Reading chapter 2 and 3 was, in a way, difficult to digest. Early on, the country specifically put in its constitution mechanisms against certain treatment of its citizens, namely the Fourth Amendment. Against the forefathers’ ideals, the amendment was manipulated to allow the exactly what it had originally opposed. Each step in the gradual process wasn’t enough to cause a revolution, but it seemed like each was more corrupt than the last. The Supreme Court facilitated much the wrongdoing. It is simply outrageous that the police organizations outright accept funds only if they are full players in making drug busts their priority. A scarier thought is that it can get worse. All lines regarding preserving the citizens rights according to the constitution have been crossed already. Manipulating people to plead guilty when they aren’t is far enough. But who is to say how much farther it will go and where it will stop?
14
Mar 14
Chapters 2 and 3
As many of the other posts expressed, the information in these chapters was quite startling. Similar to my reaction last week, I just find it so shocking that in a time where the stupidity of racism is so widely acknowledged our policies can be so, well, racist.
To me, the solution to this problem must be widespread education about the failures of our justice system. As the reading stressed, at every level- from legal decision making to the the police on the street- our justice system and public opinion is corrupted. The only feasible explanation for this, to me, is the misconceptions that are in so many of our minds about minorities and crime. These misconceptions are what allow our society to continue the prejudice. The only hope that I can see to rectify such a situation is to have sweeping education and information reforms about these sensitive subjects. I know that for myself, I didn’t know a ton of the facts mentioned in these chapters. I’m sure much of the public is in the same boat as I was.
Josh Setton
14
Mar 14
Chapter 2 and 3
Chapters 2 and 3 of the Next Jim Crow enlightened me to the overwhelming inequality that I had no idea was present to such an extent. I was familiar with the stop and frisk implementation but really had not put together how interweaved and calculated such blatant racial bias was. It infected our legal systems, legal proceedings, social institutions, schools, curriculums. We were being raised to trust the very system that would act as a crutch for our still withstanding racism as a country. Even now the NYPD is doing small tasks that do nothing more than remind the general citizen who’s in control. They are handing out false tickets for jaywalking just to ‘remind’ citizens about the laws concerning walking across the street. will this be effective? or will it only provoke citizens?
