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by alex dobuzinskis
Sunday, Mar. 10, 2002 at 9:40 PM
adobuzin@hotmail.com
More than 300 people attended a march in Westwood today to show their opposition to California's Three Strikes law. The march was led by the Aztec Dancers. It was organized by Families to Amend California's Three Strikes, which can be reached at (213) 746-4844.
errorSince California passed the three strikes law in 1994, more than 6,700 people have been incarcerated for 25 years to life, a disturbing number of them for offenses like being a lookout for a drug deal, drug possession or even stealing a slice of pizza.
That was the message Saturday at a march attended by about 300 people that wound through Westwood to get the word out about California’s terminally incarcerated.
Many of the marchers carried placards with pictures of family members who have been locked up under Three Strikes. Others carried a banner with pictures of incarcerated family members that nearly spanned the width of the street.
The crowd chanted: “Life is not a baseball game, three strikes is a crying shame”; “Prisons for profit, you know we’ve got to stop it”; and “Educate, don’t incarcerate.”
The march started at the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard and headed towards UCLA, attracting several dazed bystanders from the nearby college.
Gov. Gray Davis was at the march carrying a canvas sack that he stuffed with campaign contributions from a California prison guard.
“I pulled my head out of my ass for this parade,” said the mock governor, adding that he would never miss a chance to grab some publicity.
Davis accepted $2.8 million in campaign contributions from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, according to march organizers Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes.
Real life politician Jackie Golberg (D-Los Angeles) was at the rally in front of the Federal Building after the 45-minute march.
“It costs more to send someone to prison than to send them to Harvard. I think Harvard would do them more good,” Goldberg told the crowd.
Golberg authored Assembly Bill 1790, which would limit the Three Strikes law to violent offenders.
The former Los Angeles City Councilwoman said she is also working on a ballot measure to be put to voters on the November 2004 ballot that would mandate that “all strikes must be serious or violent strikes.”
“Why not put it on the ballot the way people wanted it in the first place?” she said.
Sue Reams, who lives in Orange County and has a son in jail on a third strike for a petty crime, said she voted for the Three Strikes law.
“I didn’t know any better,” Reams said.
Her son Shane, 33, has been in jail for six years, she said. His third strike was for being a lookout for a drug sale in 1996.
“His first two strikes were residential burglary at my house and my neighbor’s,” she said.
Reams said she was a “tough-love” parent and convinced her son to turn himself in to the police “to get help for drugs.”
“Instead, he went to prison and he learned about drugs even more,” she said.
Barbara Ellis, of San Bernardino, said her brother Reginald was sentenced to 25-years-to-life for “constructive possession of a firearm.”
“That’s a crime that normally would have been one year,” she said.
Ellis said her brother tried to commit suicide when he found out he was going to be sent back to prison, and she went with her mother to the hospital, where the two of them told him they would help him if he “had resolve to live.”
Reginald co-founded Inside FACTS and is working to change the law from behind bars, Ellis said.
California is one of 47 states to have disenfranchised prison inmates. Florida bans ex-felons from voting, a factor that many argue contributed to President Bush’s 537-vote win.
Freddie Lawson, of Inglewood, said her son, Derek, got 25-years-to-life for entering an abandoned building.
Lawson said her son is a drug addict who “never had any help for his illness.”
“He’s no gangbanger and never killed anybody, never hurt anybody,” she said.
Rowland McFarland, 63, of West Covina, said his son got a 25-to-life sentence for having a gun in his car.
McFarland said he did not vote for the Three Strikes law.
“I could see the ugliness of it,” he said.
McFarland said his son, who is in his 40s, was convicted in 1979 for fighting with family members. A second conviction was handed out in the 1980s for possessing a gun while in prison, McFarland said.
McFarland said his son’s second conviction was a fabrication that was overturned in court, but “they never let him go back to court to be re-sentenced.”
McFarland said Three Strikes should be for “vicious crimes.”
“We’re not saying everybody should be let out of prison,” he said.
FACTS organized the march to coincide with the anniversary of the passage of California’s Three Strikes Law on March 7, 1994. This is the first time one of the organization’s marches has taken over a street, an organizer said.
At least one FACTS member was a former inmate who made it out of jail following a Three Strikes conviction.
Pam Martinez of Los Angeles said she was convicted of robbery in 1977, pled to second degree robbery in 1987 and was convicted of petty theft in 1995. She made it out when she had a conviction overturned “based on ineffective assistance of counsel.”
“It’s a miracle,” she said. “I’m in one-half-of-one percent of people who are successful on appeal.”
“I hope to represent all the people who can’t be here themselves,” she said.
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by John Doe
Tuesday, Mar. 12, 2002 at 12:23 PM
i feel the three strikes is another form of slavery to hold the less fortunate and poverty down so they cant get up.
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by Carole
Wednesday, Mar. 13, 2002 at 8:15 AM
precious4952@yahoo.com 310-398-5870 11929 VEnice Blvd # 208 LA Ca 90066
It is my humble opinion, that this goverment knows exactly what its doing, and yet turns a blind eye, I am from England, I also councel at the Salvation Army voluntary, men who are from prison and off the street who have drug/alcohol/living problems,some are so tramatised from their prison experince, I get to hear first hand that the prison system is not working, how many of these men are locked up who have a disease of addiction/alcoholism which is not being addressed in the manner it should be. Thank goodness this is all coming to the surface and light. God bless all that are working so hard to change things.
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by Angie
Friday, Mar. 15, 2002 at 8:22 AM
aangiebay@oal.com 209-463-4734
Yes! Please let's keep fighting against the 3 strikes your out law, human beings don't belong in prison for pettiness, this law should be for violent crimes, life is short and precious. Let's give them school, drug programs, or training.
I have changed my life through school and trainings, their is hope for these people.
Sincerely,
Angie, ex-convict
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