Nothing new?: Have
Americans focused too much on
law enforcement and prisons and not enough on the
social context that generates crime and punishment?
Indispensable 'Soul Searching' in Prison-Mad America (Le Monde, France)
"The first
Black president of the United States has so far been reluctant to make defending
the African-American minority a priority issue. Now as he approaches the end of
his second term and has nothing to lose, this is a welcome call. But the soul
searching he is appealing for also involves a reexamination of penal policy: there
are 2.3 million Americans now held in U.S. prisons, and a large minority (about
40 percent) is Black. With astonishing candor, former President Bill Clinton just
acknowledged that the policy of radical repression adopted in the 1990s during
his two terms in office had 'overshot the mark.' It is past time to draw some
lessons."
Are Ferguson and Baltimore part and parcel of the same battle?
It's tempting to compare the rioting that followed the deaths of two young Blacks
at police hands: Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson (Missouri) last
August; and 25-year-old Freddie Gray who died last week in Baltimore (Maryland).
The similarities are striking, although the two tragedies are only the best known of an all-too-long series of police killings or suspicious deaths that have occurred among the African-American minority. There are also
differences, however, and paradoxically, they reveal the depth of
the problem confronting American society.
In Ferguson, the local courts and a federal investigation considered
the police officer who shot Michael Brown to have acted in self-defense. In
Baltimore, Freddie Gray struck by police after his arrest and during transport in a police vehicle even though he offered no resistance, and according to initial
findings, he died from his injuries after falling into a coma. The six officers
involved have been suspended. So in Baltimore, we seem to be dealing with a deliberate
act of police violence.
How Does U.S. Remain Calm in the Face of Ferguson Riots? (Huanqiu, China)
The other important difference is that unlike Ferguson, the
African-American community in Baltimore is well represented among city officials
and the police. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is Black, as are the police
chief, the city prosecutor and half the police officers. In this case, racism
and discrimination are not the primary reasons for the explosion of anger among
the city's Black inhabitants.
A long-simmering
crisis
The principle cause of this "long-simmering crisis"
was pointed out on Tuesday by Barack Obama. The U.S. president rightly distinguished
between the behavior of the thugs and looters who took advantage of the
situation to sack a neighborhood which had already been heavily penalized by
unemployment, delinquency; and the righteous indignation of a Black minority toward
police violence. The former, Obama said, are "criminals." The latter,
the president acknowledged, were reacting to "troubling" questions raised
by the attitude shown by police toward Blacks - particularly males. As
was clearly underlined by the president, "This is not new, and we
shouldn’t pretend that it’s new."
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Indeed, this is a story as old as the United States itself,
and the color of those who hold the baton or revolver changes nothing. The riots
and street violence that have marked recent decades have all too often had as a
starting point the desire to protest police impunity and the treatment of the Black
community.
Barack Obama appealed to the country to "do some soul searching."
The first Black president of the United States has so far been reluctant to
make defending the African-American minority a priority issue. Now as he
approaches the end of his second term and has nothing to lose, this is a
welcome call. But the soul searching he is appealing for also involves a reexamination
of penal policy: there are 2.3 million Americans now held in U.S. prisons, and a
large minority (about 40 percent) is Black. With astonishing candor, former
President Bill
Clinton just acknowledged that the policy of radical repression adopted in the
1990s during his two terms in office had "overshot the mark." It is past
time to draw some lessons.
