The African American community has suffered unfair treatment in the legal system for decades. They are more likely than white Americans to be arrested and once they are arrested are more likely to be convicted and sentenced to longer time. This issue stems from the laws and regulations that were set in place back when segregation existed which relates back to John Lewis’s March when black people were getting arrested for no reason. Although, much has changed since then, the racism, inequality, and brutality African Americans faced back then have still carried on to present day as we continue to see police brutality and unequal treatment in the justice system among black Americans. There are two legal systems in America, one for wealthy people and another for poor people. Lower class individuals are more likely to be arrested for reasons a wealthier individual would never be questioned for, and there are more poor minority individuals than white individuals in America, also due to systemic racism, ultimately leading to higher incarceration rates for African Americans. In addition, once arrested, wealthier individuals are able to afford better lawyers to get them less sentencing time than those who are not able to afford great lawyers. One person should not get to serve less time than someone else for the same crime because they are wealthier or because they are a different race. Our criminal justice system paints this picture that they protect everyone’s constitutional rights equally but this is simply not the case which is obvious because there should not be one race who’s incarceration rates are higher than another race. It is a consequence of systemic racism and the policies and regulations set in place to permit such racial disparities. In addition, in one poll, which is described here: https://www.vox.com/2020/6/17/21284527/systemic-racism-black-americans-9-charts-explainedhttps://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/un-report-on-racial-disparities/ , 60% of black Americans said that they feel less secure in the presence of a police officer compared to just 22% of white Americans who said this. After the death of George Floyd, protests began happening across the U.S. not only for justice to be served, but to spark change in America’s justice system. The thousands of peaceful protests that went on across the country reminds me of John Lewis’s idea of non-violence. As Lewis believed, fighting violence with violence does no good, and the nonviolent protests that have been going on since May of 2020 have sparked massive conversation across the U.S. so that these racial disparities can one day be eliminated for good.
https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/un-report-on-racial-disparities/
It’s horrifying how African-Americans are treated in our justice system. Regardless of how much I’ve seen these stats since the murder of George Floyd, it still sickens me every time I see them. As a white man who lived in a relatively rural area, I had no idea about how minorities were actually treated by police before 2020. The way protesters were treated by police also helped to show problems with policing in the US, as many protesters and even reporters were treated with excessive force by the police, such as being shot with rubber bullets, being tear-gassed, or beaten. It is unfortunate that some areas, such as Minneapolis, have had measures to address aggressive policing be rejected by voters when change is clearly necessary.
I believe the comment “there are two legal systems” is a very accurate statement regarding the current system in place in the United States. As mentioned in this post, we often see discrepancies among race in our country, whether that be frequency of arrests or length of sentencing within the prison-industrial complex. Regardless of the accuracy in statistics or the reality of police profiling, I believe these inequalities must be recognized as a race issue – if not analyzed as to why these inequalities continue. We must examine why we see a higher rate of policing within black communities; that being the socioeconomic statuses due to the racial wage gap or the racist biases exhibited by law enforcement.