Are African-Americans Treated Unfairly in the U.S. Justice System? – Part Six

This is not a statistic. The names that follow are individuals–real persons who died at the hands of another–and essentially nothing was said by the public or the press in 2014:

1. March 21. 13-month-old Antonio Santiago was shot in the face and killed while sitting in his stroller by a young Black man—part of a duo of Black thugs–and the baby’s mother, Sherry West, was gravely wounded. The mother, a White resident of a predominately Black neighborhood, was walking home from the post office. A Brunswick County, Georgia grand jury did not find sufficient cause for the Black teen to face the death penalty. The murder and its aftermath were briefly mentioned in the news. President Obama and Attorney General Holder did not comment. No Black Leader nor White racist stepped up to protest. There was no group that put up a bounty on the two Black killers. There was no righteous indignation, let alone rioting. It was just a White baby.
2. June 1. William Headley, White male, murdered by a Black male. There was no national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
3. June 2. Robert Mohler, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
4. June 5. Laura Bachman, White female, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
5.  June 7. Harry Briggs, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
6. June 11. Nathan Hall, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
7. June 11. Angela Cook, White female, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
8. June 15. Michael Beaver, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
9. June 17. Allyn Reeves, White male, murdered by a Black male No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
10. June18. John Yingling, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news.
11. June 20. John Whitmore, White male, murdered by a Black male No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
12. June 22. Jonathan Price, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
13. June 24. Nathan Dasher, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
14. June 25. Gina Burger, White female, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
15. June 26. Jake Rameau, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
16. June 27. Inga Evans, White female, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
17. June 27. Penelope Spencer, White female, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
18. June 27. Shirley Barone, White female, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
19. June 29. Paul Shephard, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
20. June 30. Jim Brennan, White male, murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
21. July 2. Jennifer Kingeter, White female murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
22. July 2. Rupert Anderson, White male murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
23. July 3. Laurey Kennedy, White female still in coma from beating by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
24. July 3. Eric Mollet, White male murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
25. July 5. Perry Renn, White male murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
26. July 10. Jeffrey Westerfield, White male murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
27. July 6. Sarah Goode, White female murdered by a Black male No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
28. July 10. Brittany Simpson, White female murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
29.  July 11. Luis Aguilar, 91 year old Hispanic male murdered by a Black male. No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
30. July 17. Cindy Raygoza, a White female was murdered by a Black male No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
31. July 18. Jimmie Norman, a White male was murdered by a Black male No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.
32. July 18. Terry Taylor, a White male was murdered by a Black male No national news, no public outcry, no cries of racism.

“In 2012, 123 African-Americans were shot dead by police. In the same year, 326 Whites were killed by police,” according to Bill O'Reilly. “Let's take a good look at this plague of White cops acting violently against Blacks, as (professor and liberal columnist Michael Eric) Dyson puts it…In the past 50 years, the rate of Black Americans killed by police has dropped 70 percent. There are currently more than 43 million Blacks living in the U.S.A. Same year, 326 Whites were killed by police bullets. Those are the latest stats available…That's not an epidemic. It's not crazy. It's not a hunting-down of Black youth.”

Now, the present author will attempt to make some sense out of the disparate facts presented and to offer what suggestions seem reasonable. Reasonableness has been in short supply on the part of contending factions, and perhaps it is time to make the changes necessary to achieve fairness, safety, reduced crime rates, reduced violent interactions between minorities and law enforcement officers. There are two sides—at least—in the controversy posed in the question that is the title. It is not the present author’s intention to dwell on who is right or who is wrong. There are well-paid and passionate proponents of any side that may enter the discussion. Rather, what follows is my opinion, presumably a set of ideas that will make me appear to be an equal opportunity target.

I conclude–after intermittent investigation of the racial implications of crime–that there is too much crime, especially violent crime, in the United States and too many people in the penal system—perhaps five times as many as in other developed countries.

I conclude that crime is a scourge for citizens of central parts of cities predominately populated by minorities. Crime, arrests, trials, sentencing, and incarcerations are a terrible drain on scarce resources, including those of human potential.

I conclude that our approach must change; i.e. there must be a sea-change in American society as profound as the civil rights movement. That statement is likely to seem naïve to almost everyone who reads it, but it is nonetheless true. We can ill afford more violent exchanges between law-enforcement officials or even an intolerant and fractious social climate. Certainly, we could do without further race riots with death, injury, arrests, incarcerations, and burning down the cities—usually the homes of poor and mostly law-abiding minority people who are just trying to make a living and get by in a hostile world.

My suggestions are as follows:

1. There have been 45 deaths and at the hands of police officers; and since August 9, 2014 when the officer involved shooting took place in Ferguson, Missouri, 37 police officers have died in the line of duty and 52,901 officers assaulted (out of 520,047 officers in the country). For the year, 108 officers died in the line of duty—61 of those deaths were related to assault, pursuit, and murder. Are those facts cause for alarm? Indeed. The alarm should affect Blacks and White liberals to the same extent that White conservatives should be concerned. There has been too much killing; and, unfortunately, too often for the wrong reason. It is time to set aside the political rhetoric which is designed to keep corrupt politicians in office, sensation mongering wannabe celebrities in the spotlight [include here, the usual suspects posing as “Black Leaders”], the anti-gunners, the “everybody should have unlimited access to guns” crowd, and the strident outcries of the law-and-order über alles on the opposite end of the spectrum. All of it happens in every state; so, no one has the right to trumpet the success of one state or to cry “shame” at any other. This is a national problem for the United States.
2. Instead of “Black leaders” fomenting hatred and blame on Whites and excusing bad behavior by Blacks because of racism, a new way of thinking and a new way of doing must be introduced and nurtured for the next several decades. Yes, slavery was a hideous and ultimately destructive social and economic enterprise. Yes, minorities have endured the harmful effects of racism and all that it has taken from them. Both malign historical entities were reprehensible. To the extent that racism persists—and here I include intolerance by any race against any other race—it is reprehensible. However, slavery is gone. There are effective laws that guarantee equal treatment under the law. Most law-abiding minority people have the opportunity to find work, do that work, and to support their families. It is time for educational effort and opportunity to become a national priority. Ignorance breeds fear, a sense of impotence, anger, despair, and a cycle of crime and violence. Minorities must learn not only the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics to be able to cope; but they must learn to assimilate into productive American society. Yes, it is valuable to keep one’s own racial, ethnic, and social identity; but it is entirely possible for minorities to succeed in noncriminal American societies—witness the phenomenal success of minority politicians, clergy, sports and entertainment enterprises, and the professions. Those people should be the role models instead of the drug lords or angry, full of hate “Black leaders”.
3. Minorities must very vigorously espouse and practice a policy of sexual abstinence before marriage. They must elevate the institution of marriage to a religious level. It is no longer acceptable for men to impregnate girls, rape girls, and exploit girls and thereby produce children who are parented by children or by a grandmother. Men must step up and take responsibility if the cycle of poverty and violence is to cease. Too many young minority men die too young. Mothers and grandmothers do their best, but the odds against them seem insurmountable at present. A sea-change in life styles is imperative.
4. The concepts of doing a good day’s work for a good day’s pay, responsibility, accountability, and overall decency needs to be the focus of the true Black leaders. They are around; let them have the chance to succeed. Let the children have childhoods unmolested, safe, and which include living in decent housing with enough to eat. The world does not need another drug lord, corner drug salesman, or junkie. It does not need another prostitute. What it does need is families who stay together and provide support: a father who picks up his lunch pail and goes to work five or six days a week for eight or more hours a day, a mother with an education who can direct her children, and sons and fathers who value and protect the females in their lives.
5. Other changes that need to take place in minority communities that would curb the number of arrests are to obey the law, do not argue with society’s laws, and do not argue with law enforcement officers. There is an orderly time, and a place where civility can dominate—a place where community leaders and citizens sit face to face with law enforcement officials and discuss in rational terms with an emphasis on finding solutions over placing blame, cursing, calling names, or shouting. Courtrooms are also venues where civility can dominate, and both sides of questions get to be aired. The street is not such a place.

Minority communities must do their part to get over the gulf that exists between law enforcement and the citizens of predominately minority communities. There is a substantial majority of those citizens who are courteous, helpful, and respectful of police officers and who value the protection offered by those officers. By and large, those officers are more inclined to return civility, courtesy, and real help when they perceive that they are respected; and their help is valued. Criminals need to be reported; police need to protect citizens who provide such help. And law enforcement needs to be trained and made accountable to a color-blind standard of equality at all steps of the interaction. While there are other factors—such as socioeconomic status, the environment in which a person was reared and lives, and the highest educational level a person achieves—in the end, what matters the most is that there be true fairness and equality, which is a complicated multifactorial issue which begs a careful and nuanced system and an education for everyone involved in the system. There can be no contradiction between law enforcement and civil rights. On the other hand, there can be no excuse for bad behavior on the part of the public. Law enforcement and the public alike are obligated to obey the law, and that means that individuals stopped by police are required to respond promptly, courteously, and without evasion or violence.

6. The Ferguson and New York examples are only the most recent major events; there will surely be more, and they will occur in the near future. Police have been too slow to learn how to treat minorities. It is time for a considerable effort towards civility be incorporated in the training of law enforcement officers. I experienced mandatory minority awareness during my stint in the navy. The message was: minorities are an integral part of the navy and of society; they are here to stay; and the navy will not tolerate racism or discrimination in any form. In my experience that policy was regular navy life, and the policy worked.

Several proposals to ameliorate the racial disparities that dominate the criminal justice system have been made, but are usually one-sided with the general law-abiding public and the law enforcement system making all of the adjustments. Those proposals include establishing accreditation for law enforcement, increased statistical compilation, the diversification of law enforcement, body cameras for all police, abolishing or suspending the death penalty, reforming sentencing guidelines, repealing felony disenfranchisement laws and repealing efforts to move juveniles into the adult justice system. I do not disagree with any of those proposals. However, nothing effective will happen unless or until minority communities and citizens become cooperative and law abiding. Change requires a bilateral effort, give and take, and compromise.

It is probably–and sadly–true that officer body cameras should be an integral part of a police officer’s equipment. Well intentioned community leaders, including the successful grandmother, shopkeeper, school teacher, and religious leader should be involved in regular meetings with the police officers who patrol their neighborhoods. The meetings should be conducted in mutual civility. Those police officers should be made to feel that they are reasonably safe to come into the neighborhood to protect and to serve. Brutal, insensitive, racist, and ignorant police officers and administrators should be considered dinosaurs and that their time to behave badly is over. The “blue wall” needs to step up to discipline malefactors who besmirch the reputation of good cops and make all law enforcement officers’ lives less safe.

7. Attitudes must change: No more stops for Driving While Black. No more refusal to be a forthright witness of a crime. No more acceptance of bad behavior on any side or by any individual. The attitude that cops are enemies is a highly unproductive one. It leads police officers to mutter sarcastically, “If you don’t want the cops to come, call Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson. They’ll take care of the problem, which is caused by racism anyway.” Remember the 1992 Los Angeles riots where the police just stayed away and let the city burn down. I do, I was there. It was a terrible time for minorities who lost their businesses, their jobs, and their very lives at the hands of their neighbors who were in the vast majority minorities—in fact, their neighbors. The first month after the riots started, suburbanites bought 200,000 guns to protect themselves against their fear of minority criminals.
8. Teach religion. Teach peace. Teach abstinence—no drugs, no alcohol, no sex before marriage, no cohabitation–which is abusive to women. Teach fundamental honesty. Teach common courtesy. Teach patience and forbearance. Teach community. Teach boys and men to respect girls and women. Teach law enforcement to understand and to respect diversity. Teach anything that promotes safety, civility, and cooperation. Teach any of those concepts and get rid of racism, the supremacy of gangs, intolerance, and the corrupt value of “every-one-for-himself”. Racism is a shameful remnant of a dark past. Get over the fact and join America where even unintentional, subtle, and nuanced racism is stupid and harmful.
9. The system must find ways to rehabilitate minority people when they leave jail and prison–to keep them away from gangs, drugs, and alcohol, to get them into educational programs, to convince employees to give the ex-cons a chance, and to find ways for minority peoples to break out of the self and community destructive cycles that are now so much a part of American inner city life. Here is a radical, probably naïve suggestion: let’s require a two-year stint of physical work at a useful trade or skill-set for every minority person at age eighteen who is not by then enrolled in a technical educational institution or an institution of higher learning. Make that opportunity available to the general population, but it is crucial for minorities. It would be like the draft, but not for the military—for the young man and woman who needs a chance to get out and up, just as the CCCs did in the Great Depression.
10. We all need to do something, and we need to do it now. It is a process, and more vigorous first steps must be taken; and long-term follow-up, accountability, and revision of plans and activities must be included in that process.