Today’s photos of the day show the dramatic weight loss of Star Jones. In an upcoming issue of Glamour magazine, Star publicly “reveals” that she used medical intervention (gastric bypass surgery) in order to drop more than 180 pounds. This should have been on the cover of “No Shit!” magazine.

Today’s video of the day comes from Fox and Friends, where I debated the use of civil injunctions against gangs.

Recently, Fort Worth and San Francisco joined the growing list of cities that have filed lawsuits against gang members. Specifically, officials have requested court injunctions that prevent suspected gang members from hanging out together, carrying spray paint, or even speaking to people in passing cars within particular public spaces. In addition, these injunctions provide police with the legal right to stop, question, and search suspected gang members.

Once again, we have allowed our fear of youth to undermine our duty to protect civil liberties, expand social justice, and engage in legitimate social transformation.

Even if we could agree that it’s fair to target gangs, there are no fair mechanisms for accurately determining gang membership. Law enforcement authorities are not required to obtain approval from a judge or magistrate before placing someone in the gang database. In fact, a person can be officially labeled a gang member without being convicted or even arrested. Furthermore, given the secret nature of gang surveillance, there is no way correct the deliberate or unintentional misplacement of innocent people on the gang lists. An excellent example of this came in 2001, when David Englebrecht, a 26-year-old father of three was labeled an Oceanside gang member and included in the city’s anti-gang injunction. As a result, Englebrecht was prohibited from “making loud noises, whistling, wearing certain clothing, using certain words or hand gestures or being seen in public with other alleged gang members within an approximately one-square- mile area of Oceanside.” Although Englebrecht was able to successfully contest his inclusion on the list, there is no public means by which to determine who else is being repressed by such draconian policies.

By using civil procedures to expand the range of law enforcement resources, local governments are able to sidestep basic constitutional protections and criminalize otherwise legal behavior. Rather than forcing the police and prosecutors to meet rigorous burdens of proof, gang injunctions give police carte blanche to intensify its war against Black and Latino youth with no regard for rule of law.

Like most of the United States’ “wars,” such as the ones against drugs and terror, local and federal governments have used the war on gangs to manipulate legitimate fears about crime and violence and translate them into repressive public policy against our most vulnerable citizens. Rather than attacking structural issues, such as the lack of intervention programs, acceptable employment, or responsible policing, the current trend toward suing gangs places the full burden of social reform on our youth.

There are no qualms about locking up the thousands of poor and unknown.

Pleas on Larry King for Lohan, But What About Other Drug Offenders?
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson 

Within hours after ill-fated model-actress Lindsay Lohan was busted on suspicion of drunk driving and drug possession in Santa Monica her teary eye father, and a parade of Hollywood celebrities, and some of Lohan’s friends and associates, made sobbing, heart wrenching pleas on the Larry King show for public understanding of Lohan’s ordeal. Lohan’s attorney made his pitch for public understanding, calling addiction a terrible and vicious disease.

The kid glove protective attitude of many in the entertainment industry toward Lohan is hardly surprising. She has been released each time within hours on low bond, wears a SCRAM monitoring bracelet, and alcohol monitor on her ankle, gets tested regularly, and got top notch treatment at a posh Malibu, California rehab center. Her film,” I Know Who Killed Me,” which is scheduled for release almost certainly will pack audiences in, if for no other reason out of curiosity and her rogue name.

There’s nothing wrong with Lohan’s entertainment industry friends, and a star-struck public, pleading for empathy for her and urging the courts to spare her a jail sentence, and to give her the help that she obviously needs. But there are thousands of drug offenders that need the same compassion and help as Lohan. The big difference is that these drug abusers aren’t high-profile, bankable screen commodities. They are mostly poor blacks and Latinos. The estimate is that nearly one-fourth of the more than one million blacks that pack America’s prisons are there for non-violent, drug-related crimes. It costs billions to keep them there.

Putting them behind bars has had staggering consequences. It has torn apart families and communities. It has been the single biggest reason for the bloat in federal and state spending on prison construction, maintenance, and the escalation in the number of prosecutors needed to handle the flood of drug cases. Also, few poor, black and Latino drug offenders will be immediately released by police, as Lohan continues to be, and then be allowed to luxuriate in a posh drug treatment center.

For the rest of the story, click here.