Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Equal justice?

As a youngster I played for a popular soccer club in my parish in Jamaica. (Shout out to Kirkvine FC) Some of our fans were...well... let's just say that they weren't exactly candidates for citizens of the year.

One such fan was riding me on his motorbike to play an opposing team when we were stopped by the local police. To make a long story short, my friend the soccer fan, was cuffed and brought to the police station where he got his ass kicked was "interrogated" by the local police. (Turns out it wasn't "his" motorcycle after all.) I, on the other hand, was much more fortunate. ''Yu a Doctor Bennett son, gwan bout yu business, and don't mek mi se u wid de likes of dis man u wit again. Him a bad business. Yu daddy is a good man. "

A few weeks later I saw the guy and asked him what happened. Sure enough, he said they took him to the police station and kicked his ass before letting him go. I told him I was sorry, but he said in no uncertain terms not to worry about it. "Yu a Doctor Bennett son, mi know se dem can't bodda yu."

That was privilege working for me, so I am not naïve when it comes to understanding the dynamics of an individual getting breaks because of his wealth, status, or connections. Still, it doesn't make it right. These were some local cops throwing me a break because they knew who my dad was. And the truly sad thing about this little anecdote is that, looking back at it, the victim of the injustice knew it as well, and he was cool with it.    

Fast forward to the United States, 2016. We all know the story by now of the kid from Stanford, who, inexcusably, was given six months for raping and violating a woman. SIX MONTHS!!

The prosecution asked for six years, but the Judge did not want to ruin the young man's life, and he did not think that he would be a "danger to others." He had too much going for him: wealth, connections, skin color.... you get the picture. They didn't even release his mug shot until there was outrage on social media and other areas over the subject.

But this was not a police officer giving the kid a break; this was a Judge. A Judge who would have no doubt thrown a poor black, brown, or white kid in jail for at least six years. This is like the "affluenza kid making his wealth work for him in the justice system, and everyone is sickened by it.  

Don't think that people in society don't see these types of cases of injustice playing themselves out every day across the country. And unlike my friend with the stolen motorbike, they don't understand the reason for it, and they won't accept that this is just the way it is.

Will Bunch, writing for Philly.com,  wrote eloquently about the subject.

"But the problem here -- and it's a huge problem -- is that the "war on political correctness" is largely just an excuse for Trump's mostly white, heavily male group of supporters to dismiss any grievance -- no matter how legitimate -- by women, by the LGBT community, by racial and religious minority groups, as just liberal "white noise." That assumes some kind of fictional, magical world where all serious social inequity was pretty much wiped off the earth in black-and-white footage of the 1960s, so that's all that remains in their book is  left-wing rebels without a legitimate cause.

And yet nearly every day, even if you're not looking for it, a story of rank injustice and unfairness in today's America will all but smack you in the face. Sometimes, they cross over into the broader national dialogue, as happened this week with the shockingly light sentence meted out to Brock Turner, 20, a now convicted rapist who happened to have been a star swimmer at an elite university, Stanford.

Turner was caught in the act, raping a drunk and unconscious woman near a trash dumpster after a party on the Northern California campus, and chased down by two heroic strangers. Turner's defense that the woman somehow consented, despite her lack of consciousness, was rejected, yet the judge in the case, Aaron Persky, meted out a lighter sentence than one could possibly imagine (the law allowed for up to 14 years). The young man got six months (but probably just three) behind bars -- to be served now in a prison but a county jail -- and three years probabtion. Said Persky, himself a former Stanford athlete: "A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him (Turner)."

But what's truly shocking is that Persky (who now faces a recall drive, and rightfully so) meted out this light wrist slap after listening to the victim, 23, read an unbelievably moving 7,000-word statement about the severe impact on her. It was both a gut-wrenching account of the soul-crushing aftermath of sexual assault and a bitter, stinging indictment of America's sick rape culture...

Turner -- yeah, sure, he lost some stuff like his scholarship, but he will still basically be free to get on with the rest of his life before the first autumn leaf hits the ground. This woman lost a piece of her soul that she will not get back -- not in three months, not in three years, not ever. Of course, maybe Turner's swimming times did matter in the end. Maybe that's why he received a sentence that almost certainly would not have been in the cards had he been almost anyone else.

Indeed, the columnist Shaun King noted that a 19-year-old star football player at Vanderbilt -- also an elite private university -- named Cory Batey was similarly caught, amid overwhelming evidence, of sexually assaulting a woman, tried and, like Turner, convicted on multiple felony counts. Unlike Turner, Batey was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 15 to 25 years in prison.

Maybe it's because it was Tennessee..or just maybe Batey didn't get the same break because he is black." [ More]

*Pic from Santa Clara County sheriff's office.




30 comments:

Anonymous said...

First time I will agree with you in all the years I've read your blog, Field. This Stamford swimmer seems to have been endowed with white privilege in his sentencing for sexual assault. Who would honestly disagree?

Anonymous said...

That dude seriously has that look about him. If it wasn't rape he would have been shooting up a school or church.

dinthebeast said...

His dad didn't help his image much either: Six months is a "steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action." I'm assuming that price would seem different to him if it was his daughter (or for that matter, if his son had been raped), or really, fuck it, if it had been him who had been raped. Those possibilities probably never occurred to him before he said such an awful thing. Rape is not sex, rape is rape. Some people (some men) don't like that fact, and they are assholes.

-Doug in Oakland

P House said...

Fucking creepy ass white boy. Can't trust those devils.

James Bold said...

Meanwhile in the real world, one of Chicago's beneficiaries of Black skin privilege aka "too many young Black men in prison" shoots 3 with intent to kill in Memphis and kills a police officer by running him over:

http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/32148165/police-identify-suspect-in-officers-death-downtown-shootings

This guy should have been in prison for gun charges and parole violations, but he was let go because Blacks are given a pass on criminal behavior.

I'd like to see an "equal application of justice" law which requires that charges be prosecuted and sentences be served similarly across entire states.  Chicago would be a lot safer if the Black crooks actually stayed out of circulation... especially for the Black people whose lives, we are told, matter.

Anonymous said...

Damn, that's one fine ass white boi. I'm a college educated black woman, and I'm sick of these tired brothers who drink so much malt liquor they can't even hit the booty properly. Black men are so weak!

Rape? Call it whatever you want. I'd let that blue eyed devil crawl up in me anytime!

Alexander Douglas said...

There's a goddamn pimple on my anus! What the fuck?

Mer said...

White people do some fucked up shit. And of course they will always get away with it. Fuckers.

Joder La Resistencia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joder La Resistencia said...

Wait....What? This isn't he liberal justice the left tells us would make America safer?



Another reason why liberal judges should never be appointed......

James Bold said...

"White people do some fucked up shit. And of course they will always get away with it."

Affluenza boy is going to do some serious time (and his mama isn't going to be happy either).  This guy will get the same.

White people actually DO justice... which is what bothers you.  The thing you fear most is being held responsible for your actions, and especially your failures.  The limit on your race card has been reduced; expect it to be cancelled soon.

Anonymous said...

It seems wherever there are men, vulnerable women will be forcibly sexually attacked. Ever since caveman days it's been this way. Seems no amount of prison time or death sentencing is enough of a deterrent...

Anonymous said...

Let me rephrase that, it should have been: 'vulnerable women stand a big chance of being forcibly sexually attacked'.

Anonymous said...

also let me be clear, I agree that his sentence is ridiculous and of course part and parcel of white privilege!

But I also think that first and foremost she should also be compensated monetarily/financially by him for all of her suffering.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
field negro said...

Lame Bold, did u see what u just wrote? The little monster got 9 months for raping a woman and u think that justice was served? Not surprised.

BTW, the race card is something u and those of your ilk created. There is no card needed for real injustice.

We understand that we have to (metaphorically speaking)kick your ass at every turn, and when we do, u blame it on everything else but your own shortcomings.

James Bold said...

"Lame Bold, did u see what u just wrote? The little monster got 9 months for raping a woman and u think that justice was served?"

No, O Dense One.  I'm saying that the sentence will be appealed (or the outcry will make the judge reconsider) and he will get some real punishment after the dust settles.  Affluenza Boy is a harbinger of what will happen there.

I keep forgetting how abysmally bad you are at references and analogies.  I am constantly shaking my head and going "what?!"  But those reality checks are part of why I come here.

FWIW, I think the over-the-top victim statement had a lot to do with things.  The woman got herself passing-out drunk in public and remembers nothing of the event.  Her "trauma" comes from inside her own mind.  Now contrast her to the Central Park Jogger who went right back to work after her medical recovery.  The difference?  She didn't have a White perp to hate on for the sake of the anti-White media and courts.

field negro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
field negro said...

Sooooo what are u saying, exactly? That the "victim" had it coming to her for being drunk in public? That because this little monster was white the media was tougher on him?

You do remember what happened to the young men who were WRONGLY accused in the case u referenced, right?

I swear, being a racIst troll must eat at what little brains u have left.

Greg said...

White privilege is real. Anyone who says otherwise is a piece of shit.

Lt. Commander Johnson said...

Ya know, field? I don't think you believe in the Death Penalty, per say, BUT!

If we're going to have it, I say let's just treat it like Jury Duty is done today.

Of course, you can get out of it, just like Jury Duty, but let the People decide.

Their identities could be hidden, until they write their books, perhaps.

Lt. Commander Johnson said...

Come to think of it...I've brought this idea up before on your blog.

I don't care if the creep is brown, black, white, yellow, red, or a combination of sorts.

If he/she has been convicted by a jury, and then a judge feels it necessary to sentence them to death, I'll pull the trigger, push the button, flip the switch, or what have you.

I won't be losing any sleep over it.

If a mistake was made, it wasn't my fault.

Lance Cockstrong said...

"Get used to disappointment"? - You get used to it dumbass. You are the one making demands and empty threats and no one gives a shit.

"If a mistake was made, it wasn't my fault." - Easy to say until it is you, you won't be so glib about it then.

HouseAnglo said...

In the interest of looking at more sides to the issue, an alternative viewpoint:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/criminal-justice-system-racist-13078.html

Given identical crimes, economic status, court system, I don't have a strong opinion on race-based disparity in outcome and could be convinced either way. It would be interesting to start with conviction and punishment levels based on gender.

Lt. Commander Johnson said...

" Lance Cockstrong said...
"Get used to disappointment"? - You get used to it dumbass. You are the one making demands and empty threats and no one gives a shit.

"If a mistake was made, it wasn't my fault." - Easy to say until it is you, you won't be so glib about it then."

7:19 PM


I guess you're right, cock blaster.

My glibness gets the best of me, I suppose.

Lt. Commander Johnson said...

Umm...of course I should have mentioned, or defined it more clearly....I DON'T GIVE A FLYING SHIT.

James Bold said...

"Sooooo what are u saying, exactly? That the "victim" had it coming to her for being drunk in public?"

She was certainly not "traumatized".  The Central Park Jogger was beaten into a coma.  I doubt this chick even had a sore twat.  Had nobody told her what had gone on while she was blotto, she would have gone about her life the next day as if nothing had happened.  Had she been screwed by a blacksketball player, the whole system would have called her racist for saying "boo" about it.

"That because this little monster was white the media was tougher on him?"

The media made "monsters" of the Duke lacrosse team, who were provably innocent of Crystal Mangum's charges against them.  Prosecutor Mike Nifong lost his law license for what he did in that case, and Mangum later went to prison for murder.  It is proven time and time again that the media, courts and police are biased against Whites.  Did you hear anything about the racial composition of the jury that convicted Theodore Wafer of murder, when his home was under assault by unknowns in the wee hours of the morning?  Neither did I.  But we sure hear when a Black is convicted by an all-White jury, don't we?

"You do remember what happened to the young men who were WRONGLY accused in the case u referenced, right?"

Central Park Jogger?  The perps who nearly beat her to death are still guilty.  Even if someone came across her unconscious body later and did what he would with it does not change their guilt one whit.  They confessed, and their confessions ring true; they had guilty knowledge.  The fraud perpetrated by "innocence projects" after the fact changes nothing.

"being a racIst troll must eat at what little brains u have left."

Being an apologist for Black crimes requires having no brains at the outset.

So far as Lt. Commander Johnson is concerned... I don't give a flying shit either.  You don't belong here.  Nobody should care how Whites treat you because Whites shouldn't have to deal with you, period.  Go home.

withoutacountryx@gmail.com said...

Hey my brother This is called Affluenza or? Name it This case is no over yet

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