The Democrat’s Achilles Heel – An American Criminal Justice System that Still Fails African Americans

 

It’s not as if Black American voters are vulnerable to being recruited by the Trump-controlled Republican Party. But they just might feel frustrated enough to abstain from the November mid-term elections, where voters traditionally vote in lower numbers than in presidential election years. There is so much distracting news – obviously Putin’s war against Ukraine and the resulting inflation – that the clarion call for equal justice for minorities of color seems to have been drowned out by so many other issues . After a number of smartphone videos, Black Lives Matter protests, and very public and some successful trials against police using excessive force, even to the point of Blue-on-Black shootings, the road to equal justice seems to have stalled. 

Writing for the March 17th Associated Press, Aaron Morrison and Hannah Fingerhut present evidence of that disturbing reality: “Few Americans believe there has been significant progress over the last 50 years in achieving equal treatment for Black people in dealings with police and the criminal justice system.

“Most Americans across racial and ethnic groups say more progress is necessary, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But Black Americans, many whom may have held hope in Democrats’ promises on racial justice initiatives in 2020, are especially pessimistic that any more progress will be made in the coming years.

“Overall, only about a quarter of Americans say there has been a great deal or a lot of progress in achieving racial equality in policing and criminal justice. Roughly a third say there’s been ‘some’ progress. An overwhelming majority of adults say more progress is needed for racial equality, including about half who say ‘a lot’ more…

“Among those who think more progress is needed on achieving fair treatment for Black Americans by police, 31% say they are optimistic about that happening in the next few years, and 38% are pessimistic. Roughly a third say they hold neither opinion… Only 20% of Black Americans who think more needs to be done are optimistic; 49% are pessimistic…  And although at least three-quarters of white and Black Americans say more progress is needed, Black Americans are much more likely than white Americans to say a lot more needs to be done, 70% vs. 47%.” 

The last seismic shifts in protecting minority rights occurred in the civils rights cases and legislation in the 1950s and 60s. Recent efforts to reform police use of force, especially against minorities, began with a flourish and has since fizzled into minor adjustments. Indeed, despite some successes, the recent trend seems to have devolved into a red-state flurry to reverse those gains, particularly when it comes to minority voting rights.

The Brennen Center reminds us that on “June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court swept away a key provision of this landmark civil rights law in Shelby County v. Holder. In April 2010, Shelby County, Alabama filed suit asking a federal court in Washington, DC to declare Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. Those states, named in that Section 5 who were subject to federal supervision for patterns of voting rights suppression, were effectively released from those requirements, as section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – a statute passed in 1965 (amended and affirmed most recently by Congress in 2008) to ensure state and local governments do not pass laws or policies that deny American citizens the equal right to vote based on race – was held to be stale and thus unconstitutional. 

Every state so supervised immediately passed restrictive voting laws, rather transparently focused on reducing the ability of minority voters, generally presumed to lean Democratic, to be able to vote. Where the obvious result of such state legislation targets minority voters but does not actually name or clearly identify the excluded or impacted class, the Supreme Court ruled a year ago – in Brnovich vs Democratic National Committee, which addressed such a voting restriction law in Arizona – that there was no remedy. So, today it is vastly more difficult for minorities to vote for anyone. 

Looking at restricitve laws introduced and/or passed as of January of this year, the Brennen Center tells us: The efforts to restrict voting have continued into this year. As of January 14th, “legislators in at least 27 states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 250 bills with restrictive provisions, compared to 75 such bills in 24 states on January 14, 2021. These figures include carryover bills, which are far more common this year (an even-numbered legislative year) than last (an odd-numbered year). When carryover bills are set aside to focus on new legislative activity — the pre-filed and introduced bills — the increase in restrictive bills is still stark: 96 bills would make it harder to vote in 12 states as of January 14, 2022, compared to 69 such bills in 23 states, a 39 percent increase.”

A recent Texas primary, reeling under new voting restrictions, unraveled in confusion with the rejection of 27,000 votes. With new voting restrictions in Georgia, African American Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock – elected last year in a special election to fill out the term of the late Sen. Sen. Johnny Isakson who retired due to ill health – faces an election now tilted toward white voters. It’s a big story across the nation: the combined effect of disenchantment and disenfranchisement of voters of color. 

With elections won or lost by very small margins, often by less than a percentage point, Democrats need to refocus their efforts on this critical constituency or prepare to engage lots of moving trucks as they are voted out of Congress.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the increasing tolerance of so many Americans in support of inequality and voter exclusion is, frankly, exceptionally and terrifyingly un-American.