What a bunch of Bs.
Subject: FW: Interesting imformation
To:
Subject: Interesting imformation
How the Zimmerman Mindset Has Rigged the Justice System
By Judd Legum, ThinkProgress
15 July 13
Law Professor Michellle Alexander makes the point powerfully:
It is the Zimmerman mindset that must be found guilty – far more than the man himself. It is a mindset that views black men and boys as nothing but a threat, good for nothing, up to no good no matter who they are or what they are doing. It is the Zimmerman mindset that has birthed a penal system unprecedented in world history, and relegated millions to a permanent undercaste.
The statistics back up Alexander’s point. Minorities, especially the six million young black men in America, get much worse outcomes from the criminal justice system for the same conduct:
- A black male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of spending some portion of his life in prison. A white male born the same year has just a 6% chance. [Sentencing Project]
- In major American cities, as many as 80% of young African-American men have criminal records. [Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow]
- African-Americans who use drugs are more than four times as likely to be incarcerated than whites who use drugs. African Americans constitute 14% of the population and 14% of monthly drug users. But African-Americans respresent 34% of those arrested for a drug offense and 53% of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense. [American Bar Association]
- In seven states, African Americans constitute 80% or more of all drug offenders sent to prison. [Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow]
- Black students are three and a half times as likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. One in five black boys recieve an out-of-school suspension. Education Secretary Arne Duncan who commissioned the study, said “The undeniable truth is that the everyday education experience for too many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise.” [New York Times]
- Black youth who are referred to juvenile court are much more likely to be detained, referred to adult court or end up in adult prison than their white counterparts. Blacks represented 28% of juvenile arrests, 30% of referrals to juvenile court, 37% of the detained population, 35% of youth judicially waived to criminal court and 58% of youth admitted to state adult prison. [National Council on Crime And Deliquency]
- The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. [Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow]
In 2004, the Amerian Bar Association created a commission which produced recommendation to address “racial and ethnic bias in the criminal justice system.” Thus far, their recommendations have been largely ignored in much of the country.
Posts
13 comments:
Pssst!
Judd Legum is the editor-in-chief at ThinkProgress. Which is about as far from a RWF as you can get.
Oh, now I see why this is here...I didn't notice the "What a bunch of Bs" introduction.
My bad.
Here is a well-written, factual column backed up with links and all the conservative can do is dismiss it with a wave of his hand. A comeback on the level of "No! YOU are!!"
Watch the Manning Report on YouTube. He's a black PHD and a minister who knows all about the Trayvon Martin family. Trayvon's mom kicked him out of the house, complaining to the daddy that he won't listen to her, keeps smoking pot, and was expelled from the Miami school after several notices were given to the mom. They didn't want him there and that's how he ended up in Sanford, Fla with his Daddy whose shacking up with some women while she works to pay the bills. The daddy doesn't work. Grayson's own parents didn't want him,,he was thug and the mom's neighbors are looking at her as she goes around portraying her son as some good honor student. The kid was TROUBLE..
Anyone who's having the head smashed against the concrete is going to defend himself. Every juror said they believed that Zimmerman feared for his life. The jury has spoken.
The kid was TROUBLE..
I knew a lot of troubled kids growing up. Didn't hear of any of them getting shot by a civilian who was advised not to pursue them.
But do you have anything to say about the content of the article?
Anyone who's having the head smashed against the concrete is going to defend himself.
And any kid who's being pursued by a creepy looking stalker is going to freak out and try to defend himself.
A huge can of worms has been opened. According to this precedent, all you need to do to legally commit murder in the state of Florida is provoke someone into a confrontation and then later claim that during the altercation you "feared for your life".
The kid was TROUBLE.
Well then I guess its a good thing George Zimmerman empowered himself to be judge, jury and executioner of Trayvon. To hell with the Constitution or due process or even basic humanity. Since you think he was "trouble", that means he didn't deserve a chance to grow up. He didn't deserve a chance to pick his own path or make his own mistakes. he didn't even deserve to walk in his own neighborhood or defend himself from a stalker. Nope, because he was "trouble" he didn't deserve to live, and George Zimmerman and his holy gun took care of that problem.
It makes me physically ill to know I share citizenship with fucking assholes like you.
It boggles my mind that if you mention Trayvon Martin anywhere on the internet - even on a blog such as this, which doesn't tend to attract right-wing commenters - someone will show up to whitesplain why it was acceptable to blow away a black teenager because he did TEH DRUGS!!!! or something.
Manning is a RW birther and his PHD is from his own UNACCREDITED school...LMAO. He has zero credibility and you get an epic fail there Sammy boy.
Agree with 2d to last Anon. A rightwing family member decided to inform me in *great* detail all about the "issues" with Trayvon Martin. Allegedly he did drugs. Allegedly he "got in trouble." Allegedly he "started it" with Zimmerman.
As we see here, this kind of Southern Strategy rightwing propoganda is pooped out by all the usual propoganda outlets, and all the rightwingers *believe* to the bottom of their hearts that they have been "told the truth," and that have "all the facts."
It is sad bc I confess that I really don't know what happened bc it's been obscured by a bunch of racist b.s.
I asked my family member: but why was Zimmerman *initially* stalking Martin with a loaded gun?? And how is that somehow doesn't have any meaning??? And it all comes down to the heinous rumors & insinuations & gossip about Martin, esp about stuff that Martin allegedly did in his past??
Meanwhile, what information has been *revealed* about Zimmerman's past? I don't even own a tv, but I've heard chapter & verse about Marin's allegedly "bad boy" past, but I've hear next to nothing about - whether good or bad - about Zimmerman's past.
WHY is that so? WHY does no one question that?
No answer.
Citizens are not getting it that they are being brainwashed with bullshit to hate on each other bc of the color of their skin.
The truly sad issue here is that a 17 year old young man is dead killed by someone who, at least initially, stalked him with a loaded gun.
Martin never had a chance to defend what he may or may not have done on the witness stand because he was dead.
Zimmerman had the luxury of not defending his actions on the witness stand, and he's still alive and carrying his gun.
Interesting how rightwingers can be so manipulated by the NRA and other gun-aligned groups into massively defending the guy with the gun who had to "defend" himself against a black teen who allegedly has done some "bad things" in his recent past.
I would say: for shame! But these people don't want to be reasonable or really think about the consequences of the FL gun laws that permit this kind of stuff to happen.
The jurors said Zimmerman feared for his life..they believed him! Justice served! Amen!
So if Zimmerman, wielding a gun, chases down a kid, gets into an argument, gets attacked, and kills the kid, "justice" is "served" by letting him go free.
But if a woman fires a warning shot in her own home during a domestic dispute, and nobody gets hurt, that's 20 years in jail for attempted murder.
Is that also "justice"?
Post a Comment