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Can Equality Of Results Ever Be Achieved When It Comes To Race And Crime?
Townhall.com ^ | March 25, 2019 | Scott Morefield

Posted on 03/25/2019 3:22:40 AM PDT by Kaslin

In a Washington Examiner column titled “Race should matter when it comes to crime and punishment, even for conservatives,” R Street Institute’s Emily Mooney and Arthur Rizer take issue with my March 11 Townhall column on race, crime, and punishment that, to them, “seemingly mocked attempts to make racial equality under the law an important part of discussions about criminal justice policy.”

“According to Morefield, liberal charges that Paul Manafort’s recent sentence was comparatively easier than those given to individuals of different racial backgrounds is proof that liberals only care about race, not equal justice,” wrote Mooney and Rizer.

To be clear, the concept of equal justice under the law is crucial to any orderly society. If black people are indeed treated differently in our system when all mitigating factors are controlled for, it should be identified and rectified. However, what I did “mock” was the fact that liberals seem to care more about the racial composition of the nation’s prison population than they do about just establishing fair and equitable sentencing across the board, especially as it relates to non-violent crimes of any nature.

The case I made in the column, using former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort as an example, is that simply imposing draconian sentences for what people consider “white people crimes” isn’t the solution. Rather, most all non-violent crimes, including drug offenses, should be met with every alternative to imprisonment that still makes society whole. 

In making their case that racial injustice in criminal justice is something that conservatives should be concerned about, Mooney and Rizer point to research showing that black men are given higher bail amounts and longer sentences than white men for the same crimes. This United States Sentencing Commission report, which the authors link to, finds that from 2012 to 2016 black men actually received on average 19.1 percent longer sentences than white men did for the same crimes, even controlling for such influencing factors as past criminal history. (Meanwhile, interestingly, female offenders of all races received shorter sentences than white males for the same crimes.)

Not good, to be sure, but if it’s true I would speculate that this has more to do with specific ‘high-crime’ areas - which unfortunately tend to be high-minority areas - where law enforcement is trying to clamp down on crime than specific racist judges simply deciding they are going to give black men convicted of crimes longer sentences than they give white men for the same crimes. Were there such racist judges, it’s difficult to believe a record of such conduct wouldn’t be blatantly obvious. Were such a judge to be found, of course, they should be fired. Otherwise, it’s difficult to control for area-specific sentencing absent some sort of extra-Constitutional mandates on the states.

The authors contend that, like our government, our criminal justice is “ripe for abuse, corruption, or simple mission drift,” and I concur. “Instead of dismissing racial justice as a ‘far-left issue,’” the authors call for conservatives to be leaders in reforming “our federal, state and local criminal justice systems.” Failure means “conservatism will continue to be unfortunately associated with ignorance of the blatant injustices faced by our fellow Americans, and it will fail to attract the support of those outside its traditional ranks.”

Fair enough, but absent completely unfair manipulation no attempt at racial justice in the United States or anywhere else is going to ever yield perfect equality of results. The disparity in race and crime statistics has long been an issue of contention, with racists and liberals alike trying to score sick political “points” from high black imprisonment rates.

Suppose the prison reform movement succeeds in getting sentences reduced for violent crime across the board, for white collar times and also for non-violent drug offenses, yet there remains a disproportionate number of blacks in prison. Should we then free people simply for being black, or imprison people simply for being white or Asian? Such a concept is unjust and absurd on its face, but it’s where we’re headed when we insist, as liberals so, on equality of results rather than equality under the law. That’s how we get the mindset among many that someone like Paul Manafort literally deserves to die in prison.

Instead of determining the results we want and working backwards to get them, we should strive for fair punishments and equal justice under the law, for everyone, regardless of how the numbers shake out.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: criminaljustcereform

1 posted on 03/25/2019 3:22:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Should we work to increase white crime? Remembering a Mad Magazine segment many years ago - they did the Labor Telethon with people pledging fatalities to achieve the weekend death toll estimate.


2 posted on 03/25/2019 3:30:12 AM PDT by jimfree (My18 y/o granddaughter continues to have more quality exec experience than an 8 year Obama.)
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To: Kaslin
It isn't a matter of race and crime...it is a matter of "culture and crime."

Those groups of people (whatever their race, religion, or country of origin) whose children adopt "thug" culture are going to have a higher incidence rate of crime than they would otherwise have.

If a cultural group encourages behavior which includes careers in drugs and theft and prostitution and believes that "honest" success is "acting white"...such a group will experience of higher rate of crime and imprisonment.

There is NO REASON for any child in America to fail solely due to race, religion, or ethnic origin if that child joins society as an honest, hard-working, patriotic citizen who is eager to learn and perform his duty. Furthermore, I think that children of minority races and ethnic groups have a GREATER chance of honest success in the U.S. than in any other country in the world.

3 posted on 03/25/2019 3:59:59 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: Kaslin
Can Equality Of Results Ever Be Achieved When It Comes To Race And Crime?

Maybe in a generation or two.

STEP 1 -

Take back the schools from the liberal crazies and stop teaching black children that they are victims of racism and not responsible for their own conduct.

STEP 2 -

Start holding blacks responsible for their own behavior.
(including run-away, irresponsible fathers)

STEP 3 -

Stop idolizing single black mothers

They aren't heroes - they are stupid and foolish women whose conduct denies their children the benefits of a complete, healthy family environment.

.

4 posted on 03/25/2019 4:12:59 AM PDT by Vlad The Inhaler (Give me Norfolk Virginia TideWater4-1009 The poor Boy Is On The Line)
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To: Vlad The Inhaler
re: Take back the schools
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Abolish government schooling. Begin the process of privatizing all education.

5 posted on 03/25/2019 4:14:58 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: Vlad The Inhaler

I agree with all what you said. But will they do it?


6 posted on 03/25/2019 4:18:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Absolutely!! Turn the entire county into a POW camp, and SHAZAM: equality!!

Except for that small number of people outside the wire with the guns, they are there to keep us safe.


7 posted on 03/25/2019 4:59:07 AM PDT by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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To: Kaslin
... I would speculate that this has more to do with specific ‘high-crime’ areas - which unfortunately tend to be high-minority areas - where law enforcement is trying to clamp down on crime ...

This is a salient point: it's not the same judges.

8 posted on 03/25/2019 5:11:38 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady ( Political correctness forbids discussing any negative outcomes of Left-wing ideology. -PMcL)
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To: Kaslin

race race race I am sick of it. Maybe we SHOULD all wear burkas... /sarc


9 posted on 03/25/2019 5:14:00 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Kaslin

The only real solution to our ridiculously high black crime rate is for blacks to get a spiritual leader with the credibility of MLK, who can convince them that sex and children outside of lasting marriage is forbidden.

And this can likely only result with a mass return to Christianity. While to some extent it also happens within the strange, Americanized version of Islam, the drawbacks of this are so great as to negate its positive effects.

But until black Americans shun the libertine lifestyle, they are a damned people. The Democrats hold little hope for their redemption, so instead promote the mass black genocide of abortion.

So find redemption in faith, or face very real extinction.


10 posted on 03/25/2019 5:29:50 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Desperate swarm sewage drains for water..." Venezuelans or D.C. Swamp denizens?)
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To: Kaslin
Can Equality Of Results Ever Be Achieved When It Comes To Race And Crime?

No.

Next question please.

11 posted on 03/25/2019 5:32:53 AM PDT by flamberge
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
The solution to urban malaise is, in a world, INDUSTRY. All of these hell hole cities used to manufacture things and most were gainfully employed. They had viable self sustaining economies. But Republican Free Traders gave away the store.
12 posted on 03/25/2019 5:36:38 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Kaslin

The first consideration for racial equality under the law must be racial criminality under the law.

The evidence is that as a race, black Americans proportionally commit more crimes than whites. There can be no racial criminal equality so long as there is racial criminality


13 posted on 03/25/2019 5:40:05 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Honduras must be invaded to protect America from invasion)
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To: central_va

The cities burned in the 1960s—you can’t blame free trade for that.

MLK’s quote that we should judge men (and women) by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin is absolutely correct.

Today if you follow MLK’s prescription the MSM and the Democrats will call you a racist.


14 posted on 03/25/2019 6:43:48 AM PDT by cgbg (Democracy dies in darkness when Bezos bans books.)
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To: cgbg
The cities burned in the 1960s—you can’t blame free trade for that.

Agree but de industrializing the urban areas did not help anything!!! It NEVER does.

15 posted on 03/25/2019 7:09:57 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Kaslin
Can Equality Of Results Ever Be Achieved When It Comes To Race And Crime?

No, but just like with education we keep trying to cram square pegs into round holes and when it doesn't change we act like the results are something that society is doing to them or not doing with no responsibility on them. At some point we need to look at it differently or if not continue our downward spiritual into forced 'equality'.

This from the April 21, 1958 edition of Time magazine.

THEY are afraid to say so in public, but many of the North's big-city mayors groan in private that their biggest and most worrisome problem is the crime rate among Negroes.

In 1,551 U.S. cities, according to the FBI tally for 1956, Negroes, making up 10% of the U.S. population, accounted for about 30% of all arrests, and 60% of the arrests for crimes involving violence or threat of bodily harm—murder, non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. In one city after another, the figures—where they are not hidden or suppressed by politicians—reveal a shocking pattern.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,810262,00.html

16 posted on 03/25/2019 7:15:52 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: Kaslin

17 posted on 03/25/2019 8:20:36 AM PDT by Chode ( WeÂ’re America, Bitch!)
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To: Altura Ct.

100-150 years ago the Irish were popularly thought of as the criminal class. The FedGov response then was primarily to do nothing and let it work itself out. It did. In this case the opposite was done all for the best & most moral of reasons and the consequences are the opposite. Why are people surprised?


18 posted on 03/25/2019 8:29:30 AM PDT by Reily
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