|
|
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2011
$31 'crime' = 10 years
Lawton, Okla.--Patricia Marilyn Spottedcrow, a 25-year-old nursing home worker and mother of four children, from Kingfisher, Okla., was arrested for selling $31 worth of marijuana to a police informant in December of 2009 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
"It just seemed like easy money," said Spottedcrow, "I thought we could get some extra money. I've lost everything because of it." This is her first offence.
Cases like this are evidence of how capitalists are cracking down on working people across the board. Wages are brutally low in many industries and some workers need to supplement their income any way they can. Sometimes this can involve illegal means such as selling drugs.
Such a harsh sentence by the Oklahoma courts for such a small sale of a largely harmless drug suggests the real intent: crack down on those workers who do not accept the going standard of living and do not acknowledge the legal limits on self-help. A support site has been set up on facebook for this case.
--K.H.
|
Subscription for one year
$5
|
