Example: Calvin Johnson a 25 year old African American was wrongfully accused of four rape crimes in 1999, which he was given a life sentence plus 16 years. He was identified by four different women, which one of them claim she got a good look at him in her apartment. Being a young African American college student recently released from a prison for a burglary he committed in 1981;the authorities decided to focus on Calvin Johnson. The victim had already pleaded guilty to the crime and served 20 months. While incarcerated a detective brought a white female to his cell wanting to discuss other crimes in the neighborhood. Calvin refused to talk about crimes he had no knowledge about. Shortly, after this incident the white female identify Calvin
Gender and Race play the most prominent role in the criminal justice system. As seen in the movie Central Park 5, five African American boys were charged with the rape of the a white women. In class decision we’ve discussed how the media explodes when it reports cross-racial crimes. The Central Park 5 were known everywhere and even terms were being made up during the process such as wilding. Also, during one of the class discussions it was brought up that victims of crime are of the same race of the perpetrator. However, the media likes to sensationalize crime of the victim being of a different race, because it makes for a good story. By doing this, the media does create more of a division of race. As seen in the video Donald Trump was trying
The article “Interracial Rape Cases in North Carolina” reminds me one of Harper Lee’s famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” as Tom Robinson was accused from raping Mayella. The entire trial, to the guilty verdict, were all racially biased. Yet, there is a long way to go for the world to get rids of its injustices, and injustices will comply with the society for many years to come. Race and inequality are often related together because of the racial segregation in the 1800s. During that time, racial inequalities had increased dramatically. To study this scenario, the article “Interracial Rape Cases in North Carolina” portrayed several evidences of how blacks slaves were falsely accused rape; they seem hopeless and eventually sentenced to death. Yet they did have evidences to prove them innocent, however, everything does not go as was hoped. What it was like
Several groups of white and black men rode the trains in the thirties for transportation. One night a group of white men started a fight with the black men in the train, which led to them getting kicked off. Later on in the case it is proved that the white men start the fight because both of the men have different stories and one of them admits to starting it all. After the white men were kicked off of the train it was ridden to the next stop somewhere in Alabama. Upon arriving at the station the black men and the white women were arrested for vagrancy. While talking to the police the women accused all of the black men of raping them. These women were known prostitutes of the area but their word was still taken over the black men who were accused. Twelve days later the trial took place. There were many witnesses that held bias towards the black men. One acquaintance of the women was a white lady who refused to support the lies that were coming out of the white women's mouths. One physician stated that two of the men were so badly crippled that they were incapable of committing such a crime. This wa...
For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the issue of racial profiling. The act of racial profiling may rest on the assumption that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to commit crimes than any individual of other races or ethnicities. Both David Cole in the article "The Color of Justice" and William in the article "Road Rage" take stance on this issue and argue against it in order to make humanity aware of how erroneous it is to judge people without evidence. Although Cole and William were very successful in matters of showing situations and qualitative information about racial profiling in their articles, both of them fail at some points.
A landmark legal case that is proof of all the racial profiling that is present in such issues is the case Brandley v. Keeshan. In this case Clarance Brandley, a black high school janitor was accused of raping and murdering Cheryl Fergeson, a sixteen-year-old white student. He and another janitor had found her naked in the school’s loft. Once interrogations were conducted to figure out who was the one guilty of the crime the investigator told Brandley, “Since you’re the nigger, you’re elected.” This information stands for itself on showing that racial profiling was an is an issue within the criminal justice system, but that discrimination is only a small portion of what happened in the case. Brandley was also given a polygraph test and the examiner, having sixteen years of experience said he was not involved in the crime, but that information was dismissed. He was also interrogated for five hours in which they tried to make him please guilty, but Bradley did not give into the intimidation of the interrogation and kept saying he was innocent. In court, Brandley faced an all-white jury twice. During an interview, Brandley stated that black jurors had been taken out of the jury. The town where Brandley’s court was held was a town where Klu Klux Klan meetings still took place and the
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
The way the media portrays a trial influences many people’s views of the trial, such as the George Zimmerman trial. Racial profiling is based on the way a person looks or acts. The way some media portrayed George Zimmerman was as an innocent white man who shot Trayvon Martin as an act of self-defense. Other media such as NBC portrayed him as a racist. The way these two media portrayed him influenced many Americans to determine a verdict without hearing the trial. In the article “The Quiet Racism in the Zimmerman Trial” by Steven Mazie, he implies ...
A white district attorney vehicle was stolen by two black males, making it stressful on the attorney because he could lose a black vote, or could lose a law and order vote. This is a big issue happening in America today. A lot of these situations that happen are based on emotion, and how different races have entered our lives in good or bad ways. If a black man did a white woman a good deed, typically the white woman is going to remember that black man as a good man and she will have a positive outlook for the black race. Now, if a white woman had a negative conflict with a black male, depending on how bad the situation was she may have a negative outlook against the black race, because of the situations she’s been through. I feel people do not try to be so much racial, but rather the experiences they have with a particular race, perceiving weather they feel comfortable or uncomfortable with a specific race. For, example a police officer pulls over a black SUV that his partner states is not the correct vehicle. The police officer sees that it is a black couple driving the vehicle so he decides to pull the vehicle over anyways because of his negative experience with black people. Not to mention this police officer is having a lot of problems in his life and is very overwhelmed because his father is very ill and needs medication to help make him feel better. The officer had bad experiences with the receptionist, meanwhile she was black and would not help the officer out with his father illness. The officer then has a bad view against black people, after all his father has done is help the community get jobs and help them live better lives, no matter their background, gender, ethnicity, or race. This, infuriates the officer that the receptionist does not help him out. The officer is on duty with a lot on his mind, meanwhile after dealing with a bad situation from a black woman, he takes it to work with
In modern-day America the issue of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is controversial because there is substantial evidence confirming both individual and systemic biases. While there is reason to believe that there are discriminatory elements at every step of the judicial process, this treatment will investigate and attempt to elucidate such elements in two of the most critical judicial junctures, criminal apprehension and prosecution.
Notice how both Martin’s and Brown’s murderers, described them as what they perceived them to be and not what they really were. Two innocent victims that did nothing to deserve death and still were painted wrong by the media and their murderers, because of the colour of their skin and not the content of their
Racial profiling in America, as evidenced by recent events, has reached a critical breaking point. No longer can an African American, male or female, walk into a store, school, or any public place without fear of being stereotyped as a person of suspicion. Society constantly portrays the African American
Welch, Kelly. 2007. “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling.” Journal of Contemporary Justice 23(3): 276-288 also talks about the discrimination within the courtroom, in the court it has been shown that the prosecutors when fighting a case against the defendant who’s client is Black use their race as an argument to win the case. They try to show how Black people are prone to be violent due to racial factors and therefore should be sentenced harshly. Given the history, unfortunately this argument sets in well and therefore leads to sentencing and prison time for the Black
The victim reported a black male of rape, but was not positive it was him. Secondly, She had
One it depicts the problems that African American male defendants have in getting a fair trial. Given the negative police actions, it is reasonable for many African Americans to accept that police racism exists, and that this racism would lead into false biases of framing African Americans defendants in a court setting. It also shows the difference in treatment of whites who are the exploiters, consistently showing up as the “good guys”. Their superiority is taken as justified while non -whites are the “bad guys”. In Kopplemans, Understanding Human Differences section one he describes how the majority group creates names and labels for the minority groups. When a dominant group has the power to label the subordinate group labels are used to define and control the subordinate group. The media portrays these groups in negative ways (Koppleman, 2005). In “A Time to Kill”, African Americans are labeled as enemies of the community, the story is predicated on the fact that society is so racist that this father has to avenge his daughter himself. If the little girl had been white, there would have been prosecution to the fullest extent of law; however since the girl was black, he couldn’t depend on our system justice to prevail in a positive outcome. Unfortunately, this stereotype is deeply ingrained in our popular culture and
A black man is found guilty for the rape of a white woman even though there is no evidence to support it. What does that say about society?