ANTI-DRUG ABUSE ACT OF 1988 (NOVEMBER 18, 1988)

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 restored the death penalty under federal law for drug offenses and some types of murder.

 Death penalty supporters protest at the port of Nusakambangan ahead of the execution of Bali Nine Kingpins Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1165092/Death-penalty-supporters-protest-execution-island-port.html

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2016/04/indonesians-for-death-penalty-against.html]

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (Pub.L. 100–690, 102 Stat. 4181, enacted November 18, 1988, H.R. 5210) is a major law of the so-called "War on Drugs" passed by the U.S. Congress which did two significant things:

1.    Created the policy goal of a drug-free America; and

2.    Established the Office of National Drug Control Policy

The change from the Act of 1986 to the Act of 1988 concerns the mandatory minimum penalties to drug trafficking conspiracies and attempts that previously were applicable only to substantive completed drug trafficking offenses. The Act amended 21 U.S.C. 844 to make crack cocaine the only drug with a mandatory minimum penalty for a first offense of simple possession. The Act made possession of more than five grams of a mixture or substance containing cocaine base punishable by at least five years in prison. The five year minimum penalty also applies to possession of more than three grams of cocaine base if the defendant has a prior conviction for crack cocaine possession, and to possession of more than one gram of crack if the defendant has two or more prior crack possession convictions.

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 also offers several other amendments to the Act of 1986. First, the organization and coordination of Federal drug control efforts. Next, the reduction of drug demand through increased treatment and prevention efforts. Also, the reduction of illicit drug trafficking and production abroad. Lastly, sanctions designed to place added pressure on the drug user. The ADAA projected budget for these amendments was $6.5 billion for the 1989 fiscal year”. The result of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 was not foreseen. “After spending billions of dollars on law enforcement, doubling the number of arrests and incarcerations, and building prisons at a record pace, the system has failed to decrease the level of drug-related crime. Placing people in jail at increasing rates has had little long-term effect on the levels of crime”.

The H.R. 5210 legislation was passed by the 100th U.S. Congressional session and enacted into law by the 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan on November 18, 1988.

The media campaign mentioned in the act later became the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Drug_Abuse_Act_of_1988

MILITANT ATHEIST: DEVIN PATRICK KELLEY (FEBRUARY 21, 1991 TO NOVEMBER 5, 2017)

 

Devin Patrick Kelley: Who Is the Sutherland Springs Church Shooter? [PHOTOS]

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://secondnexus.com/news/devin-patrick-kelley-sutherland-springs-church-facebook-pictures/]

Texas church shooter: a militant atheist who beat wife and child

The former Air Force airman who shot dead 26 people in a Texas church had been jailed by the military for beating his wife and child, and had ranted against God and the church on his social media pages.

Updated 7 November 2017

Devin Patrick Kelley, a white 26-year-old who was dressed head-to-toe in black combat gear when he carried out the deadliest shooting in Texas history, appears to have killed himself after the attack. His church-going victims were aged between 18 months and 77 years.

As photos of America's latest mass killer -- round-faced and unsmiling, with thinning dark hair and, in one shot, holding a small child -- started circulating in the US media Monday, more questions than answers remained as to why he attacked the First Baptist Church, killing an estimated four percent of the tiny community of Sutherland Springs, near San Antonio, in a matter of minutes.

Kelley lived in New Braunfels, a small town around 35 miles (55 kilometers) from Sutherland Springs.

The only connection he had to the church appears to have been that his mother-in-law, who had received threatening text messages from Kelley, was a member of the congregation, although police said she was not in the building when he stormed it.

Kelley had been court-martialed and jailed by the military for 12 months in 2012, two years after signing up for the Air Force, on charges of assaulting his wife and their child. He left the service in 2014 with a bad conduct discharge.

Like many other mass shooters, he had vented his rage at the world on social media, writing Facebook diatribes against organized religion, the church and believers.

Before being deleted, his Facebook account featured a quote from Mark Twain: "I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

In his LinkedIn account, however, he listed his interests as animal welfare, arts and culture, children and civil rights.

Several of his former classmates said they had kept their distance from the militant atheist, who often acted in a hostile and aggressive manner.

Once in the Air Force, Kelley served in logistics readiness at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, which neighbors Texas.

After his conviction of assault on his wife and a child -- named by those close to the case either as the couple's child, or just the wife's -- his spouse Tessa filed for divorce. Kelley was also demoted, and left the military after a failed appeal against his conviction.

After leaving the Air Force, he moved for a while to Colorado, where he appeared in court on charges of animal cruelty, though the case was later dismissed.

Texas Church Shooter Devin Kelley Charged With Animal Cruelty Before Killing 26 People (Video)

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://prisonrideshare.org/texas-church-shooter-devin-patrick-kelley-animal-cruelty-video/]

Shooting at night

Kelley reportedly lied about his assault conviction when he filled out the required background check paperwork to buy a Ruger assault rifle in April 2016 at a gun and sporting goods shop in San Antonio, police said. They said he owned several firearms, bought in both Colorado and Texas.

His other known residence was in the rural area around New Braunfels, where he had lived with his wife in a converted barn, surrounded by woods.

One of his former neighbors told KSAT local news that he was "a regular guy" in a region where gun ownership is common, and said there was "nothing abnormal" that could have pointed to the impending slaughter.

"I mean, the only thing unusual across the street is we hear a lot of gunfire, a lot of times at night. We hear gunfire a lot, but we're out in the country," said the neighbor, Mark Moravitz.

Kelley walked into the First Baptist Church at around 11:20 am on Sunday, unleashing a hail of bullets that left at least 26 dead and 20 wounded, some seriously.

A neighbor of the church heard the gunfire and ran out with his own weapon, engaging the gunman and pursuing him as he fled in a pearl-colored Ford Explorer.

Kelley was found around eight miles away with a lethal gunshot wound, which police said appeared to have been self-inflicted.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/texas-church-shooter-a-militant-atheist-who-beat-wife-and-child

Devin Kelley was a Militant Atheist.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://atheistfallacies.wordpress.com/2017/11/07/devin-kelley-was-a-militant-atheist/]

OTHER LINKS:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutherland_Springs_church_shooting