Mr. Will of course laments the fact that NYC has extraordinarily high taxes on cigarettes, the funds of which are used to pay the medical costs of indigent smokers, while discouraging them from smoking. But he says a few other interesting things.
It is not right for the U.S. with 5% of the world's population to have 25% of its prisoners. Something is terribly wrong with that. His words, not mine.
He also states that the use of solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment.
And he laments the overzealous prosecution of "broken window events", which has made NYC much safer since it was started some 20 years ago, but at the expense of a big growth in the prison population.
This is interesting. Is there are growing level of intellectual support on the part of conservatives for drug law reform? I suspect that is not widespread, but George Will is at an age when serious eye disorders can develop and smoking pot has been shown to have medicinal benefits for that, so maybe he is talking his own book. I would not begrudge him that. People should have every medical means to preserve eyesight.
Rudy Guiliani and other believers in "broken windows" policing will no doubt object to George Will's position just as they defend torture despite John McCain's position that torture has no place in America's being.
Not everything we centrists believe in is crazy, anti-american or even anti-economic growth. Efficient economic growth does not singularly exist in a Ann Rynd capitalist model. Even Ann Rynd believed in a woman's right to control her own body. Yet, centrists get no respect from either the GOP or the Democrats these days.
Link to George Will column
We read Will's column with interest. There is nothing within that speaks to decriminalization of drugs. He does seem to say that "broken windows" policing may have gone too far. Of course, it is interesting to note - as others have - that Liberal policies are heavily funded by taxes on cigarettes. Eric Garner's chosen profession was a direct threat to the economics backing these programs.
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