The 1960s was a time period that brought a lot of political activity and social stirrup. President Lyndon Johnson went into office after Kennedy’s assassination and the United States was being reshaped into a great society with reform programs that targeted poverty and brought relief to families in urban communities. In foreign affairs, the president invested the countries’ resources and troops towards the stabilization of non-communist efforts in Asia. However, our efforts to aid Southern Vietnamese friends spiraled into a decade-long beef. Back at home, Americans were starting to feel the grip of the War and many began to oppose the combat overseas. Simultaneously, a new counterculture began to take form and voice, as the rebellious teens
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In response to the support of the middle-class, punitive policies such as the No Knock warrants and mandatory sentences were put into place to make the public feel “safer”. In 1976, John Ehrlichman commented on the real motivation behind the involvement of the Feds in street enforcement by saying in his testimony to the Senate Subcommittee of Investigations, “Parents who are voters are worried about narcotics. They listen to a politician when he talks about drug suppression just as they seem to tune him out when he makes speeches about the energy problem. Therefore, the white House often wants to be involved in narcotics problems when it doesn’t have to be.” The reality of the matter is that Richard Nixon categorized pot smokers, heroin addicts, a hippies, protesters, alcoholics, murderers, and rapist all in one group and portrayed them as a growing and vicious threat to American Society. This caused the beginning of a disproportion in the population because mostly blacks and minorities fell under suspicion of criminal activity. (LoBianco) Linking drugs to crime gave the government the capability of taking shots at our civil liberties because drugs viewed as immoral and as long as you used an illegal substance, the person in question would likely be a criminal and criminals should be put away. For example, hippies protested against the War but Nixon preferred …show more content…
As mentioned previously, Nixon is "the Father of the War on Drugs" movement and in today's America more than half of all indicted felons are non-violent drug offenders. This statistic is despicable, not only due to the fact that 5% of the world's population is obtained by the United States but is also accredited 25% of world prisoners. Also, it is reported as fact that the political goal was to target "blacks and hippies", which was and still is a success but statistics show that in today's America, an estimated 14 million Caucasians report using illicit drug(s) compared to 2.3 million African Americans. The comparison of arrest report statistics in regard to race are flagrantly imbalanced. There are a copious amount of reason why this is a reality but the truth of the matter is that the political movement had an immoral foundation and now it is an entity that is virtually impossible to
In response to the support of the middle-class, punitive policies such as the No Knock warrants and mandatory sentences were put into place to make the public feel “safer”. In 1976, John Ehrlichman commented on the real motivation behind the involvement of the Feds in street enforcement by saying in his testimony to the Senate Subcommittee of Investigations, “Parents who are voters are worried about narcotics. They listen to a politician when he talks about drug suppression just as they seem to tune him out when he makes speeches about the energy problem. Therefore, the white House often wants to be involved in narcotics problems when it doesn’t have to be.” The reality of the matter is that Richard Nixon categorized pot smokers, heroin addicts, a hippies, protesters, alcoholics, murderers, and rapist all in one group and portrayed them as a growing and vicious threat to American Society. This caused the beginning of a disproportion in the population because mostly blacks and minorities fell under suspicion of criminal activity. (LoBianco) Linking drugs to crime gave the government the capability of taking shots at our civil liberties because drugs viewed as immoral and as long as you used an illegal substance, the person in question would likely be a criminal and criminals should be put away. For example, hippies protested against the War but Nixon preferred …show more content…
As mentioned previously, Nixon is "the Father of the War on Drugs" movement and in today's America more than half of all indicted felons are non-violent drug offenders. This statistic is despicable, not only due to the fact that 5% of the world's population is obtained by the United States but is also accredited 25% of world prisoners. Also, it is reported as fact that the political goal was to target "blacks and hippies", which was and still is a success but statistics show that in today's America, an estimated 14 million Caucasians report using illicit drug(s) compared to 2.3 million African Americans. The comparison of arrest report statistics in regard to race are flagrantly imbalanced. There are a copious amount of reason why this is a reality but the truth of the matter is that the political movement had an immoral foundation and now it is an entity that is virtually impossible to