Race and Equity
Black MO Man Accuses Police After Loft Episode
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A St. Louis man says police officers “treated me like a criminal” after a white neighbor tried to block him from entering his downtown loft. A video got five million Facebook views.
Race and Equity
Texas State University Targeted with Neo-Nazi Propaganda
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Between the November 2016 election of Donald Trump and December 2017, neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups targeted Texas State University at least 10 times, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The school’s administration has struggled to respond.
Race and Equity
Suit Alleges Racial Bias in S.F. Drug Arrests
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San Francisco police officers targeted 37 African Americans with arrests for selling “small amounts of drugs” because of their race, six arrestees contended in a federal lawsuit.
Viewpoints
Why Black Lives Still Don’t Matter
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A Washington State inmate casts a skeptical eye on efforts to eliminate the racial bias that often fuels police treatment of African Americans. Based on his experience of the charged race relations within prison walls, he argues that fear will continue to drive prejudice, despite activists’ efforts to change institutional behavior.
Reforming the System
Racial Justice Should Be Cornerstone of Criminal Justice, Conference Told
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Unless Americans come to grips with the long, ugly history of race relations, there is little hope of making fundamental changes in the criminal justice system, speakers told a Sept. 25 panel at the Smart on Crime conference at John Jay College.
Race and Equity
The Unbroken Link Between Slavery, Jim Crow and Mass Incarceration
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Belton “Money Rock” Platt, a young, flamboyant drug dealer in Charlotte, N.C., spent 20 years in prison before emerging to become a minister. In a new book, journalist Pam Kelley places his life story in the context of generations of southern racism, and in a chat with TCR she explains why such stories remain painfully relevant today.
Race and Equity
PA Blacks Sentenced to Life 18 Times More Than Whites
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Pennsylvania courts sentence defendants to life without parole terms at a rate among the nation’s highest. State Sen. Sharif Street wants lifers to be considered for parole after 15 years — a move that would make 64 percent of lifers eligible for consideration.
Race and Equity
Housing Segregation Fuels Inequalities of U.S. Justice System, says Historian
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Richard Rothstein, a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute, said Thursday that systemic residential segregation continues to have a corrosive effect on U.S. justice. Calling for a resurgent civil rights movement in a speech at John Jay College, he charged the biggest obstacle to change was the Trump administration.
Q&A
‘Don’t Mistake Punishment for Justice’
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A journalist whose brother was sent to prison for murder recounts the long-term impact on his family and community in “My Brother Moochie.” In a conversation with TCR about his book, Issac Bailey explains how the experience informed his own perspective about race and incarceration in the American South.
Race and Equity
A New O.J. Simpson Innocence Theory From F. Lee Bailey
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F. Lee Bailey, attempting to recast his reputation for winning O. J. Simpson’s acquittal in 1994, is publishing a book arguing that Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were killed by Cuban or Colombian hitmen.