Black Americans failed by inherently biased legal system, ABA president says

[umbertino]

As the American Bar Association’s first black female president, Paulette Brown hopes to change law’s bad reputation for discrimination against black defendants

 

 

Owen Bowcott legal affairs correspondent

 

Friday 9 October 2015 18.36 BST

 

 

African-American citizens are being failed by the US criminal justice system because of ingrained racial bias in the way suspects are treated, according to the head of the United States’s largest legal professional body.

 

Paulette Brown, who became the first black female president of the American Bar Association (ABA) in August, is determined to transform the negative image that many people hold of lawyers.

 

Speaking to the Guardian during a visit to London for the formal opening ceremonies of the legal term at Westminster Abbey and in parliament, Brown said one of the priorities of her year in office would be to lead the drive to encourage the ABA’s 400,000 members to carry out more voluntary, pro-bono work.

 

But after going to Ferguson, Missouri, and other places where there have been protests over the treatment of black suspects, she has also become more concerned about the way defendants are processed through US courts.

 

“One in 16 African Americans are subjected to the criminal justice system,” Brown explained, “compared to one in 106 of white people. A lot of that is drugs. The evidence, however, shows that black people don’t use drugs any more [than white people].

 

“But they are being arrested for it and charged with it [more frequently] and some of that is implicit bias - particularly on the part of prosecutors. Prosecutors are overcharging.” She added: “Ninety-five percent of all prosecutors are white; 88% of all lawyers in US are white.”

 

Brown, who was brought up in Baltimore, moved to New Jersey where she specialised in commercial litigation and employment defence. She has also served as a municipal court judge for three years.

 

“In our system, prosecutors have so much control – sometimes more than the judges,” she added. “They decide whether someone is to be charged with a crime and what crime that will be. The judge doesn’t have discretion. The prosecution has so much power so they have a bad reputation in the community.

 

“Public defenders think they are really the do-gooders, but are they encouraging a group of people to plead to higher offences than others? For example, there’s no evidence that black people use drugs more than whites, but they are arrested at a rate more than six times than that of their white counterparts for drug use.”

 

Public defenders, she added, do not have the same resources as prosecutors – nor are they paid as much, “so you are sending a message saying that public defenders are not as important”.

 

Brown said the ABA is supporting efforts to redress the “implicit bias in the justice system”. Sometimes public defenders, she said, might be representing two people – one white, one African American – and they may enter a “less favourable plea deal for the brown character. There are so many subconscious messages that are given to us that say white is good and black bad.

 

“During Hurricane Katrina, for example, when you saw an image of black people with food, they were [said to be] looting. When you saw an image of white people with food, they had found it for their family. Sometimes it’s subliminal.”

 

If any good had come out of the confrontations in Ferguson and elsewhere, she said, “it was that people from all sorts of backgrounds got riled up about it: lawyers, prosecutors and police are willing to [accept] they may have bias”.

 

Brown also pointed out that 53% of African-American youths who are arrested under the age of 18 are charged as adults. “Sometimes,” she said, “they [charge people as young] as 13 or 14 year olds and treat them as adults.

 

“[That means] they go to a completely different court and have trials by jury as opposed to being in a juvenile court. The prosecution have the discretion to charge them as adults; in some states there’s legislation pending saying there should be a minimum age threshold.”

 

Brown said she would like to talk to Barack Obama about the US’s prison population, which is the largest in the world. “We are beginning to recognise there’s a problem of over-incarceration.”

 

If she hasn’t spoken to Obama, Brown has, at least, met the Queen. Both were at Runnymede in June for the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. “I shook hands with the Queen,” she recalled. “We chatted for about 30 seconds. She knew who I was. It was fantastic. She was very happy I was there.”

 

The mediaeval charter remains a more potent cultural icon for Americans than for Britons. “We were taught about Magna Carta at my elementary school,” Brown said with pride.

 

The role of pro-bono work is becoming more important on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, the new justice secretary, Michael Gove, has called on British lawyers to do more voluntary work to ensure justice is available for all.

 

In the US, mandatory pro-bono work is becoming more common. “There’s now mandatory pro-bono work of 50 hours a year for new lawyers in the year they qualify in New York before they get their full licence,” she explained.

 

“Many states have mandatory pro-bono work. They assign a case for you every year which has to be done on a pro-bono basis; usually one day’s court work. They give you written instructions, but the instructions are often pretty basic. If you don’t do it, you get done for contempt.

 

“[but] lawyers still have to be able to earn a living. While it’s wonderful that lawyers do pro-bono work, it’s not a substitute [for all funded legal representation] and they can’t fill that gap completely.”

 

 

Paulette Brown became the first black female president of the American Bar Association in August.

Photograph: Boston Globe/Boston Globe via Getty Images

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/09/black-americans-legal-system-paulette-brown-american-bar-association

[bohica]

Black Americans have failed themselves!  Until they stop blaming everyone else but themselves they will continue to fail.

[SgtFuryUSCZ]

***///

 

Pervasive victim mentality...

Current Law is not always Justice...

Of course she was delighted to meet The Queen... We are under Her illuminati Rule of Law.

[divemaster5734]

We know the system is only rigged against blacks because there are no whites, browns, reds, or any other people in jail but blacks.

Oh wait, there's more whites doing time than blacks.

DOH, forgot, ONLY blacks matter, except for when they are killing each other over drugs, hoes, or dissin.

You can take your racist hate mongering article and shove it.

For as long as you promote and provoke this vile division YOU are nothing but a tool working for the oppressors of humanity.

Pull your head out and get a clue.

[Texstorm]

I couldn't have said it any better DM , as for me, and given all that's what I got , life has not been easy! I come from a good family that has ethics from A to Z and I'm so grateful but there are times I pray for you he light of a new day. I know that being smart is a great gift but if you have no common sense that's stupid and you can't fix stupid. God help them because I can't! Just tired of their BS ! And the fricken excuses!

[SnowGlobe7]

           

I am out of plusses...but ya'all deserve a ton!!!!

[Whatshername]

Too Many Black People in Prison -- And Other Fairy Tales

 

By Colin Flaherty

 

The great and powerful Leo Strine figured it all out: Too many black people are spending too much time in prison.

 

Strine should know: He is Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court.  Strine is heading a commission of black history professors, public defenders, diversity officers, ACLU staffers and others to set this right.

 

Their mission: Figure out why cops keep arresting, prosecutors keep prosecuting, juries keep convicting, and judges keep sending so many black people to prison for No Reason What So Ever.

 

And why black people keep returning to prison once they are let out.

 

Not just in Delaware but around the country.

 

The biggest newspaper in Delaware went all in to help solve this mystery.

 

“Strine said the goal is to find common sense solutions to address the racial disproportions that clearly exist in the system. About 22 percent of the state's residents are black, but nearly 6 in 10 inmates in Delaware's prisons are black, according to 2014 statistics from the Department of Correction.

 

"The most urgent justice issue we have is the continuing inequality in society," Strine said.

 

In Strine’s world, either lots and lots of black people are in jail for no reason. Or lots and lots of white people belong in jail, but get away with murder — and burglary and assault and shootings and stealing cars and lots of other crimes.

 

The solution to the both scenarios is easy enough:  Rustle up the victims, videos, witnesses, police reports, 911 calls and other evidence so Strine can free the wrongly imprisoned and imprison the unjustly free.

 

If racist cops, judges and juries are not doing their jobs, at least produce a few dozen victims. They should be easy to find.

 

But they are not. Because they do not exist.

 

Instead, Strine et al produce fairy tales about how white people and black people commit the same amount of crime, but racist white cops only pick on black people.  It’s not just Strine, black police chiefs,  black sheriffs, black bureaucrats from the Department of Education and even the Attorney General concoct the same stories.

 

Then they trot out bogus academic studies to support it.

 

In Strine’s world, black people are relentless victims of relentless white racism. All the time. Everywhere. And that explains everything.

 

That is the greatest lie of our generation.

 

In the real world, black crime rates are wildly out of proportion. And the real numbers are even worse than that. Think stitches for snitches. Witness intimidation. Bronx juries. And failure to report crimes like rape.

 

There are lots of examples of Strine’s home turf:

 

In Wilmington, Delaware recently, police shot and killed a black man in a wheelchair after a black neighbor dialed 911 to report he had a gun and was acting crazy.

 

The dead man’s mom insisted he had no gun. Then she and some thugs went to where she thought the witness lived and beat the hell out of the person who answered the door.

 

They assaulted the wrong person, but they delivered the right message: Do not talk to the cops about black crime.

 

A few days later in the same neighborhood, 400 black people harassed, threatened, taunted, assaulted and threw rocks and bottles at police and paramedics responding to a neighborhood shooting that had nothing to do with police.

 

Paramedics in Strine’s hometown wear bulletproof vests.

 

A new charter school for black students in Strine Town is on the verge of closing because students are creating so much mayhem and violence in class.

 

In 2013, a group of black people robbed a black mom and her child, again in Wilmington. She went to the cops. Friends of the criminals went back to the woman and reminded her how dangerous it would be for her to testify.

 

When she told them she was not afraid of them, they killed her. The killer is in jail. His crew is not.

 

There are lots more cases of witness intimidation in Delaware. If Judge Strine needs details, he only has to ask the lawyers on his panel who defend them.

 

Witness intimidation is now at epidemic levels around the country. In Philadelphia over a recent two-year period, the district attorney charged 2600 people with that crime.

 

Let’s not forget the Bronx jury: Black juries tend not to convict black defendants. In Brooklyn recently, defense attorneys were complaining that too many white people were moving into their borough, polluting the jury pool. Convicting too many black people.

 

Melissa Harris Perry of MSNBC recently was talking about how black women do not report rape because they fear what will happen to the black rapist once they are in the clutches of the racist police.

 

“We have an under-reporting of rape and domestic violence in African American communities,” Harris-Perry said. “Because we know the violence enacted on black men by police, so we often don’t call.”

 

In Memphis, 12,000 rape kits wait to be tested. Same with Detroit and New Orleans and many other Chocolate cities. These kits sit in warehouses for years.

 

What do you suppose that does for the violent crime statistics and your racial disparity, Justice Strine?  

     

These are just four ways that the black crime rate is artificially low. There are more. Lots of links, lots of stories, lots of videos with more examples in the Amazon #1 best seller, Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry.

 

But many of the activists in Strine’s star chamber ignore, deny, condone, excuse, encourage and even lie about the level of black crime and the damage it does.

 

Then they blame it all on racist police — and pretend not to notice how this black mayhem has ruined the largest city in the state — a place that was once a charming working class enclave, but today makes Newsweek with a new name: Murder Town USA.

 

Here is a piece of truth for Strine and his band of apologists to choke on: Crime and violence in Wilmington is a black thing. That’s why more black people are in prison.

 

Strine knows that. So do his acolytes. The only question is why he and his crew are working so hard to avoid it.

[dog53]

Black/white.yellow and red.

 

 

Their all in prison for a reason. 

[TrinityeXchange]

“One in 16 African Americans are subjected to the criminal justice system,” Brown explained, “compared to one in 106 of white people. A lot of that is drugs. The evidence, however, shows that black people don’t use drugs any more [than white people].

i'm grateful to men like michael wood with the courage to reveal truth to us.  he openly told us all that just as many whites are doing drugs as blacks but it was their policy not to molest the whites while their numbers were to be made up from illegal search and seizure in black neighborhoods.  there, the truth is out.  question is how do we fix this broken justice system?  there is an evident systematic problem that must be addressed and Paulette Brown is doing her part to make it so.  these people are heroes.  

 

Edited October 13, 2015 by TrinityeXchange

[Texstorm]

TX I know you keep bringing up this black thing and may be you are right about just as many whites that are doing drugs as blacks.....but get this , most of the whites doing drugs have money, most of the whites that get caught with drugs have money, hard earned money or may be money from the family they come from. Whites are not out looting, burning, stealing and killing to buy all of these illegal drugs like the blacks are, neither are whites killing off each other in the wholesale slaughter, like blacks do. So you tell me the system is not fair but I say its the same system for everyone and for those who cannot afford legal representation you are screwed ! That's just the way it is ! I didn't make the system up but I damn sure know how to play the game , may be if these blacks had more common sense they wouldn't be in trouble they are in. You don't have to be book smart to have common sense ! Hell hire black officers for all of the black hoods , I don't care and then may be I wouldn't have to listen to all of this BS !

[TrinityeXchange]

TX I know you keep bringing up this black thing and may be you are right about just as many whites that are doing drugs as blacks.....but get this , most of the whites doing drugs have money, most of the whites that get caught with drugs have money, hard earned money or may be money from the family they come from. Whites are not out looting, burning, stealing and killing to buy all of these illegal drugs like the blacks are, neither are whites killing off each other in the wholesale slaughter, like blacks do. So you tell me the system is not fair but I say its the same system for everyone and for those who cannot afford legal representation you are screwed ! That's just the way it is ! I didn't make the system up but I damn sure know how to play the game , may be if these blacks had more common sense they wouldn't be in trouble they are in. You don't have to be book smart to have common sense ! Hell hire black officers for all of the black hoods , I don't care and then may be I wouldn't have to listen to all of this BS !

quite honestly Tex much of what you say stings me to read....saddens me actually, but i believe your words have a lot of truth to them.  black on black crime in the inner city is a horrible truth that just wont seem to correct itself.  the cycle is perpetuated by the prison industrial complex whereby corporations make billions by incarcerating a cheap labor force.  thanks for being brutally honest my friend.  

 

i strive hard to live a life pleasing to God so please don't shoot me down for saying this.  i believe a lot of these issues would go away if they would legalize drugs.  the war on drugs has not solved the drug disease but instead has created a prison monster.  men and women doing decades in prison for violation of the "three strikes law" all because they are caught with a needle in their arm or cannabis in their pocket.   

[billbill]

I believe the problem isn't so much a Black/White issue of race as much as a basic Family unit problem. God's plan is for the man marry a woman and have a family. God is a God of order not chaos. That is the devil's business. Parents need to be parents to there children and not there best friend. The tearing apart of the family unit has brought a huge moral deficit to our society. Young girls and boys feel free to experiment sexually as well as with drugs. They have no moral compass because their parents aren't instilling it in them. They expect the school system to do it. Obviously there are exceptions out there. Thank God!

Parents need to look at the example they are providing there children and stop being selfish.

[Texstorm]

quite honestly Tex much of what you say stings me to read....saddens me actually, but i believe your words have a lot of truth to them.  black on black crime in the inner city is a horrible truth that just wont seem to correct itself.  the cycle is perpetuated by the prison industrial complex whereby corporations make billions by incarcerating a cheap labor force.  thanks for being brutally honest my friend.  

 

i strive hard to live a life pleasing to God so please don't shoot me down for saying this.  i believe a lot of these issues would go away if they would legalize drugs.  the war on drugs has not solved the drug disease but instead has created a prison monster.  men and women doing decades in prison for violation of the "three strikes law" all because they are caught with a needle in their arm or cannabis in their pocket.   

For the record TX , I really don't see the difference between alcohol and drugs. The war on drugs has been a complete failure for more than 40 years now and the only one's who have benefited from it are the drug dealers and the employment of the government enforcement authorities. I don't want my daughter to use them she is only 16 and nothing would hurt me more than to see her on drugs or alcohol , so that is the problem that I don't know how to fix. One of the things that I have observed in life is there are people who can be users or let's say recreational users and not really have a big problem and then there are those that just go off the deep end, they can't hold a job , they steal , they would do anything to get their drugs or alcohol. What do we do with those people ? The thing I hate about prison or what it does to a person, it makes them worse , there is no such thing as rehabilitation , it's only a recipe for self destruction once they get out. In the U.S. you are f.....ed once you get a felony and the chance at a second chance is almost impossibility once you get out of prison. I don't know but if you wanted the majority of the parolees not to come back into the system, there would need to be workshops that teach a trade, with job placements, that's the only way that a felon could have a second chance, sorry for the rant and I agree with you  that not everyone needs to be in prison.