What is the Solution for Profiling and Over Policing… ???

Putting federal and/or state, nonprofit and/or private enterprise money into for social change and empowerment groups who invest in communities rather than the government paying the law enforcement and prison systems to vilify, kill and imprison black people without equal representation is the solution…
When black people only make up 5% of lawyers but 12% of the population and “get this” nearly 50% of the imprisoned population, something is very very wrong…

The prison system is big business and a corrupt hierarchical entity like an organized crime mofia but legalized. The privatization of prisoner “slave” labor for corporate use is at the root of a lot of the problems but not all. Profiting from prisons is where the focus needs to be concentrated. This needs to stop. It is like a well oiled machine that has taken on a life of it’s own. States get paid federal moneys to build prisons as a part of the 1994 Crimes Bill implemented by President Bill Clinton (written by then Senator, now President Biden) brought on because of the “War on Drugs” which was reaking havoc in our communities at the time. But this backfired and ended up putting all of our young black males in jail for extremely long unfair sentences for nonviolent petty drug related crimes, there are people serving life without possibility of parole, for shoplifting merchandise worth $100, (murderers get less time), while the kingpins (typically of the majority persuasion) live in the lap of luxury… untouchable. Here is the chance for President Biden to correct this wrong and pardon all nonviolent “3 strikes and you’re out” convictions. President Obama, (Biden, as Vice President) did his part by exercising his constitutional power to pardon, granting commutation of 1,957 sentences. There were greater than 3200 people in the USA serving life without possibility for parole in 2013 for nonviolent crimes, many petty and some not even prosecuted as crimes anymore…

Prisons are built ahead in anticipation of being filled. The prisons need prisoners, so they keep them staffed with young black men, who have been sentenced unfairly by the courts after being brought in by the police, who are finding a wealth victims in the black communities because it is the only place they are looking because of profiling, while the majority are allowed to commit similar or more heinous crimes but they don’t enter the system (because the police turn a blind eye and deaf ear), or if they do get caught, receive a mere slap on the wrist, there’s no jail time, they can make bond until court, etc., or they commit white collar crimes such as with the subprime loan crisis fiasco, losing nearly $1 trillion, but only a couple of CEO’s faced criminal charges, but found “not guilty”, everyone else bailed out with a golden parachute while people lost their homes, life savings, retirement…

The bond system is something else that needs to be overhauled. Why is it that you have to wait for court in jail when you can’t pay bail (another big business benefiting) if there is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty? Why does it depend on your wealth and ability to pay for freedom? I can see if the crime is violent and there is enough evidence for arrest but a lot of these are not. Why is there such a back log in the court system, so that people are jailed for months, primarily us (lack of power, wealth and resources), just waiting for their court date? This is an archaic system that doesn’t work…

Then there is the false and wrongful sentencing for crimes not committed now being overturned 30+\- years later of black men, cleared by DNA evidence which was not available at the time but they were given life sentences with questionable and/or withheld evidence, the word of the police (which was law back then) who in retrospect probably manipulated and planted evidence, they likely set black people up all the time (no cellphones then to capture the truth like we have now). Every black person convicted on the sole word of the police and no other witnesses in the 70’s and earlier, need to be released now…

Recruiting and training police officers. Who is in charge? How are they trained? What are the standards? When should enough be enough? How can fellow police officers police themselves? Surely it is obvious when there is someone who is rogue, power hungry and/or racially charged. There must be some sheriff/police departments headed by racists and/or bigots who have infiltrated the system and are not being held accountable for the actions of their force. They have surrounded themselves with like minded people. 

Accountability is nonexistent. Did you know there is no requirement for the state police departments to report police killings to the federal department of justice? Our government doesn’t have statistics to find outliers. How can the police be held accountable when they don’t have to account. When the best statistics are found through media scrutiny, something is wrong… 

Then there is a need to change the relationship of the police to the communities served. There’s probably those who really believe the stereotypical portrayal of black people by the media and are misguided in their learned fear, there’s hope for those however through sensitivity training and cultural diversity and experience by submerging into communities, getting to know people in real life positive situations. There needs to be trust on both sides. The people need to trust that the police are there to protect, not harm… 

Lastly, we need to be represented fairly and diversely throughout the judicial system, from the elected state and federal officials creating laws, to the chiefs of departments and police officers enforcing laws, to the lawyers prosecuting and defending the laws, to the judges sentencing based on the laws and finally to the corporations benefiting, lobbying for laws. These are the caveats that I know need to change. Knowledge is power. We need to be informed so that we know where to concentrate our efforts and know what demands to make of our legislators to make these changes happen. We have to vote for those willing to take the wheel and turn the tide…