I got two examples of this.
Recently here in Chicago, a report was released on the torture of black suspects at the hands of the Chicago police in the 70’s and 80’s. Unfortunately, there can be no indictments for the men in charge due to the statute of limitations. Now there is an uproar because current Mayor Richard Daley was Cook County’s top prosecutor during this era. He used the confessions obtained by torture to convict countless black men. Of course he says, that if he had known, he would not have allowed the torture to happen.
That reminded me of the case of Mumia abu Jamal and how the prosecutors campaign for election back in my old home in Philly. Jamal’s conviction has been criticized because of accusations of police witness tampering and intimidation. In one election year, the two top candidates for Philadelphia District Attorney both proudly campaigned on how they were eager to impose the death penalty. The one with he most bravado, Lynn Abraham, won. Ed Rendell became a star after the Jamal conviction. He’s now the Governor and may sign Jamal’s death warrant later this year. (Yea, he’s disinterested.)
The State Of . . . Black Men’s view of the police is just as distrustful now as it was back in the 70’s and 80’s. It boggles my mind that people other than African-Americans don’t understand or know about the roots of this distrust. What is more upsetting is that at least these two men rose to prominence on the persecution of blacks and were praised for it. Because of the tortures, Daley was able to build his stature as an effective prosecutor, which led him to become Chicago’s Mayor.
So what are we to do about this? Look carefully at those candidates who talk about being tough on crime. Are they talking about decreasing crime or decreasing black faces on the street? Are they talking about getting at the causes of crime or just locking up black men? I remember during the Philadelphia campaign I mentioned above, a brother was running against Abraham and promised to increase investigations of white collar crime similar to Eliot Spitzer in New York. Abraham didn’t think it was necessary. Sadly, the residents of Philadelphia agreed with her. We have to overcome this masochistic view that the more black people you lock up, the safer our streets are. It hasn’t been working so far.
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