Ex-Prosecutor Learns How Hard It Is For White Americans To Get Arrested
Bobby Constantino, The Atlantic
DEC. 17, 2013, 1:48 PM
Ten years ago, when I started my career as an assistant district attorney in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, I viewed the American criminal justice system as a vital institution that protected society from dangerous people. I once prosecuted a man for brutally attacking his wife with a flashlight, and another for sexually assaulting a waitress at a nightclub. I believed in the system for good reason.
But in between the important cases, I found myself spending most of my time prosecuting people of color for things we white kids did with impunity growing up in the suburbs. As our office handed down arrest records and probation terms for riding dirt bikes in the street, cutting through a neighbor’s yard, hosting loud parties, fighting, or smoking weed – shenanigans that had rarely earned my own classmates anything more than raised eyebrows and scoldings – I often wondered if there was a side of the justice system that we never saw in the suburbs. Last year, I got myself arrested in New York City and found out.
On April 29, 2012, I put on a suit and tie and took the No. 3 subway line to the Junius Avenue stop in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville. At the time, the blocks around this stop were a well-known battleground in the stop-and-frisk wars: Police had stopped 14,000 residents 52,000 times in four years. I figured this frequency would increase my chances of getting to see the system in action, but I faced a significant hurdle: Though I’ve spent years living and working in neighborhoods like Brownsville, as a white professional, the police have never eyed me suspiciously or stopped me for routine questioning. I would have to do something creative to get their attention.
As I walked around that day, I held a chipboard graffiti stencil the size of a piece of poster board and two cans of spray paint. Simply carrying those items qualified as a class B misdemeanor pursuant to New York Penal Law 145.65. If police officers were doing their jobs, they would have no choice but to stop and question me.
Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/12/i-got-myself-arrested-so-i-could-look-inside-the-justice-system/282360/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Oh well....maybe not....
http://newsone.com/1859475/black-people-receive-60-longer-sentences-for-same-crimes/
Face it Nye, the criminal justice system is skewed against minorities.
You really need to educate yourself.
White privilege allows many whites to look the other way. They aren't affected so many don't care.
At least those whites made the right choice of choosing to be born white.
is systemic, institutionalized and pervasive. I'm telling nothing new. For generations, this disparity has been prevalent and ongoing. Black POTUS or not, amerikkkan racism is here to stay. Every time it has raised it's head in my life, I lived in Roxbury, Dorchester and Brighton while attending Boston University-71-75, I bit it off. Most racists are cowards and would back down. The sooner hundreds of thousands of people stand up to racial and financial hate and greed the sooner we MIGHT see amerikkkan injustice defeated. I'm 65, I don't expect to see that happen in my lifetime. I do respect, immensely, a human being such as this individual that took the time to experience amerikkka at it's finest. Bravo to you sir!!!!
