Even prior to integration Black people have been subjected to the same court system. It has remained unchanged except that more of us have the opportunity to practice law before courts... But the policies that levied so many verdicts and rulings against people with illusory claims of blind Justice remain in place- when there were bathrooms for which we were deemed unfit... We were still under the authority of a judiciary made of mainly white men, some, if not, many of whom, in their private lives thought this way. It was thus reflected in their rulings. We were and still are at the mercy of the court. This is exemplified by the fact that we must campaign simply to have both private citizens and state actors simply tried for murders even in cases when we as Black people, and those that would align themselves with us, are unarmed and unjustifiably slain. Byron De Le Beckwith was able to circumvent Justice for multiple decades in the killing of Medgar Evers, Edgar Ray killen eluded justice although it was common knowledge that he played a key role in killing 3 freedom riders in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Who killed Emmett Till? Were they convicted? Was George Zimmerman? Who killed Jordan Davis? Was he convicted FOR KILLING Jordan Davis? No- he was convicted of attempted murder for the boys that lived when he fired into their car. Imagine if they had died and couldnt testify on behalf of their lives worth? If they were simply figments of imaginations and perceptions like Trayvon Martin was in George zimmermans trial would he have been convicted? Should this be a question one would have to ask considering the facts? Trayvon was an idea... In the minds of the jurors. An idea that terrified them enough to rationalize him being a person who could be killed justifiably by a strange man following him with a gun in the dark in the rain... An idea - a figment of their imagination who did not have the right to be afraid of a stranger. A figment whom they disregarded even though he acknowledged his own fear when he said he was being followed by someone Creepy. While legislation through the civil rights act of 1964 and voting rights act of 1965 attempted to address discrimination by private citizens and state legislation from creating inherently oppressive laws... The courts saw no such reformation. This is the same court that ruled on Dred Scott (Supreme Court ruled that Persons of African descent cannot be, nor were ever intended to be, citizens under the U.S. Const. Plaintiff is without standing to file a suit) Plessy vs ferguson (The separate but equal provision of private services mandated by state government is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause). And just as blacks were subjected to this form of injustice shrouded in a justice system then... we find ourselves still in that place before judges interpreting laws that were never created with the intention of serving as OUR protection - justices have even stated as much historically. Now, we see legislation today that is not only twisted to exonerate some and condemn others (See Marissa Alexander & George Zimmerman) but also expanded to dehumanize others (see Anti-immigration laws and how they are applied to Hispanic/Latino community vs. Canadians, and any others). Voter ID laws, disproportionate stop and frisk laws. The court has never ruled against its own inherent inequities. Backwoods justice (injustice) is as prevalent as it ever was... Its supported by front porch legislation and execution of those laws. And we still find men and women tied up in the constraints of a system bound by laws that admittedly (by the courts own admission) were never designed with their rights in mind... But they were still subjected to it and at the mercy of it... Are still at the mercy of it. If justice is as difficult to find as it seems to be for Black folks, poor folks, and minorities - in the way it is executed by officers, the way it is drafted by legislators, & often in the way it is interpreted by a system that has not undergone any transformation- then is it possible to find freedom within a justice system - where justice is not even a guarantee upon obvious violation... And a subsequent request. Can a free person truly be free where they must still request, beg for, demand, and hope for to the apparent authority figures the rights which should be inherent to them as human beings? #ferguson #mikebrown #iftheygunnedmedown #ericgarner #oscargrant #aiyanajones #johncrawfordiii #seanbell #amadoudiallo #every28hours
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 22:48:49 +0000