A tale of two America's
Blacks are not only targeted for drug arrests. They are also 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses and, because they are less likely to strike a favorable plea bargain with a prosecutor, 74 percent of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense. Thus, blacks are disproportionately subject to the drug sentencing regimes adopted by Congress and state legislatures. And these sentencing regimes, across all levels of government, increasingly provide for more and longer prison sentences for drug offenders. Mandatory minimums such as "three strikes" laws result in the extended incarceration of non-violent offenders who, in many cases, are merely drug addicts or low-level functionaries in the drug trade. Indeed, in the first two years after enactment of California’s “three strikes, you’re out” law, more life sentences had been imposed under that law for marijuana users than for murderers, rapists, and kidnappers combined.
It really seems futile even writing this story. The tale of discriminatory behavior and the application of the law in prejudicial ways in America based on race is old hat. The history of racial disparity in the criminal justice system in the U.S. have been longstanding. The racial dynamics in sentencing have changed over time and reflect a move from explicit racism to more surreptitious manifestations and outcomes. I can easily name a thousand examples off the top of my head. The story line is the same. Two people charged with the same offense and the Black person always gets jail time. The White person almost always gets off with a 'warning' or 'probation'. The really infuriating thing, more than the prejudice and the lopsided application of the law, is the manner in which all this is accepted in America. There are those who, sure, march and protest, hold demonstrations and rallies, heck, some even sue, but the bottom line is that time and time and time again, we see cases ranging from simple loitering or littering that leads to African-Americans getting tossed in jail, while some of the most egregious crimes including murder, committed by Caucasians in America, nets them a slap on the wrist.
For example, take the case of ex- United States Air Force Service Personnel Shanesha Taylor. She had fallen on hard times and was homeless, but had been called in for an interview. She had no place to keep her kids and no money for a babysitter so she let them stay in the car while she went in for 45 minutes for the interview. 'It was a moment of desperation,' she said after revealing she was in dire financial straits and felt this interview would be crucial in providing for her children down the line. She was charged with two child abuse felonies and had her children taken away from her.
Compare this to the case of Kari Engholm, 35, the CEO at Dallas County Hospital. Judge Paul Huscher found Kari Engholm innocent of involuntary manslaughter and neglect of a dependent person in the June 26 death of her daughter, Clare. Temperatures were near 90 degrees that day and the girl died from overheating.On that day, she was running late and dropped her son off first. She then drove to the hospital and went to work, forgetting that her daughter was still in the minivan. She said she was preoccupied with some meetings coming up at work.
Or what about the case of Benjamin Seitz, a 15 month old who, in Ridgefield, Connecticut was left in a hot car and died. No charges were filed against the father who abandoned him in the care while he went to work. According to investigators, Benjamin's father parked his vehicle at his place of work, in 88 degree weather, with the child inside and left him there for "an extended period of time." Town officials say the boy's dad works at Owl Computing Technologies.In case after case after case such as these, in every walk of life, in every comparable case imaginable, the outcome is always the same.
The mainstream media is careful not to give it any prominence in the news and the ruling Caucasian class of course refuses to view it under the lens of 'White Privilege'. Pictures of Caucasian perpetrators suddenly become hard to come by, are blocked from the media as their 'privacy' is protected while the identities of Blacks are plastered over every thirty minute segment of every station's news reel without giving them the benefit of 'innocent till proven guilty'
Sentencing is arguably the most important stage of the criminal justice system. While policing strategies help determine who will be subjected to the criminal process in the first place, and prosecutorial choices help determine who will be granted leniency from the full force of the law, sentencing is where those earlier decisions bear fruit.
No one who has ever visited a prison and seen human beings locked in cages like animals can ever be unmindful of the enormity of society’s decision to deprive one of its members of his or her liberty. The decision to sentence a convicted criminal to prison has, until recently, been viewed as a profound responsibility, one entrusted solely to impartial judges. Increasingly, however, sentencing has become mundane and mechanistic, a decision effectively controlled by legislators, prosecutors and sentencing commissioners. This change in the culture of sentencing has had disastrous consequences for minorities in the United States.
One of the most thorough studies of sentencing disparities was undertaken by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, which studied felony sentencing outcomes in New York courts between 1990 and 1992. The State concluded that one-third of minorities sentenced to prison would have received a shorter or non-incarcerative sentence if they had been treated like similarly situated white defendants. If probation-eligible blacks had been treated like their white counterparts, more than 8000 fewer black defendants would have received prison sentences in that two year period, resulting in a five percent decline in the percentage of blacks sentenced to prison as a percentage of the entire sentenced population. In short, the study found, blacks are sentenced to prison more frequently than whites for the same conduct. Other sentencing data is consistent with the New York findings. Nationwide, black males convicted of drug felonies in state courts are sentenced to prison 52 percent of the time, while white males are sentenced to prison only 34 percent of the time. The ratio for women is similar.
The inconsistencies are so glaring there are aphorisms that have been created for the condition of coming into contact with law enforcement for African-Americans. It is called 'Breathing while Black' or BWB for short. There was a famously circulated case a few years ago. An African-American teenager named Travion Blount crashed a party and robbed a few of its participants of a cellphone, a small amount of cash and some marijuana. Though he was armed with a handgun, he did not harm anyone, nor did he threaten anyone. At the end of his trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to SIX LIFE SENTENCES…..in addition to an extra 118 years. That was not a typo. In essence this teenager was sentenced to what amounted to approximately a thousand years for a non-violent robbery. This is the face of racist America. Every time a White person murders a Black person there is a clarion rallying cry for his innocence. If he is even arrested and charged at all which is relatively rare, there are high profile lawyers who are chomping at the bit to take his case pro bono. Every excuse in the book i sussed to secure his release and in the most egregious cases, there is always the insanity defense, the mental incapacitation defense, the intoxicated defense, the But-He-Is-The-School-Quarterback defense and a host of dozens of other inane reasons which invariably have nothing to do with his actual innocence or guilt. That is America- a tale of two cities.
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