In Mendocino County, California, You Can Pay to Get Out of a Marijuana Felony

Vice

What if you could pay the cops a bunch of money and have a felony turned into a misdemeanor? Does that sound like a good idea? It does to David Eyster, the district attorney for Mendocino County, California, who, the Los Angeles Times reports, has instituted a system that allows certain marijuana offenders to give the cops some money—$50 per pot plant and $500 per pound of product—in order to avoid prison time and get straight probation. This “restitution” program is great for the rich, but not so great if you care about people being treated equally under the law.

Wow. We are truly losing our moral compass in the US. This is completely wrong in my opinion and will only lead us down a road deeper into corruption.

What do you think?

a reply to: onequestion
Pricy but not as much as actual jailtime. Maybe in their eyes it is a win win because they get paid but do not clog their system with cannabis cases, which in Cali are a lot! I am sure tptb realize there is a lot of money in this trade so this doesn't surprise me. I would imagine however unjust it may appear, the farmers would welcome it as an alternative to jail and conviction record.

a reply to: onequestion

You can pay to get out of anything anywhere in the US .. how do you think the rich get away with things like these all the time ..?
The court system is a corrupt money stealing system .. there is a price for everything ..
If you can pay, you can get away ..even if it's a serious crime .. they use fancy words like plea bargaining ..and reduced sentence .. throw some more money and watch the judge dance ..

the poor get shafted .. and rich walk away ..

Couple of weeks ago my son came to me and asked for $20. I asked him why, and he said, "So i can get an A in History".


??????


The teacher was giving an extra credit A if you bought 2 Mom-o-grams (or whatever name they used for the fund raiser). Essentially, they sent a super swank card on your behalf for $10.

If you can buy A's in school, why can't you buy down your criminal convictions?

On a side note, the real travesty is that there is jail time involved to begin with here. If the local DA had any moral fortitude, he would just not pursue charges to begin with. I guess he is a man to not miss an opportunity to rake in extra cash.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
Couple of weeks ago my son came to me and asked for $20. I asked him why, and he said, "So i can get an A in History".


??????


The teacher was giving an extra credit A if you bought 2 Mom-o-grams (or whatever name they used for the fund raiser). Essentially, they sent a super swank card on your behalf for $10.

If you can buy A's in school, why can't you buy down your criminal convictions?

On a side note, the real travesty is that there is jail time involved to begin with here. If the local DA had any moral fortitude, he would just not pursue charges to begin with. I guess he is a man to not miss an opportunity to rake in extra cash.

ya but that DA has cop on top of cop barking about how empty their coffers are and this is the only easy way to fill them back up. big drug busts end up using the money for evidence alot of times and the proceedings get drawn out and alot of big time "Hard" drug dealers have lawyers ready to go.... thats a serious headache..

then you got mom and pop or just plain ole in over his head harold growing trees and making fat stacks they hid under their bed. no lawyers. no charges usually ever filed. use fear to scare people into giving up their hard earned property and if your lucky they will have enough guns or contraband laying around to push harder charges which then the person will have to dig into their bank acct (no taken in raids) to pay off all the extra fines. DOUBLE WHAMMY!

its armed robbery at its finest. they will kill all your dogs. smash all your stuff. take your kids. all the while getting a nice pat on the back... in most states warrants are given based on CONFIDENTIAL TIPS. it doesn't even require a full blown INFORMANT. someone can call cause they thought they smelled it or they thought they saw a plant and a warrant will be given.... WTF!!!!

everyone talks about how we have less cops working our streets now a days then ever.. biggest line of BS out there. we got double the amount not in uniform then we ever have and their main concern is keeping the coffers full. its insane. innocents are getting caught up all the time. a couple of CIA contractors just got hit in Illinois... lol bet that sarge got an earful!

originally posted by: junglimogli
a reply to: onequestion

You can pay to get out of anything anywhere in the US

Affluenza comes to mind.

Or the guy who has 7 DUIs under his belt but is too important to go to jail.

I hate our corrupt system anymore.

a reply to: onequestion

This is completely wrong in my opinion and will only lead us down a road deeper into corruption.

Is it as corrupted as having a for profit prison system? By having this it encourages the law to arrest people by planting evidence on them and judges to give sentences that they shouldn't be giving. At least this way the people that do pay to lower their charge won't be a drain on the system.

a reply to: onequestion

Seems to me this is just another reason to end prohibition against the plant...

originally posted by: onequestion

Wow. We are truly losing our moral compass in the US. This is completely wrong in my opinion and will only lead us down a road deeper into corruption.

What do you think?

You're right, this is totally wrong!!! All of which could be fixed by simply stopping the root of the problem which was making MJ illegal in the first place.

Stop making a harmless plant illegal and this and a million other problems will go away.

a reply to: onequestion

yeah if your a politician you can pay to get out of sex crimes, war crimes , and any law under the sun. You just need to have the right connections and, "dolla dolla bills yall"