"Reform is not a one-night stand." John Bolton
Pack your jammies cuz we're gonna be here awhile.
There's much to be done to dismantle the system of white supremacy in our nation. Every aspect of our society needs reform. Education, jobs, healthcare, politics, finance, and on and on. It's a lot!
Today we look at the justice system. This one piece of our society has especially deep and wide racist roots. There have been countless murders of black people at the hands of the police, and the recent murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have thrust the nation into a call for police reform with an urgency never seen before. But policing is just one of the bad apples of the criminal justice system.
Lately I've had an interest in the criminal justice system. I've always been a fan of crime and justice. My gateway drug was "The People's Court" with Judge Wapner in the 90s. Soon I began to be interested in forensics, devouring episodes of "Forensic Files." I even took a college-level course on forensics. I've often thought that if I were to change careers, it would be to forensics or detective work. If only I didn't have to become a cop first!
In the past few years I discovered podcasts and true crime documentaries, and I have listened and watched a lot of them. A year or two ago, I heard a couple podcasts (listed below) that illustrated the travesty that is the "justice" system that black people have to endure. I began to be enraged. For a white woman in my lifelong white bubble, these investigatory pieces opened my eyes.
I rage-donated to SPLC, the ACLU, and the Innocence Project. I started becoming interested in voter rights in oppressed areas and made it my mission to help end voter suppression.
Then, George Floyd's murder woke up the entire nation. And now we have momentum to create real change.
I submit that we need reform in the criminal justice system from the top down. All layers are systemically racist, from the police stop to the arrest to the trial to the incarceration and beyond. It's a big, racist, brutal, broken system. It needs to be fixed.
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| Steve Sack |
The Police
The police have become more and more militarized, and though some communities have been successful in community based policing, Santa Barbara included, as an institution it's still a body of confontation and military-style tactics, with much emphasis on weaponry.
The police are spread too thin, and that is where the calls to defund the police begin. "Defund the Police" is an unfortunate descriptor, one that will give ammo to its detractors, but it's an excellent idea. No, it's not abolishing police departments. Law enforcement will still dole out traffic tickets and investigate crimes. But if we shift funding to other agencies, then law enforcment can focus on what they do best. And social agencies can assist by doing what they do best.
Police need not have to deal with homelessness, school security (whoever had the thought that cops belong in schools should be thumped); non-violent domestic issues; suicide attempts; civil code enforcement; low-level drug violations. It's a whole other topic: nationwide decriminalization of weed first, and then look at other drugs; drug issues should shift to being a public health issue rather than a criminal issue. In short: we should shift some of the funds that police get to social agencies that are better equipped to deal with these issues, without a uniform and a weapon.
I further propose that law enforcement officers become true professionals. As you are aware if you've read my blog for any length of time, I am a Speech-Language Pathologist. Like most every professional, there are standards of education, ethics, and licensing. Law enforcement should be held to a higher standard. Among other requirements, they should be required to:
- Hold a college degree in criminal justice
- Be required to take a state or national exam
- Be required to be licensed, which includes an ethics code, continuing education and training, minimum standards that are required to be maintained
- Limit the role of police unions
- Complaints should be handled by a licensing board, not by the departments' own internal affairs departments
- Have more specialized training and call out the right officer to handle a given problem. Beat cops should not be interviewing rape victims, for example
Part of de-funding the police is talking a good hard look at police unions. I am generally a union supporter, but police unions do not primarily work toward better working conditions, salary, and and benefits like other unions. Unfortunately, police unions' function has largely been to shield bad cops, and guard rouge cops against discipline, let alone criminal charges. This week, the Los Angeles Times indicated there is some agreement: Police unions see clout crater after George Floyd protests, but for how long?
Can we start with police stops? Every black person in America has a story about being stopped by police for being black. Even black poodles get pulled over. Seriously, this has got to change before the rest has a prayer.
Mass incarceration
The mass incarceration problem really ramped up during the 1980s, with "law and order" President Reagan, and the "war on drugs" that continued into the reign of his successor, George I. People of color were lopsidedly targeted and prison sentences for non-violent drug possession skyrocketed. If you want to learn about the Constitutionally-codified racism that extended slavery in our nation to this day, watch the documentary, "13th."
A big part of the problem: For-profit prisons. The prisons themselves, the food service, transportation service, phone service, concessions..... it's all part of the problem and should be reformed. I looked at for-profit prisons in my July, 2019 post "Atrocities at the Border" when I looked at private immigrant detention centers.
There are so many wrongs about mass incarceration, but one of the worst is that an arrest causes a domino effect for the black person arrested, especially when they are poor. It's harder to get a job or continue school; it's more difficult to obtain housing; it affects the family dynamic, and on and on.
Court system. The courts are deeply racist. The system possesses implicitly biased or overtly racist prosecutors and judges; skewed jury selection; inequitable punishments.
Bail system. The bail system discriminates against poor black people as well. The bail system is a punishment in itself. Poor black families cannot afford bail, and by the time they gather it, sometimes it's too late. The cash bail system is an antiquated construct and should be reformed or abolished.
Plea bargain system. Don't get me started! I've always hated the fact that our court system is designed to bully people into taking a plea rather than going to court and laying out the facts. Innocent people are intimidated into pleading because they are told that if they lose at trial, the punishment will be worse. Black people with inadequate representation, systemically racist representation, do not receive equitable outcomes. Trial by jury was a sacrosanct part of the U.S. Constitution. It's been perverted by the huge numbers of people entering the system that is not able to deal with such volume. Prosecutors, public defenders, and judges are all pressured to keep cases moving, to resolve them quickly. And that means plea bargains. Black people are, again, inequitably represented in the court system. If we reduce the number of people arrested, perhaps Lady Justice will actually have a chance of finding fairness for the accused.
Jail system. Guess who gets harsher sentences? Yep, black people. Guess who gets out on probation or parole more often? Yep, white people. Poor black people are overrepresented in prison, and they are at higher risk for economic impacts. They can't afford phone time, sundries, privleges, which are all bought and sold. They are more likely to be in jail because of poor reprenentation, because they can't afford better representation. It's just another cog wheel in the stinky, stinky machine. And because jails are overcrowded due to mass incarceration, black people are more at risk for violence and abuse, as well as illness within jail walls. To note the intersection of high jail populations, racism, and coronavirus clusters, watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (which mentions Santa Barbara County's federal prison's horrible, tragic outbreak).
Parole and probation systems. Parole violations and probation violations are poorly managed, and for the black person sometimes the violation's punishment is worse than the original crime.
And finally, what will help reform the justice system: voter rights. Voters bring in district attorneys and judges. Voters bring in mayors and city council members, as well as state legislators, who enact local policy. In many states jury selection is primarily from voter registration, and in Mississippi, jurors are selected only from voter registrations. Mississippi, along with many southern states, has a horrible history of black voter suppression. If black citizens' right to register to vote has been suppressed, can a black person really get a trial of his peers?
We need a new name for systemic racism. Racist policies in the criminal justice system creates a life of brutality for black men. It's not an exaggeration. It's really what it is. Black people suffer: economically, socially, and physically at the hands of the white supremacist systems.
Resources to watch, listen, and learn. (Yes, I've consumed them all!). What gets me about these stories it is each one is just one story. In one city. There are countless others just like them. The magnitude of the problem can feel overwhelming.
In no particular order:
- Time: The Kalief Browder Story. This is a tragic story of one black teenager who was held at Riker's for three years, much of it in solitary confinement, on suspicion for stealing a backpack. He did not commit the offense, nor was he convicted.
- Charged: A True Punishment Story. The journalist looks at the Gun Court system in New York City and follows one case. On paper, Gun Court seems like a good idea to rid the streets of guns. Unfortunately, it targets young black men and doles out extremely harsh punishments.
- White Lies - this NPR podcast digs deep into the murder of Rev. James Reeb in Selma in 1965 -- and solves his murder after more than 50 years.
- Season 3 of Serial. This looks at the justice system in Cincinnati, Ohio, for one short period. Just ordinary cases in an ordinary city. And that, my friends, is the problem. "Ordinary" is frankly unacceptable.
- In the Dark Season 2 looks at the Curtis Flowers case. Flowers has been on trial for the same crime six times in Mississippi, relentlessly hounded by a corrupt District Attorney. You may have read that the U.S. Supreme Court recently threw out his latest conviction. It's a fascinating –- and angering – look at Mississippi's deeply racist "justice" system.
- 13th - Ava DuVernay's brilliant look at the 13th Amendment and how it paved the way for mass incarceration and unjust punishment as an extension of slavery.
- Innocence Files. This Netflix series profiles several wrongful conviction death row cases that the Innocence Project has taken up. Black people are over-represented on Death Row, and their court cases are often rushed through without adequate -- or ethical -- process.
- Just Mercy - a film based on civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson's work, founding the Equal Justice Initiative. It is a comprehensive look at the problems with the justice system.
- Someone Knows Something Season 3. This piece of investigative journalism looks into the cold case of two black men who were murdered in 1964 in Mississippi.
- Trial by Media, episode 3. This episode of the Netflix series covers the story of Amadou Diallo, a recent immigrant from Guinea to NYC, who was shot 41 times by police on the doorstep of his home in a case of mistaken identity. (But even if it was not mistaken identity, shot 41 times with his back against a wall? Really?)
- Trial by Media, episode 2: Takes a look at the 1984 NYC "Subway Shooter" Bernard Goetz who shot four black teenagers on the subway, vigilante style.
If you are angry but feel powerless to change the system, I urge you to donate to organizations that do have power.
If you don't have the funds to donate, please get involved with your local and state government and work to change the system. Contact your Members of Congress and support justice reform legislation. Put the "act" in "activist." Vote.
Ibram X. Kendi, in his book "How to Be an Antiracist," is adamant that it's not enough to change your attitude. Policy change needs to come first, and attitudes will shift in response. He writes:
To fight for mental and moral changes after policy is changed means fighting alongside growing benefits and the dissipation of fears, making it possible for anti-racist power to succeed. To fight for mental and moral change as a prerequisite for policy change is to fight against growing fears and apathy, making it almost impossible for anti-racist power to succeed.The original problem of racism has not been solved by suasion. Knowledge is only power if knowledge is put to the struggle for power. Changing minds is not a movement. Critiquing racism is not activism. Changing minds is not activism. An activist produces power and policy change, not mental change. If a person has no record of power and policy change, then that person is not an activist.
Go. Act.
