By Daniel J. Simms, Imprisoned Independent Journalist/Author/Podcast Host/Prison Reform Activist. www.DanielJSimms.com. www.DefundDOC.net.
Watch out! Mass dehumanization of the troubled American people is back on prime time once again. (See: Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historic Dehumanization, and Contemporary Consequences. By Phillip Goff et al. 94 J. Personality and Soc. Psychol. 292, 293 (2008)). Formerly cancelled FOX TV show "America's Most Wanted" ("AMW") with John Walsh is rearing it's toxic head again. Reappearing on January 21, 2024 at 8:00pm on FOX. The show was widely known for ushering in the war against the American people and mass incarceration. (See: From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime. By Elizabeth Hinton (2016)). (Also See: Locking Up Our Own. By James Forman Jr. (2017)). Walsh is attempting to reboot the failed show and resuscitate his lackluster career. Many know Walsh for obnoxiously hocking supplements like Omega XL on infomercials. America would be best served if he went back to it.
John Walsh tragically lost his son, Adam Walsh, in 1981. His son was gruesomely kidnapped and murdered by a mentally disturbed individual's actions. After his grievous loss Walsh funnelled his pain into many efforts. Such as lobbying and successfully enacting legislation. (See: Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, codified at 18 U.S.C. §4248). But Walsh is most widely known for his vitriolic vilification of troubled Americans featured on his AMW show. (See: Bolin v. Davis, 13 F.4th 797 (2021)) (case alleged episode of AMW included inflammatory and false reenactment of his crime thereby prejudicing him and leading to unfair trial). Suspiciously Walsh's tenure on AMW coincided with the rise of big law enforcement and mass incarceration. (See: Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. By Todd R. Clear).Walsh successfully stigmatized our troubled sons and daughters with labels like "predator," "dirtbag," "creep," "career criminal," "rapist," "snitch," and many other derogatory words. Walsh's propaganda manipulation made it easy for politicians and prison authorities to enact harshly long sentences and perpetuate terrible prison conditions. (See: The Unconstitutionality of Government Propaganda. By Caroline Mala Corbin. 81 Ohio St. L. J. 815 (2019)). Moreover Walsh's lionization of law enforcement enabled the war against the American people through the pretext of drugs and crime. (See: Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time 11. By James Kilgore. The New Press (2015)). The war excused and virtually immunized law enforcement officers that shot, assaulted, abused power, stole property, or even murdered troubled Americans (some unarmed). (See: War on Drugs Policing and Police Brutality. 50 Substance Use and Misuse 1188, 1189 (2015)). (Also See: Four Years in a Row, Police Nationwide Fatally Shoot Nearly 1000 People. By John Sullivan et al. Wash. Post. February 12, 2019).
Over the years of AMW broadcasts Walsh used his powerful voice and crime reenactments to stretch reality and even outright lie. For instance Bobby Weatherton alleged AMW was contacted by the government [U.S. Marshals Office] to feature his alleged crimes. AMW did this briefly in December 2007. Ultimately, AMW aired a prime time reenactment of the alleged offenses in February, 2008. AMW made numerous false and slanderous statements and depictions pertaining to Bobby, his character, his criminal record, and the offenses for which he was sought. Resulting in extreme prejudice and stigmatization. (See: Weatherton v. Am.'s Most Wanted, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118866 (2010)).
Most likely to inspire fear, get higher ratings, and more advertising revenue. The deceptive fearmongering portrayals led to many Americans getting unfair trials and outright railroaded. Critics of Walsh point to true crime shows like Dateline, 48 Hours, Snapped, and many more, that portray the alleged facts without the vitriolic demonization. Those shows do not inspire hate and dehumanization as Walsh's brand does. Moreover Walsh's defamations actually led to some even being assaulted and stabbed. For example, on March 20, 2004, AMW aired an episode that alleged some facts of Kirrell F. Tyler's criminal case. But that was not the bad part. The terrible part was AMW and particularly John Walsh blatantly lied by stating Kirrell told on his crime partner. When the AMW episode aired Kirrell was at A-facility of the California State Prison in Sacramento. Being labeled a "snitch" while in prison is tantamount to green lighting Kirrell's assault or even his murder. Kirrell labored under extreme stress and anxiety for days after the airing. To preserve his life he told approximately ten different Department of Corrections ("DOC ") staff of the serious hazard to his life. Walsh lied on national TV falsely stigmatizing Kirrell as a snitch thereby triggering the inmate population, and particularly Offender Crossley, to become incredibly hostile. Keep in mind many of these prisoners had untreated trauma of being snitched on themselves resulting in their incarceration. On July 12, 2004 prison politics caught up to Kirrell. Offender Crossley decided to rid the facility of a known snitch. So he procured a makeshift shank with razorblades embedded in it and viciously attacked Kirrell. Needless to say Kirrell was deeply injured both mentally and physically. And it was all based on AMW and Walsh's lies. Such depravity is beyond comprehension. AMW and Walsh had zero evidence that Kirrell snitched on his crime partner yet they aired the false statement anyways. Who does that? It was reckless and could of killed Kirrell.(See: Tyler v. Knowles, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59069).
It is clear that Walsh disgustingly exploited his son's tragic death to become famous, increase ratings, and play on the public's sympathies and natural fear of crime to push the "hard on crime" ideology. Sadly the ideology became widespread and is still prevalent even today. Translating into millions and millions of our sons and daughters being treated harshly and funnelled into mass enslavement. (See: Slavery By Another Name. By D. Blackmon. (2009)) Indeed, for much of this country's history, the prevailing view was that a prisoner was a mere 'slave of the State,' who not only forfeit his liberty, but all his personal rights except those which the law in its humanity accords him. (See: Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union, Inc., 433 U.S. 119, 139, 53, L. Ed. 2d 629, 97 S. Ct. 2532 (1977)). The U.S. Constitution, Thirteenth Amendment, which was an evil concession to the racist Civil War South, ratified the enslavement of felons. (See: Sexual Abuse of Women in United States Prisons: A Modern Corollary to Slavery. By Brenda V. Smith. 33 Fordham Urb. L. J. 571 (2006)) No longer was there a color barrier to enslavement in this country. Anyone can be a slave today. Which practically ensured the growth of mass incarceration. (See: Worse Than Slavery. By David M. Oshinsky. (1996)). As it has incentivized politicians to enact cruelly long sentences and the government to imprison our sons and daughters at alarming rates. (See: Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics. By Maria Gottschalk (2015)). Giving the United States the dubious distinction of the largest Slaveholder and wage theft kleptocracy in all human history. (See: Towards a Constitutional Kleptocracy. 96 Mich. L. Rev. 1910, 1918-1920 (1998). By Stefen B. Herpel) (Also see: Freeing Prisoners' Labor. By Stephen P. Garvey. 50 Stan. L. Rev. 339, 357 (1998)).
The depths of Walsh's depravity sees no end as he achieves new levels of shamelessness by installing his son, Callahan Walsh, as the heir apparent on AMW. Nepotism at it's most blatant. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a report against Nepotism stating "[S]uch flawed selection practices served to entrench preexisting racial hierarchies." See: H.R. Rep. No. 92-238 (1971). AMW and Walsh utilizing insidious racist employment practices is not surprising. Particularly when examining the largest groups of citizens victimized by mass incarceration. In Michelle Alexander's groundbreaking book she argued that the mass incarceration of black men today plays a similar role in racial hierarchy as slavery and Jim Crow laws did for previous generations. (See: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness 21-22 (2010)). As of 2010, the tail end of AMW previous televised run, 40% of prisoners in the United States were African-American, while African-American represented only 13% of the overall U.S. population. (See: Breaking Down Mass Incarceration in the 2010 Census: State by State Incarceration Rates by Race/Ethnicity. Prison Policy Initiative. May 28, 2014. www.PrisonPolicyInitiative.org/reports/rates.html).
Although mass incarceration grew from racism and hate it has expanded through greed as well. No matter what race you are, the government or private prisons, will enslave you and profit from your imprisonment. And Walsh has been rewarded handsomely for his complicity and aggrandizement of mass incarceration. (See: Following the Money of Mass Incarceration. Prison Policy Initiative. January 25, 2017. www.PrisonPolicyInitiative.org/reports/money.html).
Proponents of AMW argue that it does a good public service by notifying of fugitive criminals. Such an argument would be persuasive if bolstered by actual data of sufficient apprehensions. But no such data exists. Throughout all the years of airing AMW the total arrest record is an underwhelming 1919 captures. Think of this, with roughly 5% of the worlds population, the United States currently confines 25% of the world's prison inmates. (See: The Challenge of Mass Incarceration in America. By Glenn C. Loury and Bruce Western. J. of Am. Acad. of Arts and Scis. (2010)). That amounts to 2.3 million in 1,833 state prisons,110 federal prisons, 1772 juvenile institutions, 3,134 jails, 218 immigration centers, 80 Indian jails,
as well as military prisons, civil commitments centers, State pychriat roubled Americans incarcerated across the country. What is 1919 arrests when compared to 2.3 million? It is nothing.
Clearly apprehending fugitives is not the main focus of AMW and Walsh. Most likely AMW is a secret governmental operation to promote and aggrandize the U.S. criminal justice system. If it is not then AMW should get paid by the government for all their propaganda efforts. Honestly if AMW was unabashedly a governmental propaganda operation they could not do a better job than AMW is doing. That is sad. AMW and Walsh are essentially puppets for law enforcement, mass incarceration, and the overall criminal justice system. Walsh may as well put on a Police Officer uniform while hosting AMW. The horribleness of mass incarceration upon our people can not be understated. Beyond the fact that it does not work, with 83% recidivating within ten years of release. (See: What the Sentencing Commission Ought to be Doing: Reducing Mass Incarceration. By Lynn Adelman. 18 Mich. J. Race and L. 295 (2013)). But it also ensnares our fellow citizens regardless of whether crime rates are going down or not. (See: Crime is Down: Yet U.S. Incarceration Rates Are Still Among the Highest in the World. By Campbell Robertson. (April 25, 2019). http://www.NYTimes.com/2019/04/25/us/us-mass-incarceration-rate.html).
There is no excusing promoting a defective product. If someone promoted a widget that failed 83% of the time they would be prosecuted. Yet AMW and Walsh will never be held accountable for their shameless support and promotion of the failed U.S. criminal justice system. Indeed no one will be held accountable for all the devastation wreaked upon our troubled people, their families, or their communities. All those years of stolen wages. All those years warehoused in violent, brutal, and cruel environments. All those years forced into idleness rather than treatment and career trainings. All those years separated from spouses and children. The list of inequities are immeasurable. The government's only legitimate excuse for kidnapping our sons and daughters of America and confining them in far off facilities is public safety and rehabilitation. Neither of those basic fundamental aims are achieved in the current failed experiment of mass incarceration. Based on empirical data the organizing principles of the U.S. criminal justice system has failed 83% of the time. Public safety is endangered every time someone is released, not because of inherent criminality, but due solely to lack of treatment, education, career trainings, stolen wages, and unproductively long sentences. All of which is in the sole domain of politicians and the government. They are the ones wielding the power over mass incarceration. The powerless, untreated, uneducated, ignorant, and deeply impoverished Americans that encounter the U.S. criminal justice system are unable to break the bondage of criminality without help. They need the government to save them from themselves. The government has been derelict in that duty. Neglecting to extend the basic level of humanity to our troubled people. Simply treating their mental health disorders, educating them in marketable careers, paying them minimum wage for their labor, and reducing sentences to a maximum of eight to ten years for non-homicide, will drastically reduce recidivism. Such common sense approaches to criminal justice has already been proven to work. Adding additional extreme pro-social policies. Such as allowing families to reside with prisoners, bringing the community into the prison for dances, tattooing, sporting events, or art and hobby marketplaces, this will greatly increase socialization and reduce recidivism.
Vast swaths of the American population are uneducated on the true state of disrepute our criminal justice system is. You can continue to educate yourself on the injustices and inequities inflicted upon you, your descendants, or your fellow Americans by simply subscribing to our free podcast and blog. www.DefundDOC.net. Every new subscriber will receive a free digital copy of one of my books: "DEFUND D.O.C.: TURNING ALL PRISONS INTO TREATMENT AND CAREER CENTERS," or, "THE ART OF LIVING: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN LIFE AND BUSINESS, I LEARNED IN PRISON."
Become a Reality TV Star! We are excited to invite you to be a part of history through a revolutionary new reality show: LOVE AND PRISON ACTIVISM. The reality show seeks to inspire prison reform by humanizing prisoners and those that love them. Showcasing their struggles and highlighting activism will assuredly change the narrative and allow space for true reform to occur. You do not need prior experience in mass incarceration to be a part of the show. All you need is a love for the American people. Therefore everyone is invited to audition. Moreover due to the immense need for people to attend rallies and protests in their States literally everyone can appear and be featured in the show. So do not miss your opportunity to take part in this groundbreaking effort. We will be launching it on July 4th to coincide with our Country's previous fight for independence and freedom. This new fight we are embarking on is critical to realign U.S. policy with the people's demands. Foremost is ending prisoner slavery, turning all prisons into treatment and career centers, and reducing all non-homicide offenses down to a maximum of eight to ten years. You can receive all updates and news regarding the pending social justice reality show by easily subscribing to the podcast and blog. www.DefundDOC.net.
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