The Criminal Justice System and Systemic Racism

Atticus Finch peels the criminal justice onion and disambiguates the relationship between the criminal justice system and systemic racism:

This scene is the accurate depiction of what criminal justice looks and feels like to black people today.

If you look and listen closely, you’ll  see and hear that the injustice is not only about police policies and procedures, it’s about American society and the American way of life.

Even though the book and movie, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, are set in a different time, the issues that are raised and addressed are  reflected in today’s headlines.

Whether what we are witnessing today is the beginning of a seismic shift in societal attitudes and understandings about the nature, effect, and impact of racism, depends on whether current events are seen by white folks as an opportunity to confront their racism or seen by them as another instance that requires a systemic  ‘duck and cover’ maneuver that results in throwing the police under the racist bus of obfuscation and denial.

The current trend toward reformation of law enforcement entities and revision of police policies and procedures is like slapping a coat of paint on the front of a house that needs structural repairs from the foundation to the roof.

If allowed to do so, white folks will place all of the blame for systemic racism on the racism that is extant in law enforcement and policing.

Then, they’ll run a few cosmetic rules, regulations, and legislative enactments into the mix.

As soon as the streets are cleared and the protesters quiet down and go home, there’ll be a wholesale return ‘normalcy’….

The only real difference will be that the cops will be left holding America’s racist bag…

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