...Professor: Dr. S. Williams The interviews excerpted here show that racially biased pretextual traffic stops have a strong and immediate impact on the individual African-American drivers involved. These stops are not the minor inconveniences they might seem to those who are not subjected to them. Rather, they are experiences that can wound the soul and cause psychological scar tissue to form. And the statistics show that these experiences are not simply disconnected anecdotes or exaggerated versions of personal experiences, but rather established and persistent patterns of law enforcement conduct. It may be that these stops do not spring from racism on the part of individual officers, or even from the official policies of the police departments for which they work. Nevertheless, the statistics leave little doubt that, whatever the source of this conduct by police, it has a disparate and degrading impact on blacks. But racial profiling is important not only because of the damage it does, but also because of the connections between stops of minority drivers and other, larger issues of criminal justice and race. Put another way, "driving while black" reflects, illustrates, and aggravates some of the most important problems we face today when we debate issues involving race, the police, the courts, punishment, crime control, criminal justice, and constitutional law. A. The Impact on the Innocent The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable...
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...Hate Crime Analysis Bonule Johnson AJS/514 Professor: Reyes 7/25/16 For this hate crime analysis paper I choose the group of African Americans because of the fact that they are being targeted in social media for police brutality crimes. Hate Crimes resemble messages to individuals from a specific gathering that they are unwelcome in a specific neighborhood, group, school, or work environment. Detest hate crimes are criminal offenses, normally including viciousness, terrorizing or vandalism, in which the casualty is focused on account of race, sexual introduction, religion, ethnicity, sex or political alliance. Detest wrongdoings can happen at home, at school, at spots of love, at work, in the city - for all intents and purposes anyplace. There have been some cases that have been committed during the time that our president Barack Obama won his presidency. “On Election Night 2008, Ralph Nicoletti and Michael Contreras, both 18, and Brian Carranza, 21, of Staten Island, New York decided shortly after learning of Barack Obama's election victory "to find African Americans to assault," according to a federal indictment and other court filings. The men then drove to a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Staten Island, where they came upon a 17 year-old African American who was walking home after watching the election at a friend's house. One of the defendants yelled "Obama!" Then, the men got out of the car and beat the youth with a metal pipe and a collapsible police...
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...Amanda Hughes, Casey Fazendin, Lorie Dixon, Marquita Gist, Vaishnovi Rajagopal CJA/344 Cultural Diversity Issues in Criminal Justice April 9, 2012 Major Williams Crime is an "action" or a behavior of an individual that violates the laws and faces consequences such as punishment. The relationship of crime and the laws are that society is governed by the government and created a set of laws which must be respected and by violating these set of laws would be considered as a "crime". Obviously, in these situations our criminal justice system plays an important role. "Criminal Justice refers to the aspects of social justice that concern violations of the criminal law". However, there are many people that still believe the criminal justice system is racially biased. Racial disparity and discrimination is one the most contentious concerns in our society since several decades. Jury Nullification is an act that “permits juries to acquit even when the facts of the case suggest they convict, and enables citizens to play more active role in determining justice and what/ whom should be punished” (Robert McNamara, 2009). In other words, Jury nullification consents the jury to return a non-guilty verdict when the defendant is certainly guilty. This paper scrutinizes on the pros and cons of race based jury nullification. Additionally, it describes against the race based jury nullification with proper evidences. Realistically, a juror’s job could...
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...lot of social issues regarding racism. Reacting to the unfair social racism against African Americans, To Kill a Mockingbird is trying to close the separation between different races and unite them. Given the time period, the white men and...
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...Justice System in the 1960s “The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the American Whites.”- (Malcolm X). This quote describes the African- Americans in the 1960s. African-Americans were treated unfairly for centuries due to the Jim Crow laws and slavery. As a result, the African Americans had, enough of the way they were treated and fought back, by using physical and silent protests. The main reason behind the racism thrown at the African Americans was because of the people in the South, who had their property, “African-Americans,” taken away from their plantations and household; thus, the people in the South have been outrageous...
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...and treat them with the equal treatment they show to all other people, are some of the main contributors to the corruption of the US Justice System. African Americans face many discriminating obstacles while being incarcerated, some of these discriminating barriers consist of: higher cost of bail, longer sentencing, and unlawful plea bargains, all compared to a Caucasian facing charges for the same crime. Firstly, with my personal opinion I think the amount for bail should be decided by the offense, so every offense has a set bail cost. Then if people get charged multiple times for the same offences just double the cost of bail, people will soon learn from their mistakes. Anyway, studies show, significantly in three counties: Barnstable, Berkshire, and Plymouth, all in Massachusetts, the cost of bail for whites is substantially less than that of African Americans. In Barnstable, the cost of bail nearly quadruples black cost from white. Blacks median bail cost was 20 thousand dollars; whereas, whites cost of bail was a median 5 thousand dollars. In Berkshire however, even though bail is only 5 thousand dollars for blacks it is 5 times higher than that of whites coming in at a median 1 thousand dollars(MassInc Staff). Secondly, according to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), African Americans are incarcerated nearly six times the rate of whites and make up almost 1 million of the 2.3 million of the incarcerated population. They also state...
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...Making African American History In 1931, nine black boys were falsely accused of allegedly raping two white girls on a train in Scottsboro, Alabama. In all actuality, the Scottsboro Boys were minding their own business when a white man stepped on Haywood Patterson’s hand which led to a fight between the two groups of boys. The black boys won the fight and threw the others off of the train, but were met by police at the next stop who were told by two white women that they had been raped. Those boys were found guilty and had a retrial several times, they even went to the Supreme Court twice just to become free. Only one of the boys was never found not guilty and that was Haywood Patterson, so he ended up escaping prison to finally become free from the grasps of Alabama. The PBS short film on the Scottsboro Boys had displayed the impact of the Scottsboro Boys on African American history. To begin with, the Scottsboro Trials had a great deal of impact on the way the legal system was ran in the United States of America. Black defendants were allowed the right to have a fair case, and to make this happen they would have half of the jury be black. That right had to be passed on because of the fact that there were way...
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...CJS/221 August 24, 2015 Stephen Humphries The disparity in the jury selection process has been present in the United States for centuries. The jury is a very important part of the justice system, even though many cases are settled by the plea deal and never make it in front of a jury. The cases that seem to end up in front of a jury are very high-profile crimes that have long prison sentences or even the death penalty on the table. What the jury was developed for was to provide "the criminal defendant's fundamental protection of life and liberty against race and color prejudice" (McCleskey v. Kemp pg. 279). In the early 1800's only white men were allowed to serve on a jury. In 1880 in the case of Strauder v. West Virginia, the supreme court found that it was violating a clause under the Fourteenth Amendment by excluding African-Americans from the jury pools because of their color alone was causing a great deal of harm to the African American population. In the case of Neal v. Delaware, which occurred only a few years after Strauder v. West Virginia. The courts stated that they were not allowing African Americans to the Jury pool because they were not meeting the criteria of intelligence, moral integrity, and experience. The same issues arise for any Hispanic personal as well. Even though they technically fell under the same guidelines as the Struater v. West Virginia by violating the fourteenth amendment by not allowing them to be on any jury pool because of race alone...
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...On September 9, 2009 I visited Manassas courthouse and sat in on criminal courts as well as civil courts. During my visit I had to go through metal detectors and upon passing the metal detectors I read a sign that said Criminal courts 3rd floor. I proceeded to the 3rd floor and exited the elevators and too my right I saw a board filled with court cases. The vast amount of crimes committed was deplorable. Below I will list information pertaining to the courts procedures as well as other pertinent information. Criminal Court---9 Sep 09 @ 0930 Docket --Opening: I noticed that majority of the public defenders has 3 or more clients. Dozens of people are gathered around a wall trying to find out what courtroom they are supposed to be in. Majority of the crimes listed were credit fraud and grand larceny. As I went in I saw the arresting officers were present. Lawyers were present also. It was as if you could distinguish the public defenders from the hired attorneys. The public defenders were conversing amongst themselves where as the hired attorney’s sat by themselves reviewing their notes and awaiting for court to start. As I sat in the back of the courtroom I saw the prosecutor rolling in about 5-6 boxes filled with court cases in. --Procedures of courtroom: The judge enters the courtroom when the bailiff calls the courtroom to rise while the honorable Ian Farris presides. --Time allocated: 2minutes the reason why it was only 2 minutes was due to it being a scheduling...
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...To Kill A Mockingbird And The Movement Towards Racial Equality Since the American colonial times, African Americans rights have been repressed over and over again. Whether it is the right to enter a white owned stores or the right to vote, they can never have the same liberties and freedom that the Caucasian man and woman have. In 1930’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, an African American man named Tom Robinson is accused of supposedly raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Tom is being defended by Atticus Finch, a white attorney and town friend of the fictional town of Maycomb. Atticus ,as well as many of the townspeople's, believes that Tom is innocent but, due...
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...Team C: Jury Nullification CJA/344 October 15, 2012 Team C: Jury Nullification Jury nullification has been a growing concern throughout the years for many Americans. Jury nullification is a constitutional doctrine that allows juries to acquit guilty defendants but who do not deserve punishment. Many believe that when this sort of action takes place the jury racially identify with the criminal defendant. There have been several cases for an example: the O.J Simpson case or the police officers in the Rodney King beating. The evidence was visible, but the verdict was not guilty. This paper includes how and if ethnicity influences courtroom proceedings and judicial practices, arguments against ethnicity-based jury nullification, contemporary examples of ethnicity based-jury nullification, and by choosing a position for or against ethnicity-based jury nullification. Ethnicity Influences and Judicial Practices There have been plenty of attempts to advance equal justice in the United States (Ward, Farrell, & Rousseau, 2009). In the criminal justice administration disparity still remains a concern. Criminal justice research on sentencing has found disparity based on defendant characteristics as gender, race, and class. There have been two changes by many individuals to secure equal justice in the court system. Implementations of sentencing guidelines, reduce bias, and increased racial and ethnic group representation among arbiters...
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...anti-black rhetoric. A central tenet that was key to this political strategy was the belief that black poverty was created by black subculture that produced street crime, illegal drug use, and delinquency. In addition, black poverty was directly correlated to overly generous relief provided by government assistance, and conservative political discourse produced images of ‘welfare queens’ and their dangerous offspring.15 Following Nixonian political strategy, Reagan campaigned for the presidency using this same coded anti-black strategy which appealed directly to the ideological right-wing of the Republican party and confounded liberals due to the lack of direct racist language during campaign. Reagan campaign speeches consisted of crime and welfare content, and repeated anecdotes were about the story of a welfare queen whose tax-free income netted $150,000. After becoming president, Reagan announced his “War on Drugs” in October 1982 despite the fact that two percent of the U.S. viewed drugs as an important issue facing the nation. Immediately budgets of federal...
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...To the editor, the recent police shootings of mainly african-american men are very concerning and they raise a lot of questions about racism in the police and in the justice system. Many victims arte both unarmed and innocent. More has to be done to prevent these kinds of shootings from happening and to rid the American justice system of its racism. Minorities have been facing discrimation for a long time but in most ways things have improved. The justice system is one of the places were racism still exists and it's one of the most important causes of the problems black people are struggling with today. One of the early shootings that got attention was the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot multiple times by a police officer, but since then too many similar shootings have occured. These events are examples of how african-americans and other minorities are treated differently by the police and by courts. An african-american man isn't just more likely to be shot by the police. If he's found guilty of a crime he's more likely to end up in prison, recieve a longer prison sentence or to recieve the death penalty than a white man guilty of the same crime. There has to be more focus on preventing these shootings and eliminating racism in the justice system. Black lives...
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...MODR 1760 Professor Dr. Jason C. Robinson March 31, 2014 Capital punishment is the legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state, as a means of punishment for having committed a capital crime. In this essay, I will discuss some of the main advantages and disadvantages of capital punishment and whether capital punishment is a morally and ethically viable approach to punishment. I hold a firmly retentionist position and believe that the most just and fitting punishment for one who has committed a capital offence would be the death penalty. I will support my position with statistics showing that capital punishment has successfully been used to deter people from committing capital crimes. As well, I will discuss various philosophies regarding the morals of execution and punishment in general. My goal in writing this paper is not to force abolitionist thinkers to change their position with regards to capital punishment, but rather to show abolitionist thinkers that there is another way to look at capital punishment. Two of the main principles that are used to support the retentionist philosophy are deterrence and retributivism. Deterrence is the theory that the death penalty is morally just because it will deter would-be murderers from committing capital crimes, which carry a sentence of execution. Retributivism is the idea that criminals should be punished because they deserve to be punished, a robber must return what he stole while a murderer deserves to be put...
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...America’s Justice System: Justice for All? ENG122 English Composition II Instructor: August 26, 2013 America’s Judicial System: Justice for All? Law enforcement can be an admirable job for anyone who takes this position seriously. It is a job that has its rewards. Conflict comes to light when the differences of opinions regarding the disparities in the judicial system on all levels of law enforcement. Even though there are many whites that do not agree with the facts, the statistics show that African Americans and Hispanics are incarcerated at a much higher rate than whites. The judicial system in the United States has shown favoritism and bias towards white defendants, especially the wealthier white defendants for hundreds of years. There are racial disparities that burden our judicial system with the appearance and often the reality of unfairness. Visit any criminal trial in America today and you will see that the judge, the prosecutor, the court stenographer, the clerk, the bailiff, other various court personnel, the defense attorneys, and more often, the jurors are all white. One excellent example of these disparities would be in the recent “George Zimmerman” trial in Sanford, Florida a town who has allegedly had a history of racial violence and judicial disparities in and out of the court room (Maur, 2010). There are questions often asked, is there justice for “all” in our criminal courts and judicial system, and what is racial disparity? Some...
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