Not in Conflict, Not in Competition

[LOIE]

I would like to share in short form and excerpts, what Michelle Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow” states and documents in detail:

Most of us understand the Jim Crow era. We’ve seen pictures of “Whites Only” signs on rest rooms and water fountains. Following the collapse of THAT Jim Crow system, another one took its place – a new Jim Crow, a new racial caste system - a well-designed system of racialized social control. People who still believed they were superior, decided they could put in place a new racial caste system without violating discrimination laws. They did that by demanding “law and order” rather than “segregation forever.”

The pitting of low-income whites against low-income blacks intensified the view among many whites that the condition of life for the disadvantaged, particularly the blacks, was their own fault. The racially segregated, poverty-stricken ghettos that exist in inner cities across America would not exist today if it weren’t for racially biased government policies. Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave) and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be black (a second-class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines what it means to be black (a criminal).

The myth that black men choose to be criminals must be resisted. African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same conduct. Studies suggest that white professionals may be the most likely of any group to engage in illegal drug activity, yet they are the least likely to be made criminals.

Putting together being black with being criminal did not happen by itself. It was constructed by political and media elites as part of the broader project called the war on drugs.

Mass incarceration, like Jim Crow, was born when white elites exploited the racial hostilities, resentments and insecurities of poor and working-class white voters. The genius of the current caste system is that it appears voluntary. People choose to commit crimes and they get locked up. But here’s the truth. All people make mistakes. Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something unheard of anywhere else in the entire world.

Martin Luther King envisioned a society in which all human beings of all races are treated with dignity, and have the right to food, shelter, health care, education and security. This vision could open the door to meaningful alliances between poor and working-class people of all colors, to begin to see their interests as the same, not in conflict, not in competition.

 

[fncceo]

racially biased government policies.

Which policies are those? Name any that have been in force for the past four decades.

 

[Moonglow]

So you want all dem black prison folks to get a get out of jail card?

 

[williepete]

The genius of the current caste system is that it appears voluntary. People choose to commit crimes and they get locked up. But here’s the truth. All people make mistakes.

So you're trying this again eh?

Committing a crime and making a mistake are two radically different things. One is deliberate while the other is accidental.

Care to enjoy freedom? Avoid incarceration? Don't break the law. It's so easy, the overwhelming majority of the population have no trouble doing it without a thought.

 

[IM2]

Whites are 70 percent of all arrests on an annual basis. And these are not mistakes they are making. So then lets start with telling the whites you know to stop breaking the law. Then stop the white judges from giving white men only 3 months in prison for raping unconscious women. You guys know what's going on, but you do nothing to stop it because its the only way you can make it.

 

[williepete]

Whites are 70 percent of all arrests on an annual basis. And these are not mistakes they are making. So then lets start with telling the whites you know to stop breaking the law.

OK. Great idea. Here goes: "Hey whites, stop breaking laws."

Whew. There goes 70 percent of all crime.

 

[fncceo]

The myth that black men choose to be criminals must be resisted. African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same conduct.

Speaking from my extremely low-level perspective as a two-year transit cop, I would have to agree with you. Transit division is a different, I think more old-school, policing than regular metro policing. We are almost always on foot. We patrol regularly the same venues. We get to know the names of regular transit passengers, workers, merchants and criminals.

Public transit is somewhat of a magnet for people looking to cause trouble. Lots of robbery, lots of shop theft, lots of drugs sales, lots of assaults, lots of drunks and drug affected. While the demographics of ridership changes throughout the day, night time brings a lot of those troublemakers and their victims to our shop. Ridership in general is overwhelmingly non-white, but non-whites do not make up a significant majority of the crime I deal with on a daily basis.

Crime, it would seem, is truly color-blind.

 

[IM2]

Whites are 70 percent of all arrests on an annual basis. And these are not mistakes they are making. So then lets start with telling the whites you know to stop breaking the law.

OK. Great idea. Here goes: "Hey whites, stop breaking laws."

Whew. There goes 70 percent of all crime.

Not so easy junior. You have actually hit the streets and start teaching your white buddies a new way of thinking.

 

[IM2]

The myth that black men choose to be criminals must be resisted. African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same conduct.

Speaking from my extremely low-level perspective as a two-year transit cop, I would have to agree with you. Transit division is a different, I think more old-school, policing than regular metro policing. We are almost always on foot. We patrol regularly the same venues. We get to know the names of regular transit passengers, workers, merchants and criminals.

Public transit is somewhat of a magnet for people looking to cause trouble. Lots of robbery, lots of shop theft, lots of drugs sales, lots of assaults, lots of drunks and drug affected. While the demographics of ridership changes throughout the day, night time brings a lot of those troublemakers and their victims to our shop. Ridership in general is overwhelmingly non-white, but non-whites do not make up a significant majority of the crime I deal with on a daily basis.

Crime, it would seem, is truly color-blind.

If crime is colorblind we get blamed a lot for it. The reality is that while people of all colors commit crime, the fact is that whites actually do commit more. This means that while we in the black community have worked to reduce crime and have done so even as we still face most of the same things that create crime not being addressed in our communities, whites who do not face any of these things in the large majority of their communities, still commit a higher rate of crime

 

[williepete]

Not so easy junior. You have actually hit the streets and start teaching your white buddies a new way of thinking.

Not my job. Life is a cruel teacher. If they can't learn, they pay the price. Most of the guys I hung out with in high school that didn't get out of the neighborhood or quit the things we did back then have spent time in jail and prison. Some are dead from drugs and one was shot dead. Three are as close as brothers then and to this day.

We all had the same opportunities. I got the Hell out of there. They didn't get out. They didn't try to improve themselves. They willingly broke the law and all paid a heavy price. I still love those three like brothers. I see them whenever I go back. But I can't feel pity for their choices. One wised up and realizes he is where he is because of his choices. One plays the victim. The third, who is the most intellectual and well read, just won't give up the lifestyle and "raging against the machine" mentality. He'll go down swinging one day soon. We're not young pups anymore--and the cops know him well and know what to expect.

And GFY for the "junior" slur.

 

[fncceo]

Whites are 70 percent of all arrests on an annual basis. And these are not mistakes they are making. So then lets start with telling the whites you know to stop breaking the law.

OK. Great idea. Here goes: "Hey whites, stop breaking laws."

Whew. There goes 70 percent of all crime.

Not so easy junior. You have actually hit the streets and start teaching your white buddies a new way of thinking.

Not too much, please. I might be out of a job.

 

[IM2]

Whites are 70 percent of all arrests on an annual basis. And these are not mistakes they are making. So then lets start with telling the whites you know to stop breaking the law.

OK. Great idea. Here goes: "Hey whites, stop breaking laws."

Whew. There goes 70 percent of all crime.

Not so easy junior. You have actually hit the streets and start teaching your white buddies a new way of thinking.

Not too much, please. I might be out of a job.

There will still be crime at transit stops.

 

[fncceo]

Whites are 70 percent of all arrests on an annual basis. And these are not mistakes they are making. So then lets start with telling the whites you know to stop breaking the law.

OK. Great idea. Here goes: "Hey whites, stop breaking laws."

Whew. There goes 70 percent of all crime.

Not so easy junior. You have actually hit the streets and start teaching your white buddies a new way of thinking.

Not too much, please. I might be out of a job.

There will still be crime at transit stops.

I fear you're correct. I'll enjoy it as long as I'm still able to chase shoplifters down the street in body armor.

 

[IM2]

Whites are 70 percent of all arrests on an annual basis. And these are not mistakes they are making. So then lets start with telling the whites you know to stop breaking the law.

OK. Great idea. Here goes: "Hey whites, stop breaking laws."

Whew. There goes 70 percent of all crime.

Not so easy junior. You have actually hit the streets and start teaching your white buddies a new way of thinking.

Not too much, please. I might be out of a job.

There will still be crime at transit stops.

I fear you're correct. I'll enjoy it as long as I'm still able to chase shoplifters down the street in body armor.

If I had that job, I'd be real happy just standing there looking official. The more of my day I spend like that. doing that kind of work, the better.

 

[fncceo]

OK. Great idea. Here goes: "Hey whites, stop breaking laws."

Whew. There goes 70 percent of all crime.

Not so easy junior. You have actually hit the streets and start teaching your white buddies a new way of thinking.

Not too much, please. I might be out of a job.

There will still be crime at transit stops.

I fear you're correct. I'll enjoy it as long as I'm still able to chase shoplifters down the street in body armor.

If I had that job, I'd be real happy just standing there looking official. The more of my day I spend like that. doing that kind of work, the better.

Standing around is a big part of it. But as our patrol areas tend to be fairly large, there's still a lot of walking. Only occasionally are we called on to chase someone down the street But, it always gets my adrenaline pumping.

It's even more fun when you run them to ground.

Unfortunately, every 15 minute arrest is good for a couple hours of paperwork.

 

[LOIE]

So you want all dem black prison folks to get a get out of jail card?

What I'd like to see is what Chris Hayes writes about: "We can have a just society whose guiding ethos is accountability and punishment, where both black kids dealing weed in Harlem and investment bankers peddling fraudulent securities on Wall Street are forced to pay for their crimes - or we can have a just society whose guiding ethos is forgiveness and second chances, one in which both Wall Street banks and foreclosed households are bailed out, in which both inside traders and street felons are allowed to join polite society with the full privileges of citizenship intact. BUT WE CANNOT HAVE A JUST SOCIETY THAT APPLIES THE PRINCIPLE OF ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE POWERLESS AND THE PRINCIPLE OF FORGIVENESS TO THE POWERFUL. This is the America in which we currently reside.

 

[LOIE]

racially biased government policies.

Which policies are those? Name any that have been in force for the past four decades.

Michelle Alexander’s 261 page book, and additional 35 pages of notes and references, make it clear that while some of the older, outright discriminatory laws that existed no longer exist (because folks fought and died to change them), there are many other laws that allow discrimination and oppression.

“The Court’s blind eye to race discrimination in the criminal justice system has been especially problematic in policing. Racial bias is most acute at the point of entry into the system for two reasons: discretion and authorization. Although prosecutors, as a group, have the greatest power in the criminal justice system, the police have the greatest discretion – discretion that is amplified in drug-law enforcement. And unbeknownst to the general public, the Supreme Court has actually authorized race discrimination in policing, rather than adopting legal rules banning it.

In the drug war, police have discretion regarding whom to target (which individuals), as well as where to target (which neighborhoods and communities).”

“Most people imagine that the explosion in the U.S. prison population during the last 25 years reflects changes in crime rate. Few would guess that our prison population leaped in such a short period of time due to changes in laws and policies, not changes in crime rates. It has been changes in our laws – particularly the dramatic increases in the length of prison sentences- that have been responsible for the growth of our prison system, not increases in crime.”

“The hypersegregation of the black poor in ghetto communities had made the roundup easy. Confined to ghetto areas and lacking political power, the black poor are convenient targets. Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton’s book, American Apartheid, documents how racially segregated ghettos were deliberately created by federal policy, not impersonal market forces or private housing choices. “

I’ve just ordered the book American Apartheid. I’ll keep you posted!

 

[IM2]

Not so easy junior. You have actually hit the streets and start teaching your white buddies a new way of thinking.

Not too much, please. I might be out of a job.

There will still be crime at transit stops.

I fear you're correct. I'll enjoy it as long as I'm still able to chase shoplifters down the street in body armor.

If I had that job, I'd be real happy just standing there looking official. The more of my day I spend like that. doing that kind of work, the better.

Standing around is a big part of it. But as our patrol areas tend to be fairly large, there's still a lot of walking. Only occasionally are we called on to chase someone down the street But, it always gets my adrenaline pumping.

It's even more fun when you run them to ground.

Unfortunately, every 15 minute arrest is good for a couple hours of paperwork.

That's a lot of paper work, but when you are dealing with the law, paperwork is certainly a part of it.

 

[IM2]

racially biased government policies.

Which policies are those? Name any that have been in force for the past four decades.

Michelle Alexander’s 261 page book, and additional 35 pages of notes and references, make it clear that while some of the older, outright discriminatory laws that existed no longer exist (because folks fought and died to change them), there are many other laws that allow discrimination and oppression.

“The Court’s blind eye to race discrimination in the criminal justice system has been especially problematic in policing. Racial bias is most acute at the point of entry into the system for two reasons: discretion and authorization. Although prosecutors, as a group, have the greatest power in the criminal justice system, the police have the greatest discretion – discretion that is amplified in drug-law enforcement. And unbeknownst to the general public, the Supreme Court has actually authorized race discrimination in policing, rather than adopting legal rules banning it.

In the drug war, police have discretion regarding whom to target (which individuals), as well as where to target (which neighborhoods and communities).”

“Most people imagine that the explosion in the U.S. prison population during the last 25 years reflects changes in crime rate. Few would guess that our prison population leaped in such a short period of time due to changes in laws and policies, not changes in crime rates. It has been changes in our laws – particularly the dramatic increases in the length of prison sentences- that have been responsible for the growth of our prison system, not increases in crime.”

“The hypersegregation of the black poor in ghetto communities had made the roundup easy. Confined to ghetto areas and lacking political power, the black poor are convenient targets. Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton’s book, American Apartheid, documents how racially segregated ghettos were deliberately created by federal policy, not impersonal market forces or private housing choices. “

I’ve just ordered the book American Apartheid. I’ll keep you posted!

So many people are ignorant to these facts and just ease through life with opinions that are way off and dangerous .

 

[fncceo]

That's a lot of paper work, but when you are dealing with the law, paperwork is certainly a part of it.

I don't begrudge a second of it. Police are the morally sanctioned use of force on the civil populace. It is imperative that everything they do be documented and accounted for. But, police will often use discretion in giving out a warning when a citation is justified if a warning will stop the violation.