Bastille Day had often held people jailed on the basis of "lettres de cachet" (literally "signet letters"), arbitrary royal indictments that could not be appealed and did not indicate the reason for the imprisonment. The Bastille held a large cache of ammunition and gunpowder, and was also known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government, and was thus a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy. As it happened, at the time of the attack in July 1789 there were only seven inmates, none of great political significance. The crowd was eventually reinforced by mutinous "Gardes Françaises" ("French
Locked in the Poorhouse the “welfare” system – but, by 2008, “welfare” had been ended for over 10 years. Returning to the findings of the Kerner Commission, Currie concluded that the real problems were: • Jobless rates among black men that remained stratospheric even in times of economic growth; • The retreat from an already minimal commitment to investment in job creation and training; and • A stunning rise in incarceration of black men with no corresponding effort to reintegrate them on their release into productive roles in the community. Locked in the Poorhouse Locked in the Poorhouse is a 30-year update of the