To the contrary, it appears "we" have learned quite a little, such as how to disenfranchise huge numbers of black people in the name of "saving the children."
"People are swept into the criminal justice system — particularly in poor communities of color — at very early ages ... typically for fairly minor, nonviolent crimes," she tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. "[The young black males are] shuttled into prisons, branded as criminals and felons, and then when they're released, they're relegated to a permanent second-class status, stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement — like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of legal discrimination and employment, and access to education and public benefits. Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you've been branded a felon."
She then proceeds to disenfranchise a young black with an incredible documentation of police abuses because he is a felon Bob.
"But I was framed" Doesn't matter, she says, as a felon your testimony won't be believed. "You are the same as the police he tells her"
She only later realizes how right he was when she sees those police he had documented busted for the crimes he had documented giving him those fraudulent felonies.
Its a pay to play game from the top to the bottom in my view.
Much as Stan Adelstein has disenfranchised me--"a common criminal," he called me in the Rapid City Journal--because I am a felon, convicted of trying to feel better.
Martin Luther King, Jr., said it is a duty to disobey unjust laws.
6 comments:
Gee, Mike: are you saying Dr. King died in vain or are you saying the Klan should try harder?
To the contrary, it appears "we" have learned quite a little, such as how to disenfranchise huge numbers of black people in the name of "saving the children."
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145175694/legal-scholar-jim-crow-still-exists-in-america
"People are swept into the criminal justice system — particularly in poor communities of color — at very early ages ... typically for fairly minor, nonviolent crimes," she tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. "[The young black males are] shuttled into prisons, branded as criminals and felons, and then when they're released, they're relegated to a permanent second-class status, stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement — like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of legal discrimination and employment, and access to education and public benefits. Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you've been branded a felon."
She then proceeds to disenfranchise a young black with an incredible documentation of police abuses because he is a felon Bob.
"But I was framed" Doesn't matter, she says, as a felon your testimony won't be believed. "You are the same as the police he tells her"
She only later realizes how right he was when she sees those police he had documented busted for the crimes he had documented giving him those fraudulent felonies.
Its a pay to play game from the top to the bottom in my view.
Much as Stan Adelstein has disenfranchised me--"a common criminal," he called me in the Rapid City Journal--because I am a felon, convicted of trying to feel better.
Martin Luther King, Jr., said it is a duty to disobey unjust laws.
Gee Larry, I don't think it's either or. Your suggestion that I might think the Klan should try harder is insulting.
Neither do I think Dr. King died in vain.
What I do think is that people who fail to acknowledge and learn from the past, are doomed to repeat it.
History continues to be rewritten to serve the whims of whomever is in the majority, or whomever makes the most noise about political correctness.
I fear the KKK will once again appear to offer reasons (however skewed) for a resugence of hate in the US.
I also believe this has been fueled by the Obama Administration, which continues to paint political opponents as racist.
Bob--you are not a criminal and by no means are you common. But then you knew that. Keep the faith! But then you will anyway.
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