Movie - American Violet

• there are more than 2.3 million Americans behind bars
• every 17 seconds someone is arrested for violating a drug law
• approximately 13 million Americans are convicted felons, and 1 in every 31 adults (or 7.3 million Americans) is currently in prison, on parole, or on probation.
• American taxpayers pay over $40 billion dollars a year to fund the "War on Drugs".
• the rate of drug admissions to state prison for black men is 13 times greater than that for white men

"American Violet" is a great film based on a true story and definitely worth seeing. This is the story of a woman in Melody, Texas who was arrested after a drug sweep at the projects where she lived in 2000. She'd witnessed the drug sweeps since she was a child and it was nothing new for many of her neighbors to get arrested. Most were encouraged to take a plea bargain guilty or not and what I didn't realize was that money was to be gained from each plea bargain accepted.

At least one woman was 100% of her innocence and this time the DA picked the wrong black woman to lock up.

Her story is one that should make us all want to stand up for what's right. Not only just for ourselves, our families and those that we know, but for the rights of those that are being abused all over. We never know when that law that we blow off because we think it doesn't apply to us will one day come knocking on our own front door.

Alfre Woodard does a great job as usual and the film also stars Charles Dutton and Xzibit. I had not seen Nicole Beharie before this film, but am very much looking forward to seeing more of her in the future.