Transcript Racial Profiling - Law Office of John L. Burris

Criminal Justice “the New Jim
Crow” and Racial Profiling
A Lecture by Attorney John Burris
Alameda County Legal Secretaries Association
(ACLSA)
Membership Meeting
May 7, 2013
INTRODUCTION
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Civil Rights Law Practice: Policing the police
Background with Civil Rights
The history of Bay Area Police and Policing
throughout the 1960s, 1970s. 1980s, 1990s,
present
Black Panthers
Melvin Black
Oakland “Riders”
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LEGAL STANDARDS
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Fourth Amendment: The right to be free from
unreasonable searches and seizures
Thirteenth Amendment: Outlawed slavery and the
badges and incidences of servitude.
Fourteenth Amendment: the right to Due Process and
Fairness.
42 USC 1983: Allows citizens to sue police officers
who violate Constitutional rights and use Excessive
force in the process.
California Civil Code Section 51.7 and 52.1 give
citizens the right to sue for excessive force due and
racial discrimination
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JIM CROW
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The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United
States enacted between 1876 and 1965.
Mandated Separate But Equal status for African Americans.
De jure segregation written into law in Southern States. De
Facto segregation due to behavior patterns in Northern regions
School segregation declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
Jim Crow laws generally overruled by the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In my practice we fall back on the legacy of these legal
principles to fight the vestiges of those laws
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MICHELE ALEXANDER’S:
THE NEW JIM CROW
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Alexander's book discusses the current mass levels of incarceration in the
US.
The US has 5% of the world's population and incarcerates 25% of the
world's prisoners.
Alexander discusses the societal repression of African-American and Latino
men and the resulting social consequences.
Alexander also discuss warehousing black and Latino men in America's
prison as well as the way in which the felony label creates an immediate
cycle of second-class citizenship.
In one article, Alexander commented on the current status of AfricanAmericans saying: The clock has been turned back on racial progress in
America, though scarcely anyone seems to notice. All eyes are fixed on
people like Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey who have defied the odds and
achieved great power, wealth and fame". In her view, African-Americans
are largely part of a racial "caste" system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Jim_Crow
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THE NEW JIM CROW
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Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”:
 Legalized discrimination:
 Ex felons are Marked- Legally denied
 1. voting
 2. employment
 3. Housing
 4. Public benefits
 5. Education
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INCARCERATION RATES
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Number of black men incarcerated in federal state or local prisons
in 2006: 837,000
For every 100,000 black males, an estimated 4,777 are held in
federal or state prison or a local jail.
By contrast, for every 100,000 white men, only 727 are estimated
to be incarcerated.
Keep in mind that it cost approximately $40,000 annually to
incarcerate an individual.
Bureau of Justice Statistics 2008
 Whites: 66% of population 34% incarcerated
 Blacks: 12% of population 40% incarcerated
 Latinos: 15% of population 20% incarcerated
http://allotherpersons.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/factoi
d-black-male-incarceration-rate-is-6-times-greater-thanrate-for-white-males/
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Criminal Justice System
Racial Discrimination :
 Detention, Arrest, Bail
 Charges: harshness may depend on the race/sex of victim and
defendant
 Convictions
 Sentencing: disparity may depend upon the race/sex of victim
○ Conviction mistakes
○ Exoneration
○ Minor drug conviction
 Disparity:
 Cocaine v. Crack
 Mandatory minimum
 Three strikes and life time sentence
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Arizona SB 1070: RACIAL PROFILING?
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The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act
The Act was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23, 2010
The law was scheduled to go into effect on June 29, 2010
US Federal Law requires all aliens over the age of 14 who remain in the United
States for longer than 30 days to register with the US government
They must have registration documents in their possession at all times
Violation of this requirement is a Federal misdemeanor crime
The Arizona Act additionally made it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to
be in Arizona without carrying the required documents
Law required officers attempt to determine an individual's immigration status
during a "lawful stop, detention or arrest", or during a "lawful contact”
The day before the law was to take effect, a federal judge issued a preliminary
injunction that blocked the law’s most controversial provisions
In June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case Arizona v. United States,
upholding the provision requiring immigration status checks during law
enforcement stops but striking down three other provisions as violations of the
Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.
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RACIAL PROFILING
DEFINED
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The Department of Justice defines racial profiling as any policeinitiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin
rather than the behavior.
The ACLU defines "Racial Profiling" as the discriminatory
practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for
suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion
or national origin.
African- American Definition: Walking While Black, Driving
While Black, Being Black in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Racial Profiling Stereotypes: Race, Skin Color, Clothes,
Neighborhood, Time of Day, Type of Auto, Attitude
Sources:
http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/racial-profiling
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/184768.pdf
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OAKLAND POLICE
DEPARTMENT- THE RIDERS
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The Riders: The OPD has been under court monitoring
since 2003, following the settlement of a civil suit against
the city regarding four police officers known as the
“Riders,” who were accused of planting evidence and
making false arrests.
As a result, the department entered into a consent decree
(NSA) and agreed to implement a series of 51 reforms
meant to improve its accountability.
One of the most significant features of the NSA was the
collection of data regarding racial profiling.
Sources
http://oaklandnorth.net/2012/01/25/judge-orders-stricteroversight-for-oakland-police-department/
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OPD RACIAL PROFILING
STATISTICS
The Oakland Police Department’s (OPD) data collection
program found that as of 2008, African Americans were 3.3
times as likely to be searched during traffic stops as whites.
 Whites comprise 31.3% of Oakland’s population, yet they
account for only 16% of vehicle stops, and 6.7% of motorists
searched. African Americans, by contrast, comprise 35.7% of
Oakland’s population, yet account for 48% of vehicle stops, and
65.8% of motorists searched
 Searches of AA yield less criminal activity than a similar
amount of searches for whites.
 Sources
 http://www.aclunc.org/news/press_releases/oakland_police_dep
artment_annouces_results_of_racial_profiling_data_collection_
program_praised_by_aclu.shtml
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SFPD RACIAL PROFILING
STATISTICS
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San Francisco made an effort to keep accurate data
between 2001 and 2005.
The statistics bore out that police arrested black
people at a rate of 3.3 times that of whites.
SF stopped reporting.
Sources
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi
bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/07/MNGG9OGQFC
1.DTL&ao=all
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NEW YORK
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A Federal District Court for Eastern District of New York granted class action status to
a lawsuit accusing the Police Department of using race as the basis for stopping and
frisking New Yorkers in summer 2012.
The class action was based on a 2008 lawsuit alleging NYPD purposefully engaged in a
widespread practice of concentrating its stop-and-frisk activity on black and Hispanic
neighborhoods rather than legitimate non-racial factors.
The lawsuit said officers are pressured to meet quotas as part of the program and they
are punished if they do not.
Data revealed that over 80 percent of NYPD initiated stops are of Blacks and Latinos
while Whites comprised only 20 percent.
Nearly 90 percent of all stops uncovered no weapons, contraband or evidence of
criminal activity.
Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be frisked after a NYPD-initiated stop than
Whites.
Blacks and Latinos are more likely to have physical force used against them during a
NYPD-initiated stop than Whites.
Sources
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/nyregion/12frisk.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/07/12-0NN
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OBSERVATIONS
Racial profiling should not be viewed as a minor intrusion.
 Keep in mind that each wrongful stop has the potential for
disastrous outcome particularly for the person of color.
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Racial profiling creates real psychological harm such as
fear, hurt, rage, and sense of second-class citizenship
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LAW OFFICES OF
JOHN BURRIS
 Law
Offices of John L. Burris.
 7677 Oakport Street, Oakland CA
94621
 (510)839-5200
 www.johnburrislaw.com
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