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 Justice may be blind, but she can still discern color. The long and tarnished history of judicial inequality in this country explains much of the black communitys distrust of the courts. From the Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court outrages to the daily verdicts handed out in Illinois criminal courts, black citizens consistently get the short end of the stick, especially at the scandal-ridden county juvenile facility. During the decades of Democratic dominance in the south before the civil rights movement, African Americans who were brought before white Democratic judges and juries were essentially guilty until proven innocent. If a black person was accused of committing a crime against a white person, the facts were nearly irrelevant. And sadly, even when the judicial system limited the punishment to a fine or a jail term, Democrat vigilantes often took matters violently into their own hands.
Unfortunately, to this very day African Americans are victims of a badly skewed court system. Blacks make up a disproportionately large percentage of the national prison population, death row inmates and those serving life without parole. Even when blacks and whites commit the same crimes, blacks are punished far more heavily. A recent study found that African Americans make up 96.5% of defendants in crack cocaine cases, even though whites represent over 2/3 of crack cocaine users. Furthermore, most social observers are aware that crack cocaine convictions, predominantly meted out to blacks, are exponentially harsher than those administered for powder cocaine, a white drug. All this comes despite a complete lack of judicial explanation for the discrepancy. Many in the African American community agree with former Assistant U.S. Attorney David Baugh who said that most American judges see African Americans as more threatening. For that reason, African Americans are treated differently. Racial prejudice is still the bane of black people who seek justice under the law.
Meanwhile the organizations formed for the very purpose of fighting racial discrimination have badly lost their way. The ACLU is now too myopically focused on its anti-religion witch-hunt to address the lingering problems blacks face in the courts. While the ACLU is forcing small towns in New Mexico and large counties in Southern California to remove historical religious images from their seals, African Americans continue to fill our nations prisons. The NAACP seems more interested in raising money and getting Jesse Jackson back into the news to do much for the black community. Without a voice, African Americans will continue to be victims of a system that encourages police to go for easy arrests and convictions, requires defendants to come up with exorbitant fees to ensure quality representation, and arbitrarily punishes one group of people more than another for the same offense.
The Chicago Republican Party is proud to be support Republican candidates who put forward a bold plan to stop the extended incarceration of self-abusers; those hooked on drugs that need help more than punishment. Theses plans partner the government with faith-based non-profit organizations and state run rehabilitation centers as alternatives to expensive prison stays. Thousands of young African American males who are currently filling our prison could become healthy members of society if given assistance rather than one-size-fits-all punishment. These changes would return many members of the black community back to their families.
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