Russell was on NY1 last night talking a lot of mess as usual. He mentioned how disappointed he was in Eliot Spitzer. He was referring primarily to the lack of reform with respect to the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Simmons was quoted as saying “Lithen, we need to do something about this now! CD sales might be down and luxury goods are slowly losing their cache because of fake-luxury items like Baby Phat. But I can assure you. As soon as there is an uptick in drug sales, we’ll see a return to the unjustifiably influential music industry, $18 CDs and loss of artistic integrity. Trust me. Thank y’all for coming out. God bless and good night.” Then he inexplicably showed off his yoga flexibility by wrapping his right leg around the back of his neck. Uh, at least that’s how I remember it. But seriously though, he might not have said any of that but he might as well have, because in my eyes he is not a representative or leader of the hip-hop community. I just wanted to take the time to affirmatively make that statement. The quotes below from Spitzer’s spokesman are for real. Link (via)
Question:
Russel Simmons was on last night and was pretty critical of your stance on Rockefeller Drugs laws – as far as in his eyes, not doing enough to change things. He is pretty angry about that.
Answer:
Oh look it, here’s the thing. I have said for many years that we need reasoned smart Rockefeller Drug reform. We also need to keep our streets safe and therefore we are working through the Commission with the very best voices from both the world of prosecution and those who have been judges and those who are supportive of fundamental reform are trying to work through what we think are the best ideas would be. I understand the role of advocacy and Russel’s a friend. Somebody I have known for many years. He is there to push and that is good and that is wonderful. We are trying to come up with something that will be reasoned and that will maintain safety. People should not forget we have seen a dramatic decline in crime over the years in New York State. And that is because, I can say this as a Prosecutor, we prosecute crimes and we are tough. We lock up those who are guilty. So we have to be very measured and reasoned in what we do and we will be.
Question:
So it is just a matter of these things taking time?
Answer:
Well, sometimes it has taken time. Sometimes you need to figure out what actually is the right answer because we have had incremental reform with the Rockefeller Drug reforms. A lot of the A1’s became A2’s. It is a complicated sentencing structure. We’ve done some of the easy stuff and it gets more complicated and requires greater thought as we go down the line.
