Why does the United States have the largest prison population in the world ?

[Blues Man]

Let me ask you this

Did we have more crime during prohibition ?

People are going to do the drugs they want to do and there will always be a black market for anything the government deems illegal.
Legalize it and it can be regulated and yes taxed. Billions of dollars annually can be saved, the courts will be freed up violent crimes related to the black market will decrease and with just a fraction of the money saved treatment can be offered for those who want it.

Anytime you make something legal that was illegal before, expect more people to participate.

Like I said, 80,000 US deaths last year from overdoses, and you want to see it reach 800,000. Sorry, I don't.

We may never be able to stop drug usage, but we can limit it as much as possible.

We can't even limit it as experience has shown. And as I said Portugal decriminalized all drugs and not only did crime rates decrease overall drug use has decreased

Let people make their own choices

I've had some pretty unfortunate experiences with drug users in my time. What they do effects many other people besides themselves. What you don't understand is people with serious problems cannot work any longer. They just sit at the kitchen table staring into space. When they need money for another fix and have no income, where do you suppose they get that money from?

And they do that now.

The thing is if we stop the failed war on drugs we will save billions of dollars annually and a small portion of that money could be used to offer rehab. I does no good to throw addicts in jail.

And as I said in Portugal after decriminalizing all drugs there was a drop in use overall and a drop in crime

Then move to Portugal. This is the United States, we are not the same as the people in Portugal. That's why rehab seldom works here. It's been tried. I've seen it countless times. It simply is not the solution to the problem. Yes, that is what they do now, sit there, stare into space until the time for the next fix, and then they break into your car or home looking for drug money. If it were legal, not only would there be more of those people around, but they would still need drug money and still be robbing people to get it.

What?

Addiction is different in Portugal?

And rehab works better than prison as our recidivism rate shows.

And you have no proof that there would be more addicts if drugs were legal. People who have never shot up heroin aren't all of a sudden going to try it. When pot was legalized people who never smoked pot didn't all of a sudden become pot heads.

Drug use in this country has remained pretty steady even though we have poured more and more money into enforcing drug laws. The war on drugs has been an abject failure and a colossal waste of money

 

[Disir]

U.S. CORRECTIONAL POPULATION DECLINED FOR THE NINTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

WASHINGTON — The number of adults supervised by the U.S. correctional system dropped for the ninth consecutive year in 2016. The correctional population includes persons supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in prisons or local jails. This report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics is the latest official snapshot of the state of the U.S. correctional population.

From 2007 to 2016, the proportion of the adult population under the supervision of U.S. correctional authorities decreased by 18 percent, from 3,210 to 2,640 adults under correctional supervision per 100,000 residents. The number of adults under correctional supervision per 100,000 U.S. adult residents was lower in 2016 (2,640) than at any time since 1993 (2,550). Overall, about 1 in 38 adults were under some form of correctional supervision at year-end 2016.

An estimated 6,613,500 persons were under correctional supervision on December 31, 2016, about 62,700 fewer persons than on January 1. The total correctional population declined 0.9 percent during 2016 due to decreases in both the community supervision population (down 1.1 percent) and the incarcerated population (down 0.5 percent).

The incarcerated population decreased from 2,172,800 in 2015 to 2,162,400 in 2016. All of the decrease in the incarcerated population was due to a decline in the prison population (down 21,200), while the jail population remained relatively stable. The number of persons held in prison or local jail per 100,000 U.S. adult residents (incarceration rate) has declined since 2009 and is currently at its lowest rate (860 per 100,000 in 2016) since 1996 (830 per 100,000).

During 2016, the community supervision population fell from 4,586,900 on January 1 to 4,537,100 at year-end. All of the decrease in the community supervision population in 2016 was due to a decline in the probation population (down 52,500). The parole population increased 0.5 percent in 2016 (up 4,300 persons). More than two-thirds (69 percent) of the correctional population were supervised in the community at year-end 2016, similar to the percentage observed in 2007.
Bureau of Justice Statistics - Correctional Populations in the United States, 2016 and Probation and Parole in the United States, 2016 - Press Release

 

[Snouter]

Low IQ occupants in the USA get free room and board, which costs normal people like 3 grand a month. The low IQ folks ges tax credits for having offspring, to add insult to injury and you think these savages will ever vote Republican? Low IQ folks have no clue how to exist in a Western civilization invented by Whitey and resort to what their DNA dictates which is to rob, rape and murder. That pretty much covers it. Sorry!

 

[Cecilie1200]

A very real possibility.

Too Many Lawyers: The Legal Profession Needs A Cull



How the Fuck Are There Too Many Lawyers?
Alright, so a while back I wrote in a post about how there were approximately 1,315,000 licensed and practicing attorneys in the United States. There are roughly 321,400,000 people in general in the United States. That comes out to about 1 lawyer for every 244 people in the United States. That means that when you’re in a crowded theater, you’re guaranteed to be sitting in a room with at least 1-3 lawyers, depending on the size of the venue. If someone trips down the stairs at a 30,000 stadium from a little too much beer, 122 lawyers could come rushing out the woodwork to hand out business cards.

You do get that there are a lot more types of lawyers than just criminal attorneys and personal injury attorneys, right?

You say that like it's a good thing...

It is what it is. When you actually require a lawyer - say, because you're making out your will or you're starting a business or, God forbid, because you were the victim of a crime and want a prosecutor to put the scumbag in prison - it's a very good thing to have them around.

I don't really have anything against lawyers, hell way back when I was a kid and sold used cars the only folks who would hang out with me were lawyers. That's how I found out why lawyers always wear ties.

Some I like, some I think are the bottom-feeding scum that lawyers are infamous for. My job involves tax disputes, and I would imagine that when you're going up against the IRS, a good tax attorney looks like a godsend.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I'm a truck driver.

Bet you can't do this.
View attachment 254058

Why not?

He thinks because someone sped up the video and posted it online, that means it's something difficult and unusual. Yeah, your basic four-wheeler operator couldn't do that in a pickup, let alone a tractor-trailer. But I only drove for a year, and I can remember having to do stuff like that or worse . . . and that was just in training. You've been driving for years.

It's amazing the maneuvers you have to pull off to get into some docks. In the city and even some older towns, the buildings and docks were not designed for a tractor and 53 foot trailer because they weren't invented yet. The trucks that made deliveries back then were all straight trucks.

It's been many years since I took the test, but that video is somewhat similar to one of the things you had to do to pass the test. You had to pass the dock test which was cones set up just like that, and there was only so much room you could pull forward before you could back in. I don't know what the tests are like today.

When I went through, you learned to alley dock, serpentine, and parallel park primarily, I guess because they figured if you knew those techniques, you could adjust them to fit anything. I was told that in Boston, most of the docks are designed for trailers that open on the side, rather than in back, and that was the primary reason we learned to parallel park the truck.

I honestly wondered sometimes if the guys who designed some of the loading docks had ever SEEN a tractor-trailer, or if they were possibly just high when they did it. I remember one that had landscaping (!) taking up half the space that would normally be available, so you basically had to back the truck around a one-lane dogleg on the passenger side of the truck. One wrong move, and your tractor was up over a curve and down into a landscaped ditch. Whoever came up with that had to be insane. I lost count of the number of times I had to serpentine the truck through cars in a shopping mall parking lot because the parking spaces ran right up next to the dock.

 

[Cecilie1200]

(Ignoring the previous disturbed poster)

It's a public message board, shitforbrains. You were talking to EVERYONE.

Seriously, are you sure you're not someone's hillbilly nephew Gomer that they liquored up and brought here for a joke?

Jimmy Hoffa shortly after his release from prison.

Typical leftist "I'll pretend I'm above it all so I don't have to admit my ass was handed to me" surrender.

Run along back to the farm league, Junior. Come back when the stones drop and you can handle the big time.

 

[the other mike]

(Ignoring the previous disturbed poster)

It's a public message board, shitforbrains. You were talking to EVERYONE.

Seriously, are you sure you're not someone's hillbilly nephew Gomer that they liquored up and brought here for a joke?

Jimmy Hoffa shortly after his release from prison.

Typical leftist "I'll pretend I'm above it all so I don't have to admit my ass was handed to me" surrender.

Run along back to the farm league, Junior. Come back when the stones drop and you can handle the big time.

Only if you get a life and stop trolling on my thread.

 

[the other mike]

Low IQ occupants in the USA get free room and board, which costs normal people like 3 grand a month. The low IQ folks ges tax credits for having offspring, to add insult to injury and you think these savages will ever vote Republican? Low IQ folks have no clue how to exist in a Western civilization invented by Whitey and resort to what their DNA dictates which is to rob, rape and murder. That pretty much covers it. Sorry!

Pretty much covers the fact that you're an idiot

 

[Cecilie1200]

(Ignoring the previous disturbed poster)

It's a public message board, shitforbrains. You were talking to EVERYONE.

Seriously, are you sure you're not someone's hillbilly nephew Gomer that they liquored up and brought here for a joke?

Jimmy Hoffa shortly after his release from prison.

Typical leftist "I'll pretend I'm above it all so I don't have to admit my ass was handed to me" surrender.

Run along back to the farm league, Junior. Come back when the stones drop and you can handle the big time.

Only if you get a life and stop trolling on my thread.

1) I have at least as much of a life as you do, Mensa Boy, since we're BOTH posting on this forum.

2) Trolling is not defined as "saying things I don't want to hear and can't answer", and saying it does just makes you look even more like the ignorant, junkless loser than you already do. If you're afraid of responding to mean little girls who challenge you instead of giving you the applause and acclaim that leftism led to you to expect just for breathing rhythmically, at least sack up enough to admit you're a chickenshit.

3) Once again, Brain Trust, this is a public forum, not your private blog. You don't get to control who does and doesn't post to a thread, and the sooner you grow the fuck up and recognize that adulthood isn't a safe space, the better off you'll be.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I'm a truck driver.

Bet you can't do this.
View attachment 254058

Why not?

He thinks because someone sped up the video and posted it online, that means it's something difficult and unusual. Yeah, your basic four-wheeler operator couldn't do that in a pickup, let alone a tractor-trailer. But I only drove for a year, and I can remember having to do stuff like that or worse . . . and that was just in training. You've been driving for years.

It's amazing the maneuvers you have to pull off to get into some docks. In the city and even some older towns, the buildings and docks were not designed for a tractor and 53 foot trailer because they weren't invented yet. The trucks that made deliveries back then were all straight trucks.

It's been many years since I took the test, but that video is somewhat similar to one of the things you had to do to pass the test. You had to pass the dock test which was cones set up just like that, and there was only so much room you could pull forward before you could back in. I don't know what the tests are like today.

When I went through, you learned to alley dock, serpentine, and parallel park primarily, I guess because they figured if you knew those techniques, you could adjust them to fit anything. I was told that in Boston, most of the docks are designed for trailers that open on the side, rather than in back, and that was the primary reason we learned to parallel park the truck.

I honestly wondered sometimes if the guys who designed some of the loading docks had ever SEEN a tractor-trailer, or if they were possibly just high when they did it. I remember one that had landscaping (!) taking up half the space that would normally be available, so you basically had to back the truck around a one-lane dogleg on the passenger side of the truck. One wrong move, and your tractor was up over a curve and down into a landscaped ditch. Whoever came up with that had to be insane. I lost count of the number of times I had to serpentine the truck through cars in a shopping mall parking lot because the parking spaces ran right up next to the dock.

From what I've been told, they got rid of the parallel parking and serpentine some time ago. I think most people were failing that. I think they were receiving a lot of complaints about the test in general.

I knew a driver that got a speeding ticket on his motorcycle in another state. He paid the fine, but nobody told him about some ridiculous reinstatement fee. He got pulled over in his car one day and the officer told him his license was suspended because of that. The officer understood the situation, so he didn't write him a ticket or tow his car.

Because his license was suspended for so long and he had no idea, he had to take the CDL test all over again. They failed him, and he was a guy that was driving well over 20 years.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Anytime you make something legal that was illegal before, expect more people to participate.

Like I said, 80,000 US deaths last year from overdoses, and you want to see it reach 800,000. Sorry, I don't.

We may never be able to stop drug usage, but we can limit it as much as possible.

We can't even limit it as experience has shown. And as I said Portugal decriminalized all drugs and not only did crime rates decrease overall drug use has decreased

Let people make their own choices

I've had some pretty unfortunate experiences with drug users in my time. What they do effects many other people besides themselves. What you don't understand is people with serious problems cannot work any longer. They just sit at the kitchen table staring into space. When they need money for another fix and have no income, where do you suppose they get that money from?

And they do that now.

The thing is if we stop the failed war on drugs we will save billions of dollars annually and a small portion of that money could be used to offer rehab. I does no good to throw addicts in jail.

And as I said in Portugal after decriminalizing all drugs there was a drop in use overall and a drop in crime

Then move to Portugal. This is the United States, we are not the same as the people in Portugal. That's why rehab seldom works here. It's been tried. I've seen it countless times. It simply is not the solution to the problem. Yes, that is what they do now, sit there, stare into space until the time for the next fix, and then they break into your car or home looking for drug money. If it were legal, not only would there be more of those people around, but they would still need drug money and still be robbing people to get it.

What?

Addiction is different in Portugal?

And rehab works better than prison as our recidivism rate shows.

And you have no proof that there would be more addicts if drugs were legal. People who have never shot up heroin aren't all of a sudden going to try it. When pot was legalized people who never smoked pot didn't all of a sudden become pot heads.

Drug use in this country has remained pretty steady even though we have poured more and more money into enforcing drug laws. The war on drugs has been an abject failure and a colossal waste of money

What do you mean drug use has been steady? What are you reading? The last three years we broke records for overdose deaths. That doesn't sound steady to me.

Opioid addiction is more than sticking a needle in your arm. That usually happens later with addicts who can't get high snorting or smoking the stuff. You get addicted to other opioid pain killers and then start experimenting at that point.

I've tried opioid products before when I was much younger. Didn't do a thing for me. But for other people, one snort, and it opens up a path to total devastation. They gave my father Oxycontin after he had surgery. He threw it away. It was making him sick. He stated he doesn't understand how anybody could tolerate the stuff yet alone get addicted to it.

So like alcohol, like pot, opioid effects different people in different ways. It's just like cigarettes. I can't quit for anything. But I've known people who quit without the least discomfort, and I've known people who quit that started again ten years later because they couldn't' take it anymore.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Bet you can't do this.
View attachment 254058

Why not?

He thinks because someone sped up the video and posted it online, that means it's something difficult and unusual. Yeah, your basic four-wheeler operator couldn't do that in a pickup, let alone a tractor-trailer. But I only drove for a year, and I can remember having to do stuff like that or worse . . . and that was just in training. You've been driving for years.

It's amazing the maneuvers you have to pull off to get into some docks. In the city and even some older towns, the buildings and docks were not designed for a tractor and 53 foot trailer because they weren't invented yet. The trucks that made deliveries back then were all straight trucks.

It's been many years since I took the test, but that video is somewhat similar to one of the things you had to do to pass the test. You had to pass the dock test which was cones set up just like that, and there was only so much room you could pull forward before you could back in. I don't know what the tests are like today.

When I went through, you learned to alley dock, serpentine, and parallel park primarily, I guess because they figured if you knew those techniques, you could adjust them to fit anything. I was told that in Boston, most of the docks are designed for trailers that open on the side, rather than in back, and that was the primary reason we learned to parallel park the truck.

I honestly wondered sometimes if the guys who designed some of the loading docks had ever SEEN a tractor-trailer, or if they were possibly just high when they did it. I remember one that had landscaping (!) taking up half the space that would normally be available, so you basically had to back the truck around a one-lane dogleg on the passenger side of the truck. One wrong move, and your tractor was up over a curve and down into a landscaped ditch. Whoever came up with that had to be insane. I lost count of the number of times I had to serpentine the truck through cars in a shopping mall parking lot because the parking spaces ran right up next to the dock.

From what I've been told, they got rid of the parallel parking and serpentine some time ago. I think most people were failing that. I think they were receiving a lot of complaints about the test in general.

I knew a driver that got a speeding ticket on his motorcycle in another state. He paid the fine, but nobody told him about some ridiculous reinstatement fee. He got pulled over in his car one day and the officer told him his license was suspended because of that. The officer understood the situation, so he didn't write him a ticket or tow his car.

Because his license was suspended for so long and he had no idea, he had to take the CDL test all over again. They failed him, and he was a guy that was driving well over 20 years.

I didn't find it all that hard to pass the test, and I can't imagine how anyone would feel comfortable controlling a semi without those skills, but what do I know? I don't drive anymore.

 

[Uncensored2008]

It’s no secret that the U.S. incarcerates a shocking number of swaths of its own people, primarily the poor and people of color. With 2.3 million Americans currently being held in prisons, the country has the largest prison population in the world. But even as awareness of mass incarceration grows, two crucial questions remain at the heart of the debate on prison reform: Why does the U.S. imprison so many people, and how do we change our toxic approach? These are the issues Tony Platt, author of “Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States,” and Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer discuss in the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence.”

(snip)....There’s a tendency these days for people to say the United States proportionally incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. I don’t know if that’s true. I just don’t think we know what the real situation is in China and Russia, which are the big competitors in incarceration. I think the U.S. is in the ballpark; I think the U.S. is close. When you compare the U.S. with Canada or Australia or New Zealand, or France and England, then there’s no contest. There’s no other country that’s comparable to the United States in terms of its political economy that puts as many people away, that hires as many cops, and invests as much money in repression as this country does.

CONTINUED---https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-liberal-betrayal-of-americas-most-vulnerable/

If every American had to do 30 days to get a taste of what it's like inside, we would put an end to this mass incarceration real fast. You don't realize how bad it is until it happens to someone close to you. Out of sight- out of mind....2.3 million forgotten souls living in hell.

Your country, China, has a FAR larger prison population.

 

[Weatherman2020]

It’s no secret that the U.S. incarcerates a shocking number of swaths of its own people, primarily the poor and people of color. With 2.3 million Americans currently being held in prisons, the country has the largest prison population in the world. But even as awareness of mass incarceration grows, two crucial questions remain at the heart of the debate on prison reform: Why does the U.S. imprison so many people, and how do we change our toxic approach? These are the issues Tony Platt, author of “Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States,” and Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer discuss in the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence.”

(snip)....There’s a tendency these days for people to say the United States proportionally incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. I don’t know if that’s true. I just don’t think we know what the real situation is in China and Russia, which are the big competitors in incarceration. I think the U.S. is in the ballpark; I think the U.S. is close. When you compare the U.S. with Canada or Australia or New Zealand, or France and England, then there’s no contest. There’s no other country that’s comparable to the United States in terms of its political economy that puts as many people away, that hires as many cops, and invests as much money in repression as this country does.

CONTINUED---https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-liberal-betrayal-of-americas-most-vulnerable/

If every American had to do 30 days to get a taste of what it's like inside, we would put an end to this mass incarceration real fast. You don't realize how bad it is until it happens to someone close to you. Out of sight- out of mind....2.3 million forgotten souls living in hell.

Move to one of a hundred nations then where you can murder someone and walk free with a $20 bribe to the cops.

 

[the other mike]

It’s no secret that the U.S. incarcerates a shocking number of swaths of its own people, primarily the poor and people of color. With 2.3 million Americans currently being held in prisons, the country has the largest prison population in the world. But even as awareness of mass incarceration grows, two crucial questions remain at the heart of the debate on prison reform: Why does the U.S. imprison so many people, and how do we change our toxic approach? These are the issues Tony Platt, author of “Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States,” and Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer discuss in the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence.”

(snip)....There’s a tendency these days for people to say the United States proportionally incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. I don’t know if that’s true. I just don’t think we know what the real situation is in China and Russia, which are the big competitors in incarceration. I think the U.S. is in the ballpark; I think the U.S. is close. When you compare the U.S. with Canada or Australia or New Zealand, or France and England, then there’s no contest. There’s no other country that’s comparable to the United States in terms of its political economy that puts as many people away, that hires as many cops, and invests as much money in repression as this country does.

CONTINUED---https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-liberal-betrayal-of-americas-most-vulnerable/

If every American had to do 30 days to get a taste of what it's like inside, we would put an end to this mass incarceration real fast. You don't realize how bad it is until it happens to someone close to you. Out of sight- out of mind....2.3 million forgotten souls living in hell.

Move to one of a hundred nations then where you can murder someone and walk free with a $20 bribe to the cops.

Translation......"America. We're a shit hole now but look at it this way...... you could be in Somalia."

 

[Weatherman2020]

It’s no secret that the U.S. incarcerates a shocking number of swaths of its own people, primarily the poor and people of color. With 2.3 million Americans currently being held in prisons, the country has the largest prison population in the world. But even as awareness of mass incarceration grows, two crucial questions remain at the heart of the debate on prison reform: Why does the U.S. imprison so many people, and how do we change our toxic approach? These are the issues Tony Platt, author of “Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States,” and Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer discuss in the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence.”

(snip)....There’s a tendency these days for people to say the United States proportionally incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. I don’t know if that’s true. I just don’t think we know what the real situation is in China and Russia, which are the big competitors in incarceration. I think the U.S. is in the ballpark; I think the U.S. is close. When you compare the U.S. with Canada or Australia or New Zealand, or France and England, then there’s no contest. There’s no other country that’s comparable to the United States in terms of its political economy that puts as many people away, that hires as many cops, and invests as much money in repression as this country does.

CONTINUED---https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-liberal-betrayal-of-americas-most-vulnerable/

If every American had to do 30 days to get a taste of what it's like inside, we would put an end to this mass incarceration real fast. You don't realize how bad it is until it happens to someone close to you. Out of sight- out of mind....2.3 million forgotten souls living in hell.

Move to one of a hundred nations then where you can murder someone and walk free with a $20 bribe to the cops.

Translation......"America. We're a shit hole now but look at it this way...... you could be in Somalia."

Thanks for making my point. Most nations don’t arrest people for things we arrest people for.

 

[the other mike]

You mean thank you for reminding everyone of America's specialty turning third world countries into poorer ones like Iraq, Syria ,Afghanistan, ,Libya ,Venezuela soon.

 

[the other mike]

 

[Jackson]

It’s no secret that the U.S. incarcerates a shocking number of swaths of its own people, primarily the poor and people of color. With 2.3 million Americans currently being held in prisons, the country has the largest prison population in the world. But even as awareness of mass incarceration grows, two crucial questions remain at the heart of the debate on prison reform: Why does the U.S. imprison so many people, and how do we change our toxic approach? These are the issues Tony Platt, author of “Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States,” and Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer discuss in the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence.”

(snip)....There’s a tendency these days for people to say the United States proportionally incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. I don’t know if that’s true. I just don’t think we know what the real situation is in China and Russia, which are the big competitors in incarceration. I think the U.S. is in the ballpark; I think the U.S. is close. When you compare the U.S. with Canada or Australia or New Zealand, or France and England, then there’s no contest. There’s no other country that’s comparable to the United States in terms of its political economy that puts as many people away, that hires as many cops, and invests as much money in repression as this country does.

CONTINUED---https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-liberal-betrayal-of-americas-most-vulnerable/

If every American had to do 30 days to get a taste of what it's like inside, we would put an end to this mass incarceration real fast. You don't realize how bad it is until it happens to someone close to you. Out of sight- out of mind....2.3 million forgotten souls living in hell.

Because we hold people responsible for their crimes.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Why not?

He thinks because someone sped up the video and posted it online, that means it's something difficult and unusual. Yeah, your basic four-wheeler operator couldn't do that in a pickup, let alone a tractor-trailer. But I only drove for a year, and I can remember having to do stuff like that or worse . . . and that was just in training. You've been driving for years.

It's amazing the maneuvers you have to pull off to get into some docks. In the city and even some older towns, the buildings and docks were not designed for a tractor and 53 foot trailer because they weren't invented yet. The trucks that made deliveries back then were all straight trucks.

It's been many years since I took the test, but that video is somewhat similar to one of the things you had to do to pass the test. You had to pass the dock test which was cones set up just like that, and there was only so much room you could pull forward before you could back in. I don't know what the tests are like today.

When I went through, you learned to alley dock, serpentine, and parallel park primarily, I guess because they figured if you knew those techniques, you could adjust them to fit anything. I was told that in Boston, most of the docks are designed for trailers that open on the side, rather than in back, and that was the primary reason we learned to parallel park the truck.

I honestly wondered sometimes if the guys who designed some of the loading docks had ever SEEN a tractor-trailer, or if they were possibly just high when they did it. I remember one that had landscaping (!) taking up half the space that would normally be available, so you basically had to back the truck around a one-lane dogleg on the passenger side of the truck. One wrong move, and your tractor was up over a curve and down into a landscaped ditch. Whoever came up with that had to be insane. I lost count of the number of times I had to serpentine the truck through cars in a shopping mall parking lot because the parking spaces ran right up next to the dock.

From what I've been told, they got rid of the parallel parking and serpentine some time ago. I think most people were failing that. I think they were receiving a lot of complaints about the test in general.

I knew a driver that got a speeding ticket on his motorcycle in another state. He paid the fine, but nobody told him about some ridiculous reinstatement fee. He got pulled over in his car one day and the officer told him his license was suspended because of that. The officer understood the situation, so he didn't write him a ticket or tow his car.

Because his license was suspended for so long and he had no idea, he had to take the CDL test all over again. They failed him, and he was a guy that was driving well over 20 years.

I didn't find it all that hard to pass the test, and I can't imagine how anyone would feel comfortable controlling a semi without those skills, but what do I know? I don't drive anymore.

I can't think of one time I needed to serpentine for any reason, and very few times have I ever needed to parallel park, but then again I don't make many stops at rest areas where that's about the only place you would need such a skill.

I was told by the instructor/ tester that those were required to show you have some command over the trailer, not that I would be facing those situations very much.

In our company, we promote instead of hiring from outside. We train our straight truck drivers to take the test and be prepared in case one of us takes the day off or go on vacation. If things get busy enough, my employer adds a truck to the fleet.

The last driver we promoted was a natural at it. He flunked the test on the first attempt. He did everything perfect except on the road test, he slightly went over a curb when making a turn. Typical of government. Going over curbs is part of tractor-trailer driving. There is no law that a city or state must make provisions for us to make a turn, so going over the curb is the only way to do it.