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Racial Disparity In The Criminal Justice System

276 Words2 Pages

Justice is not colorblind. According to the Human Rights Watch, “people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they have higher rate of arrests.” (Human Rights Watch) According to data found by the Department of Education, “96,000 students were arrested and 242,000 referred to law enforcement by schools during the 2009-10 school year.” (Washington Post). “Of those students, black and Hispanic students made up more than 70 percent.” (Washington Post) The deaths of Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin and John Brown and the outrage these cases stirred, proves that racism does exist in the criminal justice system. Therefore, to prevent racial disparity in the criminal justice system it is crucial that America steps up in changing the way that officers respond to a victim of another race, reducing discriminatory mindsets, and lessening the victimizing that is set on these other groups of people. …show more content…

Maxine Waters, a member of congress, is convinced the system is racist, saying that “The color of your skin dictates whether you will be arrested or not, prosecuted harshly or less harshly, or receive a stiff sentence or gain probation or entry into treatment.” (Discover the Networks). “African-Americans comprise only 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of the monthly drug users, but are 37% of the people arrested for drug-related offenses in America.” (Huffington Post). If we trained our officers more thoroughly about how important it is to avoid discrimination we could avoid any accusations of unfairness and work to completely remove racism from the criminal justice

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