"Race" you to jail!

[Tiassa]

My nomination for "Bull of the Week Award":

In a statement released Monday, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman said, "While racial profiling did not begin in this state or under this administration, history will show that the end of racial profiling in America did indeed begin in New Jersey and under this administration."

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/#njprofiling

It seems that what we always knew was true is true. Big surprise, eh? But the tide is turning. One more racist nail being pulled from the coffin of Justice ... she's not dead yet!

I would ask that anyone who considers having an opinion on racial profiling consider it in terms of the effect of imprisoning someone, and how that person fares in the outside world. This is another piece in the puzzle of how it got to be a surrogate race-war, and why the Drug War needs to end.

Point out any individual officer and tell me that it's not his fault that this goes on in the country. I agree. But tomorrow is a new day, and by then there's no excuse for this kind of crap. You put on your uniform, and know that you're targeting people based on their skin color: Resign or admit you're a racist. But don't demand respect because of the badge.

Anyone wonder why there exists a functional relationship between darkness of one's skin and the probability that they'll get busted? Because the cops aren't looking at anyone else!

Combine racial profiling with felony disenfranchisement, and ask yourself if it's right that in as many as 7 states, 40% of voting-age black males are ineligible to vote in any election for the rest of their lives.

I wish I could feel smug about tragedy. Okay, sometimes I can. But not today.

We, the drug-using People of the United States of America, told you so!

How long do you want to waste your tax money on this?

thanx,
Tiassa

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Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.--Denis Diderot

 

[Tiassa]

The above link is expired. The new location of the article referenced in the topic post is http://www.drcnet.org/wol/162.html#njprofiling

The latest edition of the newsletter has landed in my e-mail.

The Week Online reported last week on that state's release of more than 90,000 documents detailing racial profiling practices and NJ officials' belated efforts to stop it, as well as the impact it could have on cases involving traffic stops (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/162.html#njprofiling).

State courts had previously said only that defendants facing their initial trial could present evidence of racial profiling.

The court of appeals rejected arguments from state lawyers that because defendants had not previously raised the issue they should not be allowed to now. It similarly rejected the state's effort to block appeals by defendants who had pleaded guilty.

Attorney General John S. Farmer said last week that the state may have to drop some criminal cases. His office will also attempt to settle civil suits filed by detained but not arrested motorists and by black and Hispanic state troopers who said they were forced to engage in racial profiling.

Now, with state court rulings that allow both defendants facing trial and those appealing their cases to bring evidence that racial profiling played a role in their cases, the reverberations from more than a decade of discriminatory policing fueled by the war on drugs promise to roil the New Jersey courts for years to come.

the present location of this article is http://www.drcnet.org/wol/#profilingappeals

ACLU has pointed the finger at Philadelphia, next, which could be interesting in this sense since a recent study of murder investigations and convictions showed that, regardless of evidence, dark skin is more likely to be accused, investigated for, and convicted for murder than light skin. Furthermore, the study showed that in crimes of comparable status and culpability, dark skin merits a stiffer sentence; this is not the policy, per se, but the reality of what the policies work to create.

Now ... if ACLU's right, and Philly's about to go down in a similar race-profiling scandal, what is that going to say about the larger issue? The fact that one is more likely to be arrested based on skin color, and, furthermore, is more likely to be convicted based on skin color, and, furthermore, is more likely to receive a stiff sentence merely because of skin color ... Hello?!

We already know that my own city, Seattle, has engaged in practices whose statistical results match those created by racial profiling. Presently, if we apply a stereotype in this town, it's that no dark-skinned person can drive well.

We passed a drug-use abatement law in Seattle a while back; rather, our city executive and the council did. Anyway, since the implementation of the abatement law, police have gone around to bars owned by dark-skinned persons and set up drug busts by inviting dealers to sell the undercover cops drugs. The police would set up their meetings in these bars and restaurants (Michelle Malkin, of The Seattle Times wrote a great series about a restaurant called Oscar's II ....) After the dealer showed up, the cops would buy, and bust. And then our city attorney would run to the state liquor board and complain that such-and-such restaurant or bar was experiencing drug-related problems. The liquor board would cite drug-abatement, and revoke the establishment's liquor licenses. Just so we're clear here: your liquor license is suspended because of drug deals taking place in your establishment which the police have set up at that location. Again: the police set up a drug deal in your bar so they can bust you for the drugs sold in your bar. Strangely, I don't recall seeing any white faces among the angry bar owners during the heavy-press period. Maybe one of the lawyers, but it did and does appear that this practice targeted establishments owned by people whose skin happened to be darker than the city attorney's.

We also have a law that says the cops can cite you, determine your guilt, and sentence you without a court. Essentially, if you are in a park and a police officer doesn't like your clothes (literally, for any reason he chooses), he can write you an uncontestable ticket which expels you from that specific park and assesses a monetary fine. If you return to the park, regardless of your clothes, you will be arrested and jailed. While this law was originally--according to the city attorney's office--designed to give the cops a tool against vagabonds in the park, it seems the primary target of this law has been dark-skinned youths.

In my city: you have twenty people in a park. Ten are black, ten are white. Five black people and five white people have drugs in their pockets. Ten black people will be cited for violating the decency of the parks, and thus searched by the officers. No white people will be approached. This is, of course, a melodramatic exaggeration, but I'm trying to demonstrate exactly how specific legalized racisms are in society.

Hell, our cops steal jewelry off corpses.

Anyway, I'll stop for now.

thanx,
Tiassa

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Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.--Denis Diderot