Justice is supposed to be blind. If the so-called justice system is not blind then it's of no use.
This is a truism if you happen to be Black and especially if you happen to be a Black male.
You will be treated more harshly than anyone else for the exact same violation.
You will be treated more harshly than anyone else for the exact same violation.
It would be comforting to think that this bias only happened in the bad old days or in certain backwards Southern states but it still happens everywhere today.
The different standard is so obvious that in the latest example even the white (or at least non-Black) person who benefitted from this bias recognized it and called it out.
A video of police officers breaking up a fight at a New Jersey mall has sparked anger over accusations that law enforcement treated the two teenagers involved in the scuffle — one Black and one white — differently.
In a video documenting the fight at the Bridgewater Commons mall in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, the teens could be seen arguing."Get your hand out of my face," the Black teen said, pushing away the hand of the white teen, who was pointing at him.
The white teen then shoved the Black teen hard, and the two began fighting. The white teen threw the Black teen first onto a nearby couch and then onto the ground. Two police officers ran over while the white teen was standing over the Black teen, who was throwing punches from the ground.
One officer pushed the white teen onto the nearby couch and motioned for him to stay there before joining the other officer in pinning down the Black teen on his stomach. Someone could be heard saying "he swung at me first" as the two officers put their knees on the Black teen's back and handcuffed him. The white teen stood up from the couch and continued to watch.
The Bridgewater Mall Fight is the clearest example of how police actively use race as a shorthand for who they perceive as a threat.
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) February 16, 2022
See for yourself. pic.twitter.com/ThJPQFNEzO
"They basically tackled me to the ground, and then the male officer put his knee in my back, and then he started putting me in cuffs," Kye told ABC 7. "Then the female officer came over and put her knee on my upper back too, and started helping him put cuffs on me while he was just sitting down on the couch watching the whole thing."
ABC 7 reported that the white teen was never handcuffed and that neither teen was charged over the incident.
The way Joseph tells it, he was trying to prevent a fight from happening last Saturday at the Bridgewater Commons mall. Joseph, 15, is Colombian and Pakistani and says he’s “not white.” He has been referred to on social media and in some news reports as “white” because he has light colored skin. The high school sophomore said once he saw cops put the other teen, Kye, into handcuffs, he offered himself up to be detained, too.
Instead, the officers sat him down on a couch, the video shows. “I don’t understand why they arrested him and not me,” said Joseph, interviewed Friday by NJ Advance Media. “I say that was just plain old racist. I don’t condone that at all. Like I said, I even offered to get arrested.”
Imagine the difference in perspective and stress levels between one person who knows that in just about every case the police are there to help him or her and another person who knows that in just about every case the police are there to make his or her day more difficult, based not on their actions, but their identity.
That is some deep-seated bias to see two children fighting and only arrest the Black one. But it's not unusual. It's too often how society operates. Kye is lucky that he wasn't tased, beaten, shot, or killed. I don't know how to fix this. But it can't continue. Police aren't infallible. They have biases and prejudices like we all do. But when you give someone the ability to assault, arrest, and kill with the state's full authority you must ensure that they rethink their bias instead of blindly following it. As Kye's mother said, those cops must be made unemployable.
Imagine the difference in perspective and stress levels between one person who knows that in just about every case the police are there to help him or her and another person who knows that in just about every case the police are there to make his or her day more difficult, based not on their actions, but their identity.
