Is the Massachusetts Legislature Ignorant and Depraved?

Chris Faraone of the Phoenix says yes. “Politicians will tell constituents that more bogeymen will be banished to awful places, and that communities will be safer as a result. And no matter how sincere they sound, they’ll ALL be lying,” Faraone blogged this morning, appalled by lawmakers’ support of the newly passed repeat offender bill (a.k.a. “three strikes” or “Melissa’s Law”), which sentences certain criminals to life without parole. “While black legislators pleaded for logical consideration, their white counterparts zoned out and fiddled with their Blackberries,” he continues. Did majority leaders ignore revelations that minorities are imprisoned at disproportionately high rates when they signed the bill into effect? Faraone’s cell phone photo of representatives nodding off in House certainly speaks for itself. [Phoenix]