The Ferguson Aftermath: More of the Same

The Ferguson Aftermath: More of the Same

 

Two years ago, the rabidly-leftist Center for American Progress (CAP) published a report by Sophia Kerby detailing the gross inequities in America’s justice system.

A self-described “civil rights and social justice advocate passionate about issues that impact communities of color and women,” Ms. Kerby is the Special Assistant for Progress 2050 at American Progress and serves as the Policy Associate for the Brennan Center for Justice working with “civil rights, social justice, and democracy organizations to develop policy goals and share information critical to advancing civil rights in federal policy.”

Unfortunately, though the information in her analysis of the comparative number of arrests, incarcerations, and executions of blacks as contrasted with whites in America cited a number of statistics, it omitted the reasons of those arrests, etc.

For example, Ms. Kerby references the fact that people of color, some 30% of the U.S.’ population, account for 60% of men in prison and that incarceration rates of men of color far exceed the rates of white men.

Among other damning facts, she correctly states that:

–A third of black men will end up in prison at some time in their lives and incur longer sentences than whites; 

–Individuals of color have a disproportionate number of encounters with law enforcement, attributable to racial profiling;

–Non-white students face more frequent and more severe punishment in our schools and are arrested more often than white kids;

–The war on drugs has been waged mainly in minority communities and people of color are usually charged with ”higher offenses”;

–Over the thirty year span of 1980 through 2007, a third of the 25.4 million adults arrested on drug charges were African-American;

–Voter laws prohibiting those with felony convictions from voting ”disproportionately impact men of color.” 

What Sophia Kerby curiously and egregiously fails to mention are the uncomfortable realities that people of color are disproportionately disposed to commit crimes and, by virtue of that fact, are treated appropriately in our courts of law and are being arrested, incarcerated, denied voting privileges, etc. just as whites would be. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=38776.)