Conghaileach
18th April 2003, 15:21
LA Times
April 9, 2003
Affirmative Action? Lose the Drug Task Forces
By Arianna Huffington
Instead of spending an enormous amount of effort obsessing about African American candidates to the University of Michigan receiving special treatment, maybe the White House should focus on a genuinely pernicious form of affirmative action: the special treatment blacks get when it comes to jail admissions.
The damning fact is that although African Americans make up 13% of drug users, they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 55% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.
And if you want some harsh narrative to put flesh and blood on these harsh numbers, cast your eyes on Texas, where a judge and special prosecutor agreed last week to throw out every conviction stemming from the now notorious Tulia drug sting -- a miscarriage of justice that saw roughly 15% of the small town's African Americans arrested solely on the uncorroborated testimony of Tom Coleman, a white undercover cop with a shady past and a fondness for racial epithets.
Full Story (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-huff9apr09,1,7895689.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dcommen t%2Dopinions)
(Edited by CiaranB at 3:22 pm on April 18, 2003)
April 9, 2003
Affirmative Action? Lose the Drug Task Forces
By Arianna Huffington
Instead of spending an enormous amount of effort obsessing about African American candidates to the University of Michigan receiving special treatment, maybe the White House should focus on a genuinely pernicious form of affirmative action: the special treatment blacks get when it comes to jail admissions.
The damning fact is that although African Americans make up 13% of drug users, they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 55% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.
And if you want some harsh narrative to put flesh and blood on these harsh numbers, cast your eyes on Texas, where a judge and special prosecutor agreed last week to throw out every conviction stemming from the now notorious Tulia drug sting -- a miscarriage of justice that saw roughly 15% of the small town's African Americans arrested solely on the uncorroborated testimony of Tom Coleman, a white undercover cop with a shady past and a fondness for racial epithets.
Full Story (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-huff9apr09,1,7895689.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dcommen t%2Dopinions)
(Edited by CiaranB at 3:22 pm on April 18, 2003)