Wednesday, April 21, 2010

What is Missing in This "Racism" Article on Black and Latino Imprisonment

Who is missing as always?

The black and Latino defendant is there of course. But who is missing as usual. Well it is the often (MOST OF THE TIME) the black and Latino victim that also make appearances in Court and that the Judge and juries listen to carefully and feel a lot of empathy for. For the "white jurors" there is a human face to what they read in the papers. Well for many black juors they have been there.

Now I am not Pollyanna here. Is there racism? Yes. However as to these problems we see in these communities it is complex and in my experience racism has little to do with it.

It does seem that most people I see take this angle don't live in the neighborhoods that are quite frankly a war zone. Again what about the victims. Black jurors I have found have no problem "being tough".

Now I do agree mandatory minimums are getting out of hand and need to be reformed. But still it would be nice if the minority victims made an appearance in these articles once in a while.

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