Who do you blame?
Is it the justice system? Is it the political structure? Is it the lack of jobs available?
OR
Is it the responsibility of the individual to make better decisions?
I believe it to be the latter.
Now take a look at the picture above. This guy is marching and protesting outside the White House with this sign. This in my opinion is the problem with our community. It's as if we're passing the responsibility of the individual onto the governement, Justice Department, The Powers That Be, or whomever. I'm not naive enough to think that Blacks aren't given more time for the same crimes committed by people of other races. But that doesn't erase the fact that blacks are committing twice as many crimes as anyone else either. Sentencing disparities must be dealt with, but in order to deal with the that, we first must deal with the facts. And the facts are, blacks are committing twice as many crimes as anyone else. Maybe, just maybe, when we stop committing as many crimes, we will see the incarceration rate drop.
Who's to blame? The ones committing the crimes!! I know a lot of unemployeed people, people in dire situations and they are not committing crimes. It drives me nuts when people look for excuses for behavior like this. Let's try the Michael Jackson approach--start with the man in the mirror!!!!
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU TREVA!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThat was the point I was trying to make!
NO THEY ARE NOT ARE NOT COMMITTING CRIMES AT TWICE THE RATE?? Please let me know where you got that FACT? Have you read Michelle Alexanders book Mass Incarceration The New Jim Crow? Have you pillaged through dozens and dozens upon dozens of articles and stats that say that crime is committed by all races at the same level yet people in communities of color are over targeted, under policed when they need help and over sentenced. I am not black. Im Mexican , but have taken a huge passion on this topic due to my experiences in dealing with the legal system since being with my boyfriend who is. In all my research i never found anything that said blacks commit crimes at higher rates in fact, it all disproved that. I took a psychology of law and a Marxism class at the same time and first discovered about this issue while my love, was going up against countless bogus charges with no proof. Nixon said it himself "the problem really is the blacks" and he said "we need to devise a system" . Maybe its a little extreme to say everyone who advocates this broken system (where America has 5% of the worlds population and 25% of its jail population) is racist but it is irrefutable to say this so called "war on drugs" is really a war to stop people from using drugs. Drug rates were at record lows before it was declared. No reason that when black Americans make up less then 15% of the population they should make up over 60, 70, and 80 of the jail population when they are committing crimes AT THE SAME RATE as their white counterparts.
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