Many Americans want to believe that everyone is treated fairly under the law; when it comes to our judicial system many African Americans are not. Mandatory minimum sentencing was implemented to reduce judicial discretion, allow for equally sentencing, while continuing to be tough on crime. Unfortunately this is no longer the case, many African Americans especially drug offenders and addicts have become victims to this system: Their criminal background, role in the crime, and life circumstances have all been ignored when they are given a harsher sentence for a minor drug offence. The ineffectiveness and inequality of the mandatory sentencing has resulted in overcrowding in jails, sentencing disparities, and racial discrimination when it comes to sentencing African Americans in drug related offenses.
Crack cocaine became ubiquitous in the mid 1980’s due to the crack epidemic and the death of Leonard Kevin "Len" Bias. Len Bias an African American college basketball star who was signed with the Boston Celtics overdosed from powder cocaine just two days after his signing. Len Bias’s death brought forth a swarm of media attention as well as the Len Bias law that was enacted by congress in 1986 in response to the death of two all star college players. This law implemented mandatory sentences for many drug related offences. Since many believed that it was in fact crack-cocaine that caused Bias’s death, crack-cocaine received the strictest regulations. If you were convicted of dealing crack-cocaine you received the same five year minimum sentence as a person who was dealing 500 grams of powder-cocaine. The law was written with the lack of knowledge regarding the potency of crack, how the drug trade worked, and ways to fix the crack epidemic. Instead it presented the citizens with an error prone racially bias quick fix.
To evaporate is to fade away or to literally turn into vapor. If you leave a glass of water out and the water slowly disappears, it's not being consumed by elves; it's evaporating.
Discomfit is occasionally used as a noun to mean embarrassment or distress, but discomfitureis preferred:
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