This week a DVD screener for the documentary “Lockdown, USA” arrived in
my mailbox at the same time as the news that the horrible Rockefeller
Drug Laws were on the verge of being repealed in New York State.
Directed by Rebecca Chaiklin and Michael Skolnik, the movie describes
the struggle by activists against this draconian law and the impact it
had one family.
The two primary actors in the struggle featured in the movie are hip-hop
mogul Russell Simmons and Randy Credico, a former stand-up comedian who
became a full-time activist in 1997. Holed up at the time in a Florida
motel trying to kick a cocaine habit, he happened on a television news
report about people victimized by the drug laws and realized that it
could have been him serving a fifteen year sentence. (Although I
recommend this documentary without hesitation, its main flaw is not
providing some background information on the principals.)
I have very fond memories of Randy Credico from the 1980s when he was a
frequent guest on WBAI radio shows skewering the Reagan administration’s
war on Central America. A peerless impressionist, he got the wretched
gipper nailed down better than anybody on the comedy circuit, so much so
that he was a guest on the Johnnie Carson show, a sure sign that you had
“made it”. He was never invited back after taking the opportunity to
lambaste American foreign policy, just as Harvey Pekar became persona
non grata on the David Letterman show after denouncing General Electric
for high crimes against society. These are my kinds of people, needless
to say.
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/lockdown-usa/
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