Change Your World Week Winter 2021 (Archived)

What is this page about?

Over the past year you most likely have heard or seen some manner of discrimination take place in the criminal justice system, but you may have not realized it at the time. Understanding that each American has the same rights as the citizen next to them regardless of skin color is a paramount concept of the principles of American freedom and liberty. This webpage is designed to help people better understand what discrimination in the criminal justice system is, what it looks like, and why its important that the issue is confronted.

What is it, why is it still around, why is it important?

Discrimination within the Criminal Justice system is often based on someone’s race. This discrimination can be seen in a plethora of ways and may manifest differently depending on where you are and who is involved. But generally, this discrimination is seen in disproportionate arrests, unnecessary uses of force both lethal and nonlethal, racial profiling, and even bailing. These violations of equality are often fostered from the passing of informal racism from one generation to the next as well as the lingering racist legislation that was passed in our nation’s past. The principles of our country and the rights that each citizen has are the things that the Criminal Justice system is supposed to be safeguarding so when malpractice occurs in the forms of discrimination in any way is it a severe affront to the integrity of the whole system if it is not rectified justly.

Discrimination Runs Throughout the Criminal Justice System

Racial disparities exist at every stage of the criminal justice system. In policing, there is discrimination in who is stopped and searched because of racial profiling, and in the use of force. In the court system, there are racial injustices in incarceration ratios with who is imprisoned and the length of the sentences. The image below shows this.

Stops and Searches

Stops

First, take a look at the rates at which police stop motorists relative to the population in those areas. The graph below on the left shows that generally police stop black drivers at higher rates than white drivers and stop Hispanic drivers at similar rates to white drivers.

Searches

Now, take a look at the graph on the right. It shows that in almost every jurisdiction that was researched the stopped black and Hispanic drivers were searched more often than white drivers.

The image below shows the prevalence of imprisonment in the United States population by race.

The map below shows the difference in black/white incarceration rates. New Jersey, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Vermont have a black imprisonment rate that is 10 times more than that of whites. In the state with the lowest racial disparity, Hawaii, the odds that a black person will be imprisoned is more than twice as high as for white people.

Some Major Incidents of Black Deaths Caused by Police

• July 17^th, 2014- Eric Garner
  • Eric Garner died after he was held in a choke hold by a police officer. He said “I can’t breathe” 11 times.
  • The officer involved was fired, but not prosecuted.
• August 9^th, 2014- Michael Brown
  • Michael Brown was shot six times. The circumstances around the shooting are disputed.
  • The officer involved resigned but was not prosecuted.
• November 22^nd, 2014- Tamir Rice
  • Tamir Rice, 12, was killed after police responded to a 911 call that a male who was “probably a juvenile” was pointing a “probably fake” gun at people in a park. Police claim that they told Rice to drop the weapon, but he pointed it at the police.
  • No charges were brought onto the officers involved.
• April 4^th, 2015- Walter Scott
  • Walter Scott was shot in the back five times by a white police officer.
  • The police officer involved was fired and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• July 5^th, 2016- Alton Sterling
  • Alton Sterling was killed after police responded to reports of a disturbance.
  • The officers involved did not face criminal charges, but one was dismissed, and the other officer was suspended from policing.
• May 25^th, 2020- George Floyd
  • George Floyd died after he was held down by police, and one officer had his knee on his neck. George Floyd said that he could not breathe.
  • The trial for Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with the murder of Floyd, began on March 29^th, 2021.

What can you do?

When faced with a problem that effects society as whole it may seem like an impossible task to make strides in the right direction, but that is not the case. There are many ways to fight back against discrimination and the easiest way is with knowledge. Understanding what is actually happening behind the scenes, recognizing certain ideas for what they really are, and developing your perception are easy ways to start in the right direction. Spreading this information to other that may not have thought on the subject before is just as helpful if not more so than calling out those that seek to damage the integrity of American equity. One final way to help is to find likeminded organizations, either local or national, and offer support in whatever ways you are comfortable, from simply signing a petition to even joining a peaceful protest there will always be someway for you to contribute.

Resources

Black history Month 2021: Anti-black racism – it's EVERYONE'S fight! (2021, February 12). Retrieved from http://psacunion.ca/black-history-month-2021-anti-black-racism-its

Breonna Taylor: Timeline of black deaths caused by police. (2021, January 06). Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52905408

Ghandnoosh, N. (2016, April 04). Black lives matter: Eliminating racial inequity in the criminal justice system. Retrieved from https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/black-lives-matter-eliminating-racial-inequity-in-the-criminal-justice-system/

The Stanford Open policing project. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://openpolicing.stanford.edu/findings/