“Hands up! Don’t Shoot!”, shouted thousands of demonstrators marching through the streets of Ferguson, Missouri just days after the controversial police killing of African-American teen Michael Brown. Ever since the Ferguson Protests, “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” has become a rally cry for what has become the Black Lives Matter movement, a group whose goal is to promote criminal justice reform and end police brutality against African-Americans. Over the last decade, there have been countless headlines about injustice against African-Americans and despite the large amount of cases of injustice against blacks, our politicians have failed to find a solution. The fact that we are still struggling with racial bias in the justice system is concerning as segregation ended over half a century ago. Something must be done soon as African-American communities still face harassment and wrongful persecution from a government that could care less about them.
That being said, politicians in Washington D.C. must confront systemic racial discrimination in the American justice system as the African-American population remains affected by police brutality and face an incarceration rate that is significantly higher than the white population in America. Though our justice system is supposed remain unbiased and fair, it is clear that blacks in America face more scrutiny and harassment from law enforcement more than white people. Although the majority of police officers in this country do not operate their duties with discrimination, the stories of young black men like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Alton Sterling indicate that justice reform is necessary as certain officers abuse their power to murder innocent men based on their color.
Although African-Americans still face discrimination from law enforcement, the majority of police officers remain noble to their purpose: to serve the community with dignity and operate their duties without bias. The notion that all police officers are out hunting black people is utterly ridiculous and the anti-police rhetoric that some people have adopted can put officers’ lives at stake. In fact, law enforcement reported that more white people were killed by police officers this past year than black people by a margin of 160 (Statista). Some people use this statistic to argue that racial injustice is not as big of an issue people imagine it is as it can be taken as white people are more victims of police killings as opposed to black people.
Many people also believe that in order to solve racial injustice, we must first solve black-on-black crime as it can be seen as a catalyst for enhanced police activity in urban, African-American communities. According to the FBI’s uniform crime-reporting data for 2016, 90.1 percent of black victims of homicide were killed by other blacks, while 83.5 percent of whites were killed by other whites and the Bureau of Justice Statistics claims that during the period from 2008 through 2012, “persons in poor households at or below the federal poverty level (FPL) (39.8 per 1,000) had more than double the rate of violent victimization as persons in high-income households (16.9 per 1,000)” (Harriot). This exhibits how the tension between African-Americans and law enforcement may be more attributed to class as opposed to race as police are operating more in lower-class, black areas due to more criminal activity taking place. Despite the fact that racial injustice remains a significant issue, there are problems, such as poverty, that are indirectly responsible for this larger issue that require more attention in order to actually lessen tensions between law enforcement and blacks.
Even though black-on-black crime justifies a heavy police presence in low-income African-American communities, racial stereotypes have a significant impact on how blacks are treated by law enforcement in these areas.. For instance, even though African-Americans are not as likely to use or sell drugs as whites, black males hold the stereotype that contradicts the truth and it has not helped them when it comes to our judicial system. Film director and highly acclaimed author Jeremiah Camara published a video on YouTube called “The Other Slavery”, which is narrated by civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander, that accounts for the idea that African-Americans are victims of the prison-industrial complex and a main reason for it is racial stereotypes. Alexander reveals a survey from the National Institute of Drug Abuse in 1991, which found that “people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites” (Alexander 1:47). Even though blacks are not as likely to use or sell drugs as whites, the black man still holds the stereotype that he uses or sells drugs.
The logistics behind institutional racism in the prison-industrial complex as it conveys how blacks are victims of an unjust justice system all because of their drug-dealing stereotype, something that is increasingly more evident as blacks, despite only making up 12.3 percent of the population, are responsible for 34 percent of correctional population, according to the NAACP. Jonathan Rockwell, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program for the Brookings Institute research group, reports that “one-third of black male Americans will spend time in state or federal prison at some point in their lifetime” even though they aren’t as likely to use or sell drugs (Rockwell). This illustrates how blacks are victims of an unjust justice system as blacks are more likely to face prison time than whites despite the white population being significantly larger than the black population. This comes to show how unbalanced the justice system is and how blacks remain a victim of segregation-like profiling in the United States.
Lower-class African Americans are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to dealing the justice system, but it seems that extremely wealthy African-Americans can also be victims of this system as well. Meek Mill, a Philadelphia-based multi platinum hip-hop artist and an advocate for criminal justice reform, wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times that describes Mill’s history with the law and outlines his solution to correcting systematic errors that are keeping black men in prison for a large portion of their life. Despite the notion that celebrities have it better than most, Mill spent five months in prison for doing a wheelie on a motorcycle in New York City. Despite the charges being dismissed in a New York City courtroom after the judge found nothing he did was illegal, a Philadelphia-based court judge deemed his interaction with the police to be a technical violation of his probation from an arrest in 2007 and sentenced him to two to four years in prison.The judge also refused his motion for bail, calling him a “danger to the community” and a “flight risk” despite him having not commiting a crime in ten years. (Mill). Mill’s celebrity status eventually prompted his release in April, however, he should have never been in prison in the first place. The fact that Mill was put in jail for a simple interaction with police is disgusting as nothing he did was illegal. Not only was his arrest unjustified, he was denied bail just for violating his probation for arrest that occured over a decade ago. It puts into question whether our judicial system is truly fair or not. So far, it appears to not be the case.
Outdated probation rules play a major role in the high incarceration rates of African-Americans as they are five times more often than white people convicted for the same crimes. Meek describes how model probationers “can be immediately put back behind bars simply for missing curfew, testing positive for marijuana, failing to pay fines on time or, in some cases, not following protocol when changing addresses,” further illustrating how easy it is for people on probation to be sent back to jail (Mill). First off, it is ridiculous that lower-class Americans are forced to pay fines after serving prison time even after it is clear they can’t afford it. It’s as if these people are being imprisoned just for being poor, but nonetheless, little has been done to fix this problem. Regardless of race, when someone is trying to get their life back on track, taxing them for past mistakes is utterly ridiculous. Drug testing is a reasonable probation rule for those who are arrested on drug-related charges, however, with marijuana becoming normalized in today’s society, restrictions on cannabis use should be diminished with more and more states decriminalizing its use. Although one’s probation terms are established specifically for the individual, for nonviolent offenders, there are too many irrelevant “technical violations” and as a result, people, regardless of race, are going back to jail for doing minor discrepancies. It just so happens that African-Americans are incarcerated at a higher rate than white people, so depending on their probation rules, they are more likely to spend more time in prison for the same crime a white person committed.
Mill is now back to living his lavish lifestyle as an artist, but his experience in prison has inspired him to remain committed to justice reform. “I know I’m the exception to the rule — a lucky one,” claimed Mill, acknowledging that his release is the result of his status and wealth. “Sons and daughters grow up with their parents in and out of prison, and then become far more likely to become tied up in the arrest-jail-probation cycle. This is bad for families and our society as a whole.” (Mill) Here he describes how others who are not in the same situation as him, being a celebrity, are not as fortunate as him to escape this cycle as the environment these people exist in is toxic. Leaders and law enforcement are evidently uncommitted to helping black youth in low-income, urban areas evolve from the streets while their parents are constantly in and out of prison. These kids are born into environments that are based off survival and criminal activity, so the absence of positive influence only increases their chances of ending up in prison. Going back to the issue of senseless probation rules, without the right guidance for young lower-class blacks, the more likely they are to do something that might violate their probation. The lack of action and leadership on this issue is a major reason as to why many young people of color become victims of this flawed system and unless something is done soon, the tensions between law enforcement and the African-American community will only become more volatile as more black youth become victims of the system.
Not only does the lack of leadership prevent poorer African-Americans from avoiding prison, the judicial process is not in their favor either. Mill describes how African-Americans from poverty-stricken areas “are assigned public defenders too overburdened to do anything in most cases other than negotiate the most favorable plea deal, regardless of guilt or innocence.” (Mill) In fact, Mill claims that in some states, 80 percent of criminal defendants can’t even afford an attorney. Though this problem is more of a class issue, it exposes how lower-class African-Americans are helpless once it comes to their court date because the best thing they can receive is a plea deal, regardless of innocence. So not only are these people more likely to be arrested than any other race, once they get arrested, they are almost certainly guaranteed prison, regardless if the defendant is guilty or not. This systemic flaw goes unforeseen by so many and is constantly neglected by leading officials who cannot comprehend the situation these people are put in as they enter a courtroom without the proper resources to prove their innocence. Instead of “innocent until proven guilty”, these people are, in a sense, guilty until proven innocent. If we, as Americans, are truly passionate about being a free nation, we must first free African-Americans from this outdated, inconsistent judicial system that proves them guilty before they step foot in the courtroom.
Though this occurrence is rare, although it still occurs, another problem with our justice system is racial bias in the courtroom. Despite segregation ending over fifty years ago, it is evident that whites are more favored in the courtroom than blacks. Although this seems like a hasty judgement, the way some judges have handled certain cases with members of both race make it seem as if it is still the 1960s. For example, Carla Herreria of the Huffington Post revealed that Cyntoia Brown, a Tennessee African-American woman who was convicted as a teenager for shooting a man who purchased her through sex-trafficking, was given fifty-one years for simply defending herself against a man who was molesting her (Herreria).
Meanwhile, Brock Turner, a white former-swimmer at Stanford University who was convicted for sexually assaulting and raping a 22-year-old woman outside of a frat party, only spent six months in jail and had to register as a sex offender when most people who are convicted of rape face around nine years (James). This exhibits how the remnants of segregation are still affecting our court system today as it is evident that it is biased towards white people when it is supposed to operate without bias. A young woman is serving fifty-one years of prison for liberating herself from a sex-trafficking ring while a convicted rapist just gets a slap on the wrist. Although forcing a rapist to register as a sex offender is a punishment that fits the crime, the fact that he served only half a year while a woman who murdered her captor as an act of self defense is going to serve half a century. Although cases like these are a rarity in the modern day, these cases provide evidence that racial bias still exists within our justice system and how negligent our politicians are as Jim-Crow era precedents are being exposed in our courtrooms.
This is an issue that has taken our country decades to solve and it is not something that can be done overnight. However, there are simple adjustments that can be made in order to correct some of the blemishes of this flawed system. The thing our politicians and community leaders could do is introduce incentives to reduce probation terms. Reforming our probation system is at the center of racial injustice as it puts lower-class African-Americans in a prison cycle that is very difficult for them to escape. If our government is actually serious about reducing mass incarceration and unnecessary government surveillance, they should introduce legislation that allows people on probation to earn a reduction in probation time for good behavior so that past offenders aren’t spending the majority of their adult lives on probation for something they did in their youth. Probationers should be have the right to earn back their rights through good behavior as it shapes them into model citizens, whereas in most places today, there are only two ways to get out of probation: through paying off your fines or just simply waiting it out. Again, this just shows how lower-class blacks are at a disadvantage as the wealthy can just pay off their probation fines while many people just simply cannot afford it. To summarize, the most effective way to make probation more fair is to offer probationers the ability to earn their rights back based off of good behavior and base probation fines for noff of wealth, unless the crime is completely heinous.
This will significantly decrease African-American incarceration rates as it encourages former convicts to become model citizens, decreasing their chances of going back to prison. The money saved from imprisoning fewer people could then be used for employment programs and mental health counseling that would provide the formerly incarcerated with the tools for re-entering society. It can also help fund more programs that can help bring law-enforcement and the African-American community together. This will then provide a good influence for black youth as law-enforcement begins to play a more positive role in their communities and as more money is entering the economy, criminal activity will diminish. It’s just takes our politicians gaining some common sense to correct these simple, yet extremely detrimental mistakes that are keeping people in prison for the rest of their lives.
Justice reform is not an issue of the past; it is an issue of the present and our country will only become more divided as long as our politicians ignore it. This problem has resulted African-Americans feeling as if they are unheard as the lack of leadership on both the local and federal level has pitted blacks against law-enforcement, sparking violence and judicial inequality with the United States. They have not only put African-Americans in a position where they can be incarcerated for the smallest inconvenience, they have also put the lives of law-enforcement at stake as anti-police rhetoric increases along with the incarceration rate of blacks in America. People need to realize that police are not the cause of racial injustice as it is our lawmakers who are neglecting to change the culture of the justice system. Their political agenda prevents them tackling this issue as it only concerns a small portion of the country, so they are more inclined to focus on issues that regard the majority of the country, which is essentially “white-people” problems.
It also doesn’t help that Washington is basically a screaming match nowadays and both sides of the political spectrum are focusing more on destroying each other rather than fixing the country. Republicans are too narrow-minded to comprehend that change is necessary and Democrats are too focused on taking down Trump to follow up on their promises of criminal justice reform. We need to hold our lawmakers accountable for being content with unfair and broken policies and practices that perpetuate injustice upon the African-American community while our leaders are caught up in a cycle of hypocrisy and bickering. It’s up to us, the young adults of America, to bring change to this confusing, flawed judicial system and make this country a place where a person of any race feel safe and secure. It’s up to us to finally make the United States what it was always meant to be: a place of equal opportunity for everyone. If not us, then who?
