News stories on this theme are usually framed as at best an oopsie, and at worst a corruption of an otherwise good idea (see also: news stories on stop-and-frisk).

The truth is deeper: criminalization of the powerless isn't a byproduct of the policy, it *is* the policy. https://twitter.com/hsu_spencer/status/1301583329368645635

That's not something you'll find in news stories about how gun laws work on the ground, because the people who support the laws are rightly embarrassed to own the consequences of what those laws do. (Specifically, imprisoning lots of poor people for victimless crimes.)

The natural objection: "Well just enforce the law vs powerful ppl too."

Two problems:
1. That's ahistorical. It's empirically inescapable that laws hit powerless ppl harder.
2. The answer to "The law is wrongly imprisoning people" isn't "Well just imprison more people."