The conventional point of view
holds discrimination mostly ended in the 1960's with the Civil Rights movement
reforms. After all we have a black president, Oprah Winfrey's rich and we
have many black professionals.
Michael Tonry writes in Thinking
About Crime: Sense and Sensibility in American Penal Culture:
"While historically crime and
punishment intensities have often been poorly correlated, the scale and lack of
balance of the present USA criminal justice activity and penal system have
turned it, according to Alexander, into a system of social control unparalleled
in world history. Its targets can be defined largely by race. The
rate of incarnation in the U.S. has soared, while its crime rates have
generally not been higher than those in other western countries, where the
incarceration rates accordingly have remained stable. The current rate of
incarceration in the USA, six to ten times greater than in other industrialized
nations, is therefore not related to the actual rates of crime or their
increase, but can be traced to a great extent to the artificially invoked "War
on Drugs" discriminatory policies."
The Central Park Five case is an
excellent example of how broken our system of justice is. At this
point it functions more as a system of injustice . Systemic
corruption runs throughout our entire judicial system. These kids were
thrown into prison for a crime they didn't commit while not one banker who
caused the global meltdown has been questioned let alone prosecuted.
Whistleblowers are being prosecuted for exposing war crimes. Pfc. Bradley
Manning is charged with a number of offenses, including communicating national
defense information to an unauthorized source and aiding the enemy, a capital
offense for exposing the Collateral Murder footage and the U.S.
Diplomatic Cables. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, has been sentenced
to 30 months in jail for exposing waterboarding and other harsh interrogation
techniques and yet not one person has been prosecuted for torture or for
starting an illegal war based on lies. I guess they're still looking for
those WMD's. The message is very clear. If you're rich no matter
what you do you walk except for Bernie Madoff whose real crime was stealing
from rich people. Let's be honest, if you're poor or black or tell the
truth you'll pay.
"During times of universal deceit,
telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell
The "Central Park Five" documentary
shows with amazing clarity, and facts using actual footage. These kids
were framed and the DA, the detectives, police officers and the prosecutors
knew these kids weren't the perpetrators of this crime and yet they prosecuted
and convicted them anyway. They got their promotions and their notoriety
and now that the truth is out they're not only denying it but fighting
it.
Justice did not prevail. Corruption did.
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