In my letter to the editor in the previous blog, I have responded to an editorial in the Detroit Free Press titled “Make justice racially fair”.
The editorial disturbed me for a number of reasons and I thought that the editorial should not go unchallenged even though I do agree with some of what it proposes.
The editorial decries the fact that here in Michigan, our prison population is over 50% black while the general population of blacks in Michigan is somewhere around 13-14%. In Detroit it is over 85%.
The editorial also finds alarming that black children make up over 50% of children in foster care but make up only 17.5% of the general population of children in the state.
The editorial then goes on to list legal and social conditions that it feels contribute to the dismal statistics in the black community, conditions that need to be addressed and corrected.
Taking on the enormous disparity in the prison population, the NAACP and the editorial writer would like to see many more blacks seated on criminal juries. They are advocating allowing even ex-felons to serve on juries, anything just to get more blacks on juries.
To me allowing a convicted criminal to sit on a jury is the height of absurdity. I realize that many blacks have criminal records, especially in Detroit, and that leaves fewer blacks eligible for jury duty but my god, how stupid do you think our society is? NO to that!
The whole idea of trying to pack juries with blacks begs for rationale and the only rationale that I can detect is that blacks are more likely not to convict their own kind and fewer convictions will translate to a lower black prison population. OK, makes sense but how is that fair and how does that serve justice?
On the other hand it does imply that whites on a jury tend not to be fair when judging black defendants. I cannot deny that racism exists in the white community but it is not as obvious as in the old days. I think a majority of whites can and are fair when sitting on juries with black defendants, in fact, because of white guilt; many are too fair and forgiving when it comes to blacks.
I have been called to jury duty many times and I did not see a lack of blacks there but I did see blacks begging off jury duty for economic reasons. They don’t have the transportation available to them or the luxury to take a leave of absence from their jobs. It is an unfortunate circumstance of life. Whites can also be in the same position but in most cases, blacks are more likely to lack the economic means to serve on a jury.
I will agree that public defenders will need to be paid a decent fee so capable lawyers represent the indigent. Right now the public defenders do as much as they are paid and that is pittance so they do a pittance of defending.
As far as the disparity of black children in foster care, well that is a result of the same reasons that land more blacks in jails than whites. They make babies, go to jail and leave the kids with a mother that cannot handle the kids or herself – foster care.
I have a problem with the NAACP and the Detroit Free Press editorial writers for again trying to blame others for the dismal state of the black community in Detroit. Here they are trying to get more blacks off after they commit a crime instead of trying to prevent blacks from doing the crime in the first place.
The national NAACP convention is in town this week and I hope there are some people with a vision that are coming up in the ranks of the organization. In the past, we had a bunch of incompetents that wasted money on stupid projects like fighting for more blacks in baseball, etc. or themselves and their girlfriends.
Bill Cosby has been trying to educate the black community by telling them they have to look at themselves first before blaming others. The NAACP should follow his advice but I am not sure it is capable of doing what needs to be done.
The editorial disturbed me for a number of reasons and I thought that the editorial should not go unchallenged even though I do agree with some of what it proposes.
The editorial decries the fact that here in Michigan, our prison population is over 50% black while the general population of blacks in Michigan is somewhere around 13-14%. In Detroit it is over 85%.
The editorial also finds alarming that black children make up over 50% of children in foster care but make up only 17.5% of the general population of children in the state.
The editorial then goes on to list legal and social conditions that it feels contribute to the dismal statistics in the black community, conditions that need to be addressed and corrected.
Taking on the enormous disparity in the prison population, the NAACP and the editorial writer would like to see many more blacks seated on criminal juries. They are advocating allowing even ex-felons to serve on juries, anything just to get more blacks on juries.
To me allowing a convicted criminal to sit on a jury is the height of absurdity. I realize that many blacks have criminal records, especially in Detroit, and that leaves fewer blacks eligible for jury duty but my god, how stupid do you think our society is? NO to that!
The whole idea of trying to pack juries with blacks begs for rationale and the only rationale that I can detect is that blacks are more likely not to convict their own kind and fewer convictions will translate to a lower black prison population. OK, makes sense but how is that fair and how does that serve justice?
On the other hand it does imply that whites on a jury tend not to be fair when judging black defendants. I cannot deny that racism exists in the white community but it is not as obvious as in the old days. I think a majority of whites can and are fair when sitting on juries with black defendants, in fact, because of white guilt; many are too fair and forgiving when it comes to blacks.
I have been called to jury duty many times and I did not see a lack of blacks there but I did see blacks begging off jury duty for economic reasons. They don’t have the transportation available to them or the luxury to take a leave of absence from their jobs. It is an unfortunate circumstance of life. Whites can also be in the same position but in most cases, blacks are more likely to lack the economic means to serve on a jury.
I will agree that public defenders will need to be paid a decent fee so capable lawyers represent the indigent. Right now the public defenders do as much as they are paid and that is pittance so they do a pittance of defending.
As far as the disparity of black children in foster care, well that is a result of the same reasons that land more blacks in jails than whites. They make babies, go to jail and leave the kids with a mother that cannot handle the kids or herself – foster care.
I have a problem with the NAACP and the Detroit Free Press editorial writers for again trying to blame others for the dismal state of the black community in Detroit. Here they are trying to get more blacks off after they commit a crime instead of trying to prevent blacks from doing the crime in the first place.
The national NAACP convention is in town this week and I hope there are some people with a vision that are coming up in the ranks of the organization. In the past, we had a bunch of incompetents that wasted money on stupid projects like fighting for more blacks in baseball, etc. or themselves and their girlfriends.
Bill Cosby has been trying to educate the black community by telling them they have to look at themselves first before blaming others. The NAACP should follow his advice but I am not sure it is capable of doing what needs to be done.
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