The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Is Important, Though Often Ignored
Through a bizarre and cruel coincidence, it’s the anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment, which is one of the most important of all 27, insofar as it guarantees equal protection under the law for all citizens. I say “bizarre and cruel” because it comes on a day on which all decent people are mourning the death of a horrifying number of black men at the hands of our police, which demonstrates so clearly that this key aspect of US law sometimes has no meaning in the real world.
Anyone of any color who can watch the footage of these extrajudicial executions without becoming enraged suffers with a profound moral defect.
Needless to say, we should all mourn the loss of the five policemen in Dallas as well. Excessive violence is never the answer, whether it’s directly by or at the police.
For those expecting a tie-in to our normal lines of discussions at 2GreenEnergy, the 14th Amendment is also central to the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision, enabling corporations to spend as much as they wish to influence our elections. In their wisdom, the Justices have deemed, somehow, that corporations are people, and thus protected accordingly. The direct result: our democracy has been reduced to rubble.
Sorry to bring you down on a Saturday, but it’s a very sad day for America.
Before slavery was banned, the principle that all men are created equal was also meaningless. Although we have made considerable progress, it is obvious that we still have a long way to go. It is unlikely that we will ever completely reach the goal. Probably we will approach it asymptotically. Also, progress in social matters usually is not continuous; usually it is two steps forward and one step back, and repeat.
Meanwhile, those of who are concerned about fairness and justice can firmly speak up when we here improper jokes, unacceptable attitudes expressed, or witness discrimination. Here is an example.
Years ago, a black friend of mine was in a restaurant waiting to be seated, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. A white couple entered the restaurant and when the hostess offered to seat them, they pointed to the black man and said that he was there first. The hostess made some excuse for not seating him whereupon the white couple told the hostess exactly what they thought and walked out. Unfortunately, doing that takes more guts than most people have.
Craig,
I don’t live in the US (although my son lives in NY).
The issues surrounding the high rate of gun crime in the US and police behaviour toward black and coloured people is more complex than just a race issue.
One thing is for sure, it has nothing whatsoever to do with “Citzens United”.
Like you, I believe harsh laws and cruel a penalties solve nothing. The victims and families of crime may enjoy a feeling of vengeance, but that’s hardly edifying, the perpetrators become outcasts and cease to identify as members of the broader community, retreating in sub-cultures where further crime and outrages are not only acceptable, but laudable.
Law enforcement become more difficult as the police see themselves less as civil guardians and become more of an army of occupation, “fighting a war” against an underclass of de-humanised vermin.
The media, instead of reporting accurately and seeking to advance society, seek to agitate, provoke, sensationalize and capitalize on the worst aspect of any situation.
This is a bitter, ongoing tragedy.
There are no easy answers. It’s not just a case of racist white police, preying on innocent black citizens. Significant numbers of Black police also get killed or injured by black perpetrators, and black police also shoot black perpetrators. ( In fact black police are 3.3 times more likely to shoot than white officers).
The reason the US has such a high proportion of Black people incarcerated, is partly to do with the nature of the US justice system,but more to do with the demographics of crimes and perpetrators.
It’s a sad and perpetual circle, why do police target black youth more than white ? Because black and Hispanic youth are more likely to be involved in crime detectable by uniformed police.
Police are just as vigilant with whites who are identifiable as
being likely to be involved with street crime. (Police conducting an operation to stop illegal street racing, are unlikely to stop middle-aged Toyota Prius drivers !)
The situation is deteriorating, the number of police shot and killed in “ambushes” is increasing each year. These aren’t officers shot trying to prevent crime, but deliberate ambushes of police, simply for being police.
Police shot dead more than twice the number of whites than blacks, a fact seldom mentioned . Although American blacks are only 15% of the population, they commit more than 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults.
This statistic could be the result of poor policing, or as studies have shown reflect the type of crimes favoured by black and Hispanic law breakers.
Community attitudes often help reinforce bitterness between police and minority communities. It’s not unusual for black communities to praise, excuse or exploit the criminal backgrounds of black “martyrs”.
White liberals, are equally eager to castigate and vilify police. Often this leads to a lower standard of police recruitment and so the downward spiral continues.
Nor do simple statistics accurately portray the true picture. A significant number of police shootings of ” unarmed ” black citizens are simply unintended consequences of violet confrontations.
FBI data reveals 40% of cop killers are black. Police are 18.5 times more likely to be killed by black law breakers, than a police officer killing an unarmed black person.
To cite one instance. A police officer approached a homicide suspect siting in a car, without warning the suspect open fire with a high powered automatic weapon, the wounded officer was still able to return fire and in the unequal gun battle, the driver of the car an unarmed black woman, and two by-standers were killed as well as four others wounded.
In the subsequent inquiry it was established that the officer had killed the suspect (white) his accomplice the driver, (black) and one of his bullets ricocheted killing one by-stander (Black) the other bystanders (white) were killed or wounded by the suspect.
Several news outlets, condemned the officer as “racist’ for killing two unarmed blacks. A huge funeral was held for the by-stander and female driver, attended by black community leaders and liberal white politicians demanding an end to white “racist” police killings.
Can you imagine how the badly wounded officer, and his fellow officers felt?
The problem of policing in the US is very complex. Police afraid of accusations of being racism, avoid vigilant policing of more dangerous, predominately black and Hispanic areas.
This only increases the decay and social alienation of those areas, leading to an increase of criminal activity.
World-wide, police forces have problems policing deprived minorities. The US is just more complicated because of US guns laws.