There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.”  ― Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws The Civil Rights Act of 1964 @National Archives Documents I can't get that quote out of my head. It is clanging in there like a brick dropped in a steel drum. Here I am, marinating in the pain of human rights lost and the clear and present danger to people of my race in the United States, the country that tries to dictate right and wrong to the world. This pain is deep, and old. Nightmares of the harms done to me and mine haunted my dreams last night. The illusion of justice we convinced ourselves we had was a veneer that has been dissolved away.  Events are proceeding as if there is no need to hide the fact we've lived with for over 100 years: justice is not for those Americans who are Black and poor. The right to be safely taken into custody and tried by a jury of one's peers if one is suspected of committing a crime ...