Stephan:   America has a horrifying history of law enforcement and imprisonment. We have 4.23% of the world's population and 22% of the world's prisoners; that works out to be 716 men and women per 100,000. By comparison, Norway's incarceration rate is 72 per 100,000; Germany is 79, France is 98, the entire United Kingdom is 348. We hear about how large and dreadful the prisons of North Korea, Russia, or China are, but the truth is no other country on earth has anything like the American gulag. And the gulag exists because our entire law enforcement system has been militarized and although police departments have slogans like "protect and serve" the real operational philosophy is "selectively repress and punish" This is a deliberate strategy that was created as a result of the anti-war protests of the Vietnam era, combined with the awakening of the 60s brought on by marijuana usage and LSD. It began with Democratic president Lyndon Johnson War on Drugs but really kicked into high gear during the administration of Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. There is something in the Republican soul, perhaps the overactive right amygdalas so many Republicans have, that seeks to inflict punishment rather than fostering rehabilitation. It is completely irrational, of course, and counter to all facts. Other nations understand that rehabilitation is better for society as a whole, produces more productive outcomes, and is ever so much cheaper. Here is a story that should awaken the country, the tale of a small city that followed the European model, and what the data shows about pursuing this course of action.