Tom Cotton says America has "a major under-incarceration problem"

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1379438205704019969

[SWE]

Open fascist doesn't pretend to not be fascist

[If my soul was made of stone]

Looking at the largest prison population in the world, which massively over-represents some of the most vulnerable communities in the nation, and not seeing anything wrong with it is a degree of sociopathy that I never thought possible. I honestly would rather he go back to concern trolling about war with Iran.

[Calthrina950]

Cotton is one of the most reprehensible and reactionary members of the Senate, so I'm not surprised to see him say something like this.

[Lechasseur]

Looking at the largest prison population in the world, which massively over-represents some of the most vulnerable communities in the nation, and not seeing anything wrong with it is a degree of sociopathy that I never thought possible.

Exactly

[TDAS04]

I was about to say "a broken clock," then I realized I missed the word "under."
 

[7,052,770]

Can he demonstrate how any rise in violent crime is attributable to people who could have already been locked up for previous crimes, but aren't because of recent policy changes?

[Benjamin Frank]

He's absolutely right.  Any America in which Donald Trump and his crime family aren't in jail is under-incarcerated.  

Somebody replying to Tom Cotton made the same point before me

https://twitter.com/Politics_PR/status/1379506957044752387

Also, I don't know if anybody noticed this, but Cotton's tweet linked to a CNN story.  I thought to Cotton and his ilk that CNN was 'fake news.'

[Hammy]

He and the rest of the Republicans should do their duty as patriotic Americans and turn themselves in to help increase those numbers.

[DrScholl]

So much for the GOP being champions of criminal justice. As long as there are people like Cotton it doesn't much matter if one or two GOPer's support criminal justice reform, because it's the Cotton types who are taking over as the GOP leadership.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Just when I was beginning to like him, he goes off with this.

[It’s so Joever]

Agreed.
The fact that most Republicans aren’t in jail right now is a problem.

[KaiserDave]

He’s a fascist. Very unsurprising comment from a fascist.

[GP270watch]

 I thought giving everybody access to guns that can shoot dozens of people and stand your ground laws were going to end crime forever....

[Roronoa D. Law]

This is just a trollish way of describing the national increase in violent crime. The end of the last crime wave was at least in part a matter of incarcerating and policing our way out of it. Most Americans would agree with the idea that an increase in murders and assaults should be met with an increase in imprisonment.

That era of tough-on-crime politics and the creation of racial fear is one of the biggest mistakes in this country's history. It is different with murder and assaults but locking up a lot of people does not actually solve anything. It breaks families apart which causes more people to repeat the cycle. It put more pressure on the police that will just further create more distrust. It explodes the prison budget which directs funds from other things we should be spending money on.

What Cotton is calling for is the same racist scare tactic that has been used for decades that just puts us in an infinite loop in which nobody benefits except for private prisons and the gun lobby.

[Suburbia]

So much for the GOP being champions of criminal justice. As long as there are people like Cotton it doesn't much matter if one or two GOPer's support criminal justice reform, because it's the Cotton types who are taking over as the GOP leadership.

So Tim Scott and Donald Trump's efforts are thwarted by Cotton, Sessions, Kerik, and Giuliani's old-school "lock em up" strategy?

By the way, Cotton has a lot of support from law enforcement:

The all-male roundtable turned into a venting session for various grievances.

"It's like a trend for people to resist officers," said Timon Aikawi, a police officer, adding that people "look at us as the bad guy, or they start recording halfway through."

Cotton used precise militaristic terms when responding to officers expressing their dismay at rioting in American cities and their view that the news media underestimates antifa.

"One of the best ways to avoid the necessary use of force in a setting like that with potential rioting and looting is to have an overwhelming display of force from the beginning to make it clear to the criminal element who may be infiltrating those protesters that you'll brook no violence against persons or property whatsoever," he said.

https://twitter.com/mowers/status/1318228563565420552

https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-cotton-laying-groundwork-2024-presidential-run-new-hampshire-2020-10

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

Something tells me he isn't talking about Matt Gaetz or the Capitol rioters.

[PSOL]

Nothing wrong was said here.

[sting in the rafters]

I'll take "saying the quiet part out loud" for 400.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Most crimes never lead to arrests. But a lot of those criminals might eventually be arrested for other things. And somehow we end up with a remarkably huge number of people incarcerated, comparatively.

maybe US has a combination that together isn't true of other countries:
1. social dysfunction which leads to crime   &
2. strong, relatively reliable state capacity (ex. police are able to intervene and not be scared or bought off by gangs)   &
3. state generally relies on responding to crime or particular situations rather than attempts to preemptively restrain entire population as in totalitarianism

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Thanks to Biden, we're number 1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Yeah, he's said this lots of times. Always using the same phrase

[Hammy]

Thanks to Biden, we're number 1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

Do you ever have anything to to add to the discussion other than off topic Republican apologism and one-liners that are either partially or entirely false?

[Bootes Void]

Thanks to Biden, we're number 1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

This is way too simplistic of an issue and adds nothing to the discussion

[Fubart Solman]

Yeah, he's said this lots of times. Always using the same phrase

Yeah, he said it a few years ago too.