California’s Reparation Offer: If You Like Your Prison Cell, You Can Keep Your Prison Cell

Did State Senator Bradford troll the farm equipment? Or is this a sincere effort to backfill the Narrative? Just when I was about to reject all reparation offers, here comes one that maybe we can all agree upon!

Before we discuss how it’s going to end… heehee… let’s recap how it began. In 2021, the Floyd rioteers were burning entire cities. Governor Newsom devised a cunning plan to prevent more rioting AND signal what a virtuous little Mama’s Boy he is! “You BLM types can form a reparations committee and tell us how much money you want… less whatever you burn down between now and finishing the report. Bring it to me, let’s see, around the time of the next election cycle.”

And poof, no mo’ Commiefornia riots, and Newsom was hailed as a trailblazer in the Art Of the Steal.

Today, however, Newsom is running hard for POTUS because the alternative is still being Governor when that reparation demand hits his desk… last week. Uh-oh!

Column: The craziest reparations idea you won’t find in the California task force’s report

h ttps://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-29/reparations-task-force-final-report-give-land-california-closed-prisons-black-people

By Erika D. Smith, 29 June 2023

At long last, California’s reparations task force will release its final report on Thursday, providing a blueprint for how Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature might go about compensating Black people for the lasting harms of slavery and the ongoing indignities of systemic racism.

By most indications, it will land at the Capitol in Sacramento with the thud of a politically radioactive bomb.

Looting a Walmart is one thing. Looting a governor’s mansion is another thing.

Gov. Newsom in 2021: “Let them form a reparation committee. Whatever they want, we’ll tax it out of California’s massive business sector. The one we’ll have after we get rid of all those independent small businesses with our Plandemic lockdowns.”

Gov. Newsom in 2023: “Before you give me that reparation demand… uh… I don’t know how to say this nicely… my business sector is gone because you’re all a violent pack of sticky-fingered, hooting chimps.”

*sniff sniff* Do I smell RACE RIOTS in the air, or is it just Canada burning in a bad fire season?

Recent polling from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that just 43% of people in the state liked the idea of the task force even existing. This is true even though, according to the same poll, 80% of residents agreed that racism is a problem in the U.S. . with 42% saying it’s a “big” problem . and about 70% believing it contributes to economic inequality.

I understood it was a way to keep the Groids quiet while banking DEI points. But now…

Only one major poll, from UCLA.s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, which has worked closely with the task force, has offered a contrarian point of view. It found that a majority of Californians agree “some form” of compensation is owed Black people. Predictably, though, anything that smacks of cash payments gets far less support.

Pollster: “Can I take a moment of your time?”

Random AWFL: “Sure! Anything for my fellow globalist and alma mater!”

Pollster: “I’m with BLM. Do you favor some form of reparations to black people or are you a racist piece of privileged excrement, you cracker white boy?”

AWFL: “I’m not racist! Please have mercy!”

Pollster: “Now, will that be cash-up-front or do you have a daughter… hello?”

And given that the prospect of cash payments . to the tune of potentially billions of dollars in a time of a deep budget deficit . has dominated the public discourse over reparations, it’s no wonder so many politicians are deploying a strategy of avoidance.

That’s misinformation! California does NOT have a budget deficit! It was going to, last month, but then the governor did some something-something with the budget numbers… and now we have a surplus! Trust the Science!

Which is why I suspect that state Sen. Steven Bradford, the Gardena Democrat who is one of only two state lawmakers on the nine-member task force, has been pitching a crazy . or maybe crazy-like-a-fox . idea.

I doubt Bradford’s idea will be included in the task force’s final report.

It wasn’t.

But he floated it during an invitation-only panel discussion earlier this month in West Adams.

.The conversation I had with the governor’s office a couple of weeks ago was that we’re shutting down prisons in the state of California,. he said. .What are we doing with that land? Why don’t we turn that land over to Blacks who have never owned property in the state of California? Why don’t we turn it over to developers and build homes?.

Prisons are already homes and blacks are already there. 

Wait… what did I just say? and WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?!?

.A lot of people are saying, .Where’s my check?.. he added, referring to the frequent refrain from attendees of the task force’s meetings over the last two years. .Reparations was never about a check. It’s about land..

The dozens of mostly middle-aged Black men and women in the room, all clustered around circular tables, sipping on coffee and water with lemon, suddenly burst into raucous applause.

I like the idea, too! What a strange feeling, me agreeing to participate in reparations for the slavery that California never did! Let’s recap.

Blacks are already in prisons in rural locations.

To fix that situation forever, we should… remove the locks and guards that prevent them from murdering each other, and let them live full-time in their distant cells which will no longer be maintained by taxpayer funds.

In locations that can be easily cut off and silenced from the outside world.

What’s the catch? How is that something they would agree to?

My mouth dropped open in shock just thinking about the optics of Black people, who are disproportionately in prisons because of bias in the criminal justice system, essentially colonizing the rural, often majority white and sometimes conservative towns where most state prisons are located.

Ah. The author fantasized about Trump people being kicked out of their homes to starve in the wilderness while the Beautiful People, historically despised for no reason at all, gloat from the badthink whypipo’s own windows.

That fantasy was never going to happen. Neither will my fantasy, alas:

Unsurprisingly, Newsom’s office was a bit more circumspect when I asked about their conversation. [A spokesperson told me via email,] .The governor looks forward to reviewing the final report..

Never move quickly when you’re standing in a minefield.

Bradford doesn’t seem to be willing to let this go, though.

.Why can’t we [let] African Americans set up businesses and build homes there? Do agriculture projects, whatever the case may be and let that be Black-owned, Black-controlled?. he told me. .Because, again, generational wealth is not through money, it’s through land..

Dude… Blacks don’t build ANYTHING. Ever. Africa. Word.

Sticking Blacks in the high-desert wilderness to do their own thing, would see them either dead or back on welfare in a week.

California has been shutting prisons for years. And the state likely will continue to do so for years to come, as the number of people behind bars continues to decline and as complaints about vermin, infrastructure problems and often deadly conditions continue to mount about where those remaining inmates are held.

That’s what the jailer said.

…In some ways, giving Black people the land where the prison once operated as reparations could be seen as poetic justice. It also could be seen as a gift of trauma.

Heeheehee. Crazy like a fox, you said. Foxes don’t care for vermin.

Bradford readily admits that state prisons, as a rule, aren’t in “the most desirable areas” in California. But it’s still land that isn’t being used that can be economically controlled by Black people, whether it’s for industrial buildings or cannabis grows.

HAHAHA!

.They don’t have any plan for it right now,. he said of state officials. .That.s why I gave them a suggestion of what they could do..

Bradford, you magnificent black knight. “Prison life is what you blakks are used to, and White Man is taking that away from you, so maybe you could live there far away from us… now that we don’t want it anymore? You could grow weed or build a civilization.”

[Mallory Crecelius is] the interim city manager of Blythe, a shrinking town in Riverside County along the Colorado River, [who] told me she hasn’t heard anything about potential redevelopment of Chuckawalla Valley State Prison.

.As far as we know, the state has no plans to do anything with the site, which would be the worst-case scenario,. she told me. .We lose the prison, and then we lose any ability to repurpose it..

While many have been focused on keeping the prison from closing in 2025, others are trying to figure out what can be done. The site is remote, some 20 miles out in the desert from downtown Blythe, and sits right next door to another state prison.

So reparations? An influx of Black people?

If you heard “money and inmates to keep the prison open”… then you know why this offer was cut from the final draft of reparations. Also, why it might be the last offer on the table regardless.

.We’re open to ideas,. Crecelius said, “because we really do need to figure out a way to replace the [criminal justice] jobs that are going to be lost..

Somewhat surprisingly, Susanville Mayor Quincy McCourt had similar things to say when I asked him about reparations.

.I.m 100% open-minded to anything. We, as a community, are 100% open-minded to anything, whatever the idea is,. he told me. .And if the state is discussing what to do with either the facility or the land, we all benefit from including the key stakeholders in Lassen County and Susanville. We need to be in those discussions..

Well… if your cops & jailers don’t have anything to do… you COULD import a crime wave… I suppose…

So is Bradford crazy or just crazy like a fox? Should reparations only include often-discussed things like free college tuition, housing assistance, interest-free business loans and, yes, cash payments? Or is there room for new and creative ideas that could solve many of California’s problems at once?

Only time will tell.

Time, and “no money in the State budget.” Good news, ye sons of Buy Large Mansions! Maybe you CAN go home after all!