The Detroit Free Press has been sounding the alarm/getting the story out (depending on who you ask) about the possiblity that former Gitmo prisoners might be sent to the Great Lakes State.
I think it's time to call the critics' bluff.
The objection to using a stateside prison so we can close those abominable torture chambers and properly open them as a museum to dark time when the US shattered the Geneva Conventions with impugnity ... seems to be this:
"These people are more dangerous than anything you've ever seen!!!"
Lets just soak that in for a minute. What ... exactly ... the fuck ... does that mean?
How?
HOW are they more dangerous than any other prisoner we've ever seen?
I mean, for intent ... sure they may WANT to do us harm more than anyone has in a long time. But as the Gingerbread Cookie with a voice like Steve Buscemi says, "Well, I want people to stop eating my house, but that's not gonna happen!"
Local Rush Limbaugh wannabe, Frank Beckman spoke with Standish Mayor, Michael Moran III about moving the torture victims to Michigan's prisons. The response is a clear headed and pragmatic analysis about what it would bring to the community since the prison is slated to close - which will be financially devastating to this community. But Frank didn't get the booga-wooga ghost story he wanted out of Moran, so he called upon Pete Hoekstra R-MI who reiterated the threat:
"These prisoners present some very unique challenges to the prison guards and I think we should consider long and hard about what that might mean."
No, Pete. YOU should consider long and hard about what the fuck you mean. Because I'm calling your bluff.
What challenges? Legal challenges? Are you saying our court system is so flimsy that it can't handle the affairs of something our own country fucked up?
Or maybe! MAYBE! These guys have Magic Muslim Powers®! And they can melt the bars with their terrorist laser vision!
If your read the comments in the Freep, another common bluff is that if we fill these prisons with Gitmo torture victims, the other little terrorist guys will sneak in under the cover of darkness and attack the prison.
WTF?
First of all ... that would be an invasion. And if some foreign country is prepared for that, we have a bigger problem than where to house groups of people we accidentally arrested for nothing.
No, it's a fucking prison. With bars. And you've got a guy inside ... that wants outside ... and its our job to make sure he stays in. And prison guards around the country do this job very well day after day, month after month, year after year.
So I'm calling your bluff, rightists. HOW?! How is this any more challenging ... or any more dangerous ... or any more unique than it would be with any other prisoner? And your answer had better be more than a dog whistle for people who believe in bogeymen with Muslim names.
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