... Amendment, politicians replaced slavery with a penal system designed to control black labor. Fredrick Douglass claimed that many white criminals escaped punishment by blacking their faces during a robbery or a murder. Police always found an innocent black man to blame for the crime since, as Douglass pointed out, all Negroes look alike. Douglass claim sounds like a case about a year ago in which ... corporations, whose link to government in the field of what is euphemistically called "corrections" resonate dangerously with the military-industrial complex. The dividends that accrue from i...

• Word Count: 3043
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography

... for possession of crack. Butler states that this case is easily decided, and that jury nullification is the clear answer. He justifies this position by stating that since the crime was victimless, and since there exists such a disparity in sentencing procedures between crack and powdered cocaine, there is no question that the jury nullification is the preferable option. ... by other blacks."21 This phenomenon is only strengthened by the segregation which Butler reports. "In concentrating poverty, segregation acts simultaneously to concentrate anything that is correlated with poverty: crim...

• Word Count: 3584
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... police brutality. "If blacks conduct themselves in an orderly way, they will not have to worry about police brutality," argued West Virginia senator Robert Byrd. (Alexander 42). Rising crime rates were used as an excuse for a crackdown on impoverished black communities. Black activists started campaigning for what later became the notorious Rockefeller drug laws and other unreasonable sentencing measures ... standing in a checkout line with your package of hamburger." These highly racialized appeals targeted poor and working-class whites and were usually accompanied with promises to be ...

• Word Count: 4144
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography

... , slave-worked grain and pork country back of it."" (6) The reader soon learns that this innocent image is just upon the surface and in the depth we find slavery and crime. Slaves are seen in this novel as animalistic creatures ("He was a fairly human man towards slaves and other animals - (14), dependent on the good will of their "master-, and always ... hand for a shake. It was the nigger' in him asserting his humility, and he blushed and was abashed ."" (56) He also asks himself: "'Why were niggers and whites made? What crime did the uncreated first nigger commit that the curse of bir...

• Word Count: 3258
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... lying down. This whole case really disturbs me because the officers could have taken a different action and this man would still be alive today. The punishment I think should have been would be for them to be fired and spend some time in jail. Diallo was just another black man that fit ... concerning the unnecessary stopping and arresting of people based on race, color, ethnicity and gender. Skin-color has become evidence of the propensity to commit crime, and police use this "evidence" against minority drivers on the road all the time. This practice is so common that the minority communi...

• Word Count: 3818
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: High School

... have suggested that the connections between race and sentencing outcomes are exceedingly complex, conditioned by a diverse set of variables, including characteristics of the defendant, the victim, the crime itself and the geographical area where it took place, as well as the bureaucratic organization of local courts, the culture of courtroom workgroups, and even broader features of ... Deviations from the parole guideline ranges were granted by written request (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1996). Furthermore, in responding to public demand for harsher and more certain punishment, the U...

• Word Count: 2620
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... shine job outgrew Malcom, he went to work for the railroad during World War II, this job landed him in Harlem and into a life of crime that was the bases for his life prior to prison. On his trips to Harlem, Malcom sold sandwiches in the railroad cars and upon arriving in ... lives. Malcom returned to Boston and his white woman, Sophia. His friend Shorty was in need of money and a job as well and Malcom began the crime spree that put him in prison. Malcom, Sophia, Shorty, Shorty's friend Rudy and Sophia's sister set up an operation for robbing houses in Boston. The ... Muhammad, it seeme...

• Word Count: 4036
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

... chance at life and free from hatred. In the meantime, the laws should be increased against any kind of hate crime, especially in schools. To many of these offenses are slipping through the cracks of the court system without any kind of punishment whatsoever. No form of racial abuse should be tolerated in the slightest and if offenders knew this, then maybe ... ...

• Word Count: 2609
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... with dirt; soiled, dirty, foul Having dark or deadly purposes, malignant; pertaining to or involving death, deadly; baneful, disastrous, sinister .Foul, iniquitous, atrocious, horrible, wicked .Indicating disgrace, censure, liability to punishment, etc."" (24). These European feelings of racial superiority and negativity towards blacks were brought to America by the English settlers. It was the United States' dependence on African slave labor ... been so cruel."" Northern cities also developed racial problems. Blacks were being forced to live in the worst areas of the cities, which soon...

• Word Count: 2514
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography