Posted on 12/14/2020 2:56:03 PM PST by John Semmens
CIVICUS Monitor, an international civil rights alliance, issued a report detailing how governments around the world—including the United States—"have used the pandemic as an opportunity to introduce or implement additional restrictions on civic freedoms."
According to the report, "the Covid-19 pandemic has had a dire impact on civic freedoms globally. Increases in the aggressive use of force against protesters and censorship of criticism have become widespread. In fact, 87% of the world's population now lives in nations with strongly negative civic freedom ratings, a 4% increase from last year."
The report was especially critical of enforcement policies that use detention. Lead researcher Marianna Belalba Barreto pointed out that "the virus is more likely to spread in confined spaces like prisons. Our research reflects a deepening civic space crisis across the globe and highlights how governments are using the pandemic as an excuse to further curtail rights, including by passing legislation to criminalize speech."
Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) defended detention of "those who violate lockdowns, congregate illegally in churches or homes, or walk around without wearing face masks. These scofflaws are literally murdering their fellow citizens." Ironically, New Jersey has been releasing jailed felons to make room for COVID restriction violators. However, Murphy contends that "with the pandemic decimating the population, those who won't follow the rules pose a greater threat than those we are releasing."
If you missed any of the other Semi-News/Semi-Satire posts you can find them at...
http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php?topic=422526.0
Most of the existing felons can contribute nothing further to the local government/legal industry (i.e.: fed funded appeals used up, no sources of attachable income for fines and costs, etc...). Thus, the desire for a more ‘milkable’ criminal class.
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