[Vision2020] Question for debate-"Why not open

[Donovan Arnold]

Perhaps Hispanics are more likely to run from the police because they think 
that they will not be treated fairly in the US Criminal Justice System? 
There obviously still is discrimination against Hispanics if even so-called 
Democrats think that all criminals that are Hispanic are here illegally.

Donovan J Arnold


>From: "Melynda Huskey" <mghuskey at msn.com>
>To: dickschmidt at moscow.com, Vision2020 at moscow.com
>CC: donovanarnold at hotmail.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Question for debate-"Why not open
>Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 09:49:47 -0700
>
>Dear Dick,
>
>I checked out your website, which lists "every suspect involved in a WSP 
>investigated felony collision that attempted to evade justice by fleeing 
>the scene of a serious injury collision (Felony Hit and Run), or by failing 
>to appear in court for Vehicular Homicide and/or Vehicular Assault 
>charges."
>
>A few observations:
>
>A Latino name does not give any information about the citizenship status of 
>a person.  You seem to assume that all Latinos are undocumented immigrants, 
>which is demonstrably false.
>
>The rate at which people of various ethnic groups evade arrest for 
>vehicular homicide is *not* a predictor for much of anything, including the 
>crime rate or the incarceration rate.
>
>Moreover, incarceration rates are themselves not a straightforward measure 
>of criminality.  Here's why, as ably explained by Manning Marable:
>
>"In April 2000, utilizing national and state data compiled by the FBI, the 
>Justice Department and six leading foundations issued a comprehensive study 
>that documented vast racial disparities at every level of the juvenile 
>justice process. African Americans under age 18 comprise 15 percent of 
>their national age group, yet they currently represent 26 percent of all 
>those who are arrested. After entering the criminal justice system, white 
>and black juveniles with the same records are treated in radically 
>different ways. According to the Justice Department's study, among white 
>youth offenders, 66 percent are referred to juvenile courts, while only 31 
>percent of the African-American youth are taken there. Blacks comprise 44 
>percent of those detained in juvenile jails, 46 percent of all those tried 
>in adult criminal courts, as well as 58 percent of all juveniles who are 
>warehoused in adult prison. In practical terms, this means that for young 
>African Americans who are arrested and charged with a crime, that they are 
>more than six times more likely to be assigned to prison that white youth 
>offenders.
>
>"For those young people who have never been to prison before, African 
>Americans are nine times more likely than whites to be sentenced to 
>juvenile prisons. For youths charged with drug offenses, blacks are 48 
>times more likely than whites to be sentenced to juvenile prison. White 
>youths charged with violent offenses are incarcerated on average for 193 
>days after trial; by contrast, African-American youths are held 254 days, 
>and Latino youths are incarcerated 305 days.
>
>"Once black and brown women and men are ensnared into the criminal justice 
>system, they routinely experience the same racial profiling in the courts. 
>According to studies of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, black 
>Americans constitute only 15 percent of the nation's drug users, but 
>comprise about one-third of all those arrested on drug charges and 57 
>percent of those convicted on drug charges. Once they are convicted on drug 
>charges, African Americans receive on average one year more in prison than 
>whites who have identical criminal profiles and who commit the same 
>crimes."
>
>http://www.cc-ds.org/Articles/abolishing.htm  (warning!  this is a 
>socialist website, although the Justice Dept. study was not conducted by 
>socialists)
>
>A more in-depth study can be found here
>
>http://www.civilrights.org/publications/cj/index.html
>
>Best,
>
>Melynda Huskey
>
>
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