30% of black men in US will go to jail

[Pale Blue Dot]

Black men born in the United States in 2001 will have a one in three chance of going to prison during their lifetime if current trends continue, according to a report by the US justice department.
More than 5.6 million Americans are either in prison or have served time there - and that number will continue to rise, the report shows.

By the end of 2001 one in every 37 Americans had some experience of prison, compared with one in 53 in 1974. Continuing at that rate, the proportion will increase to one in every 15 of those born in 2001.

In 2001 a sixth of African-American men were current or former prisoners, compared with one in 13 Latinos and one in 38 whites. The incarceration of women remains lower than of men but has increased at twice the rate since 1980 and shows similar racial disparities.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1021430,00.html

I have nocomment other than this is horrible and a catastrophy for the future of the US.

[CO Liberal]

1. I'd Like to Nominate a Few for Terms Behind Bars

Clarence Thomas
Colin Powell
Thomas Sowell
Walter Williams
J. C. Watts
Alan Keyes

[Sirius_on]

3. For being conservative?

Thats it?

[CO Liberal]

9. No.....

...for crimes against humanity.

[sierrak9s]

10. Sowell and Williams?

What crime against humanity has either of those men committed?

[Sirius_on]

11. What crimes

Name one crime any of these guys have commited. Alan Keyes commited a crime against humanity?

You better give a reason before tossing stuff like that on the board.

[Voltaire99]

26. Irony. Spelled with an I.

It's not just for breakfast any more, you know.

[lightbulb]

28. Condoleezza Rice

Though I find the tone of this sub-thread is a bit unsavory, I couldn't help but bring up that name. Would you consider complicity in the murders of approximately 3000 Americans in September of 2001 a crime against humanity? She was and still is a major player in squelching the truth about the matter, at the very least. Fortunately, most of the others who would be jailed with her are white and would help balance out the numbers.

"We never imagined airplanes could be used as missiles..."

<edit: clarity>

[UTUSN]

39. Kick. CO Lib RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Sirius_on]

43. Yet never responded to the harsh claim of crimes against humanity

nt

[Sweetpea]

44. Ward Connelly too

[grasswire]

2. In the late 80s the prediction was....

.....that the number of prisoners would equal the number of free people by the year 2053, if trends continued. Those not in prison would be employed as custodians and to pay for the cost of imprisonment.

[greenwow]

4. And some people actually think...

that most cops aren't racist!

[DrWeird]

13. This kind of proves it. Doesn't it?

Or at least the justice system.

Unless you happen to believe that black people are just naturally more criminal. And you wouldn't have a racist thought like that, would you?

[Character Assassin]

21. They're not. Try prosecutors, legislators and jury pools.

I've met a few, but the good ones far, far outnumber the bad.

[greenwow]

24. How can you say pigs aren't racist...

when they're the ones making the arrests? Prosecutors and jury pools don't get a chance to try someone unless a pig obstructs your liberty and holds you against your will in the first place.

[RazorNY22]

31. Most cops aren't racists!!!

I can't speak for the rest of the country but perhaps I can shed some light on how cops work in NYC.

Most arrests are made based on information provided by a victim on a complaint report. For whatever reason in the majority of circumstances the desription of the perp is either black or hispanic male. Cops have no say in this.

When a cop makes an arrest it must be authorized by a supervisor on the street. A sergeant responds and the cop has to tell him the facts of the case. If the Sgt. approves the cop brings the perp and victim to the precinct where a desk supervisor authorizes it again. The cop then responds to The District Attorneys office where an ADA reviews the case again. Later the case is brought before a grand jury where ordinary people decide if there is enough evidence for a trial. After all this if there is a trial and the prisoner is convicted by a jury, you can be pretty sure the guy is guilty.

The NYPD is fully intergrated with minorities represented in every division and at every rank. There is no way a black or hispanic cop is going to put up with some white, racist killer cop from the suburbs.

Even a scumbag like Justin Volpe who assaulted Abner Louima, pled guilty in open court because cops were testifying against him. So let's lighten up with the cops are pigs bullshit OK.

[cap]

37. hunh????

why are there so many protests against the NYPD?

Also, remember all those photographs of cops for 9-11 -- nary a minority or female in those pictures.

[genius]

5. We need quotas. No more black arrests till the whites reach their fair

share of the prison population

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. I HOPE that is sarcasm. nt

[liberalmuse]

6. America doesn't have a problem with racism.

Oh noooooo. That is obscene, and I know black men aren't committing more crimes than men of any other race. A white man sells coke, a black man sells crack: Who is going to end up behind bars?

[Tinoire]

12. And the worst part politically is

Who is going to end up a felon and unable to vote?

Kucinich has a great stand on this issue and I totally agree with him. Once someone has served their time- that should be the end of the story and voting rights restored.

[genius]

14. Let's hear it for Dennis

Is this guy some new superhero? He's on the right side of all the issues.

[Vitruvius]

19. And I don't see too many Black men engaged in insider trading or

other corporate scams. Or knowingly selling defective products that kill people. Or committing criminal tax evasion. Or embezzling. Or buying politicians -- up to and including G. W. Bu$h.

In my decades in industry, I saw corruption almost beyond belief. And we were taught to knowingly design unsafe products and manufacturing equipment -- but only if it paid to do so. Specifically, we were taught "worth of a life" calculations; if the money saved by cutting corners was more than the probable cost of court settlements to the survivors of the people killed as a result of the corner-cutting, then the "sound business decision" was to cut those corners. And of course, saving a few bucks at the cost of someone else's life was not murder -- oh no, no, no...

Most engineers I knew stuck to their ethics. Some did not. And all-too-often the ones who did not were promoted. Because they put the Company first.

The bottom line: crimes of poverty are punished without mercy. White-collar crime is almost exempt from punishment. A poor man must prove his innocence. The standard for the rich, however, is "guilty beyond an unreasonable doubt.

One law for the rich, another law for the poor. It's the Rethugnican-American way.

Vitruvius

P.S: It's no surprise that a crooked ruling class will almost NEVER put its' own kind in prison.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. Calm down! The regime is working hard to get those numbers up

Attorney General Ashcroft is aware of the alarming number of African-Americans men still at large, and has directed that the full resources of the Justice Department be brought to bear to correct the situation with all due haste.

[otohara]

15. So They Can't Vote In 2004

is my guess

[Vitruvius]

22. And when they lock them all up, they put them to work for a dollar a day.

For some of the biggest corporations in America. Including Microsoft.

Interesting how the VRWC and their plutocrat employers keep re-inventing SLAVERY. Lock 'em up -- guilty or innocent -- and put 'em to work.

Vitruvius.

[Voltaire99]

27. America likes its prison workforce--so prompt, so punctual

Exactly right, Vitruvius.

The largest prison population in the "free" world, much of it busy cranking out product for the Man...

Nice labor force if you can get it!

[Ellen Forradalom]

30. My words exactly

High incarceration rates for blacks + contract prison labor = reinstitution of slavery.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Do you ever ask yourself why they can make these predictions?

If justice is blind and we are all treated individually in this country, how is it that they can predict just how many black men will land in prison?

Answer: Because, statistically, they already know by what percentage they target blacks more than any other race for stops and searches. And they know they can continue targeting them because our policies are based on arrest statistics, which are already skewed.

[Pale Blue Dot]

17. Ken Lay is still free

'Nuff said.

[karlschneider]

18. It has been a very long time since (1964) I worked my way thru college as

a cop in Tulsa, so my perspective should be viewed through the lens of history, as it were, but I clearly recall a very significant amount of racism back then. One large and burly cop (Ray B****) regularly made comments such as "...yeah, I had a chance to thump some niggers last night..."

I am not making this up.

Of course other peccadilloes come to mind - the "vice" cops who would go out and bust prostitutes...who might go to jail or who might get off with a 'warning' if they gave the cop a quick blow job. Or how they would stop somebody and find a bottle of booze in the car...just "confiscate" it. Funny how those bottles would end up in the FOP lodge the next day.

I shoulda wrote a book.
:eyes:

[Vitruvius]

20. "30% of Black men will go to prison" isn't a prediction; it's a PLAN

and a QUOTA. 'The Backlash Cometh' is so RIGHT (see post 16).

[bluestateguy]

23. I think many people know that

Several years ago I heard a fat, well-to-do looking man grumble out loud in a department store that he hoped as many young black men go to jail as possible in America (actually he didn't say "black". He said another word that begins with N).

[shanti]

29. and some white people wonder

why so many black people hate us with a passion?

[LadeJarl]

25. Horrible...

But I can't say anything else than that the justice system in the US is horrible.

I have never seen any other civilized country arresting so many of it's citizens as the US. On top of it all, the prison terms given for most of the crimes are not even close to beeing just in light of the seriousness of the crime. Most of the time it is way beyond a proper response. And does it help on the crime rate? Does death penalty deter others from killing? No!!

Is the 10-20-life effective? No. Does the penal system make criminals worse? yes. Does it have a negative effect on inmates? yes.

If I were to spend the rest of my life in prison without chance of parole, would I care what I did in prison? Heck no! Is the parole system fair? No! Does it give people hope? No.

This country needs a serious criminal reform and fast!

[Mel]

32. A good article

American Drug Laws: The New Jim Crow
http://www.aclu.org/DrugPolicy/DrugPolicy.cfm?ID=5040&c=82

[David Zephyr]

33. With Liberty and Justice for All?

Instead of worshipping at the altar of the Pledge of Allegience, Americans should consider the words and why there never has been liberty and justice for ALL?

As Richard Pryor once said, when white folks say "justice" they mean "just us". It would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

Thanks Finnfan for this post today.

I also am a FinnFan! :hi:

[NickB79]

34. Bush combines his economic and re-election plans

Put a bunch of black, normally-Democratic voting people in jail so they can't vote against him.

You have to build more jails, so that creates more construction jobs.

You need guards, so that creates more security jobs.

Taking more of the unemployed people off the streets and the economy doesn't look so bad anymore.

Hell, it's a win-win situation!

[TahitiNut]

35. Th USA has more people in prison (per capita) than any other nation.

1. United States 6.41 per 1000 people
2. Russia 6.37 per 1000 people
3. Belarus 5.77 per 1000 people
4. Dominica 5.73 per 1000 people
5. Montserrat 5.57 per 1000 people
6. Sri Lanka 4.56 per 1000 people
7. Ukraine 4.55 per 1000 people
8. Botswana 4.24 per 1000 people
9. South Africa 3.79 per 1000 people
10. Thailand 3.58 per 1000 people


The US prosecutes more people (per capita) for crimes than any other country by far. (But they probably deserve it, right?)

1. United States 50.63 per 1000 people
2. New Zealand 32.07 per 1000 people
3. Finland 31.88 per 1000 people
4. Turkey 30.61 per 1000 people
5. United Kingdom 25.17 per 1000 people
6. Korea, South 24.76 per 1000 people
7. Slovenia 11.99 per 1000 people
8. Canada 11.84 per 1000 people
9. Hungary 11.09 per 1000 people
10. Netherlands 11.02 per 1000 people


The US prosecutes more women (per capita) for crimes than any other country by far. (But they probably deserve it, right?)

1. United States 8.85 per 1000 people
2. New Zealand 5.91 per 1000 people
3. Finland 5.13 per 1000 people
4. United Kingdom 4.78 per 1000 people
5. Korea, South 2.85 per 1000 people
6. Thailand 2.77 per 1000 people
7. Canada 2.48 per 1000 people
8. India 2.37 per 1000 people
9. Slovenia 1.85 per 1000 people
10. Turkey 1.79 per 1000 people


(See http://www.nationmaster.com/cat/cri)

[Vitruvius]

38. If it's profitable to lock people up, the prisons will always be full.

And the Rethugs have made it very profitable indeed, both by
1) prison construction & prison operation contracts for Rethug campaign contributors -- and
2) the slave labor of the inmates -- working for a dollar a day for favored Rethug companies like Microsoft.

The "prison industrial complex" -- as it's known in the trade -- is a tremendous moneymaker for rich Rethugnicans. How to get the inmates? Lock up 30% of Black men. And when they're locking people up on an industrial scale, they can't be too fussy about minor details like guilt or innocence or equal justice under the law.

Vitruvius

P.S: When my Father was growing up in a major rust-belt city in the North in the 1930s, every spring the cops would round up as many Black men were needed to repair all the potholes from the winter. No question of guilt -- the cops arrested anybody they thought was big & strong enough to do the work.

Which saved the city taxpayers a bundle -- all in accordance with Rethugnican principles.

[Pert_UK]

36. Think how many crimes we'd prevent by locking up ALL black people....

No, hear me out.....

If 30% of black people are going to be convicted of jailable offences, there must be another, say 5 - 10% who commit similar crimes but who aren't caught. Then there's another percentage who commit crimes which only merit fines or community work.

We must be up around 50% by now.....so if the MAJORITY of black people are criminals then if we lock up ALL black people without trial, that will massively reduce the crime rate.

Of course, some innocent people will get locked up, but isn't that a small price to pay for such a huge impact on crime?

OBVIOUSLY I'M BEING SARCASTIC HERE......just trying to highlight the current approach by the Bush administration when it comes to "fair" trials....not to mention a system that is clearly biased against black people - more likely to be convicted and more likely to receive a severe sentence than white people with the same evidence/charges, IIRC.

P.

[QuietStorm]

40. and what percent of the Afr Am innercities will die of Aids?

[fortyfeetunder]

41. Dries up a bloc of voters

Sure there is a plan, as most of you have said. So 30% are locked up, and whoever is left find a way to bust them so they are no longer able to vote. In some areas that wraps up the Democratic voting bloc.

[Beetwasher]

42. This story is up there in my "most disturbing category"

as in one the most disturbing statistics I've seen in a long time...And I see a lot of statistics...

[Sweetpea]

45. I brought this up in the General Discussion Board and some folks

thought I was exaggerating or giving in to stereotypes. These stats are real and frightening.