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U.S. City: You Can No Longer Call a Felon… a Felon

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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors says terms such as “felon” and “inmate” are a dehumanizing way of referring to individuals with a criminal record, and have adopted a new set of guidelines requiring the use of alternative, “person-first” labels.

The resolution approved by all members present last month states that “dehumanizing language like ‘prisoner, ‘convict,’ inmate,’ or ‘felon’ only serve to obstruct and separate from society and make the institutionalization of racism and supremacy appear normal.”

Several new descriptive terms were provided to “serve as models of appropriate use of person-first language.” For instance, instead of referring to an individual as an “inmate,” one should use the term, “currently incarcerated person.” Rather than call someone a “juvenile offender,” the person should be described as a “young person impacted by the justice system.” . . .

Supervisor Matt Haney explained the measure to the San Francisco Chronicle, saying, “We don’t want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done. We want them ultimately to become contributing citizens, and referring to them as felons is like a scarlet letter that they can never get away from.”

According to the Chronicle, “the district attorney’s office is already on board.” But the resolution is nonbinding, and Mayor London Breed did not sign off on it because, according to her spokesperson, she “doesn’t implement policies based on nonbinding resolutions.” (Read more from “U.S. City: You Can No Longer Call a Felon… a Felon” HERE)

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Ivy League School Department is (Intentionally) Run by Felons

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

In the hallowed halls of Columbia University, a nest of ex-cons — who have served time for murder, attempted murder, robbery and assault — hold court on their unique brand of social justice for admiring students enrolled in the school’s social work program, a FoxNews.com investigation has found.

The ex-cons work for or with the Criminal Justice Initiative (CJI), co-founded in 2009 by former Weather Underground operative and Columbia adjunct professor Kathy Boudin, who pleaded guilty to felony murder for her role in an infamous 1981 armed robbery that left two police officers and a security guard dead. And while that case was well-publicized, the group is hardly upfront about the “practical experience” of Boudin and others associated with the CJI.

A description on the program’s website says it is “situated inside” Columbia, and a part of the school’s “Social Intervention Group,” a research center within the Columbia University School of Social Work. It lists among its goals helping to forge a solution for “a central social crisis of our time, mass incarceration.” The program holds events and conducts research as part of “an interdisciplinary project built around a model of community collaboration” that “seeks to increase the number of skilled practitioners, policy-makers and researchers who can advance the fields of re-entry and incarceration across all disciplines.”

But students and parents who shell out more than $43,000 in annual tuition and fees might be hard-pressed to uncover the fact that former inmates are running the CJI. Outside of a vague reference to Boudin and Cheryl Wilkins being “part of a community of people who have returned from prison,” there is no information about their criminal pasts. Boudin’s school directory bio, for example, makes no mention of her time in prison. Several other CJI faculty, program members and associates have similarly disturbing backgrounds.

Read more from this story HERE.

Biden: ‘I’d Rather Have An Ex-Felon Have Access To A Weapon’ Than A Fugitive

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Photo Credit: CNSNews

Vice President Joe Biden told city leaders in his pitch for new gun control laws on Tuesday that he would prefer an ex-felon over a fugitive have access to a weapon.

“The one person I don’t want to have a weapon is a fugitive from justice,” Biden said. “I rather have an ex-felon have access to a weapon than someone fleeing the justice system.”

Biden, speaking at the annual meeting for the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C., told attendees that he and President Barack Obama want Congress to pass a “universal background check” so that “every single gun sale must first go through a check to see if the buyer can legally have a gun.”

“And by the way, some of you know in your states – we’ve gotten into this – there’s somewhere in the order of 2 million people who’ve been adjudicated in your home state as not being able to own a weapon, Biden said.

“Yet their names are not in the national information system that people have to check when they sell you a gun at a gun show,” Biden said.

Read more from this story HERE.

“Capitulation to Lawlessness”: Obama’s new plan to protect illegal alien criminals

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Photo credit: Kevin Coles

President Obama’s new immigration plan will provide safe harbor to criminal illegal immigrants and will lead to a “capitulation to lawlessness” that could threaten public safety, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said.

Fox News has obtained an internal document detailing how the Department of Homeland Security plans to implement what critics say amounts to an amnesty policy for what could be more than one million illegal immigrants.

According to the documents, illegal immigrants convicted of felonies or misdemeanors under “state immigration laws” may be granted deferred action. Those who have repeatedly entered the United States illegally will also be eligible. And traffic violations would not be considered a misdemeanor.

“It is a direct threat to the rule of law and to the demonstrated desire of the American people for a lawful system of immigration,” Sessions said. “I believe this administration has utilized this policy to basically undermine and negate the ability of the law officers to do what they have been hired and paid to do.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama campaign takes page out of Jim Whitaker play book, asserting Romney a felon

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The battle between President Obama and Mitt Romney reached new levels of rancor Thursday, with each campaign accusing the other of lying over Romney’s tenure at private-equity firm Bain Capital.

The charges flew at a rapid pace, and by the end of the day the Romney campaign was demanding an apology after a senior Obama campaign official said the Republican presidential candidate may have committed a felony.

Obama official Stephanie Cutter made the claim following a Boston Globe article that said documents show Romney was in charge at Bain for three years longer than he had claimed. Cutter said Romney was either misrepresenting his position at Bain to the Securities and Exchange Commission, “which is a felony,” or misrepresenting to the American people.

Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades issued a blistering statement in response.

“President Obama’s campaign hit a new low today when one of its senior advisers made a reckless and unsubstantiated charge to reporters about Mitt Romney that was so over the top that it calls into question the integrity of their entire campaign,” Rhoades said. “President Obama ought to apologize for the out-of-control behavior of his staff, which demeans the office he holds. Campaigns are supposed to be hard fought, but statements like those made by Stephanie Cutter belittle the process and the candidate on whose behalf she works.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Also, read HERE how the Boston Globe is refusing to make corrections to articles falsely reporting Romney’s employment history.  Sound familiar?

Photo credit: Alan Cleaver