A Head Scratcher

I am scratching my head as to how something like this could even be possible. The math just doesn't add up no matter how you cut it. Many white people in this country seem to wonder why many Black and brown people seem to distrust the police and the justice system in this country. To those whites who can't seem to put a finger on where that suspicion comes from, that's due in large part to them never having had a bad experience with law enforcement. When they get pulled over, only in the most extreme cases of law breaking is a white person handcuffed and hauled off to jail but usually they are issued a warning to be more careful and are allowed to go about their business. Black people aren't nearly as lucky.

In all the years of my life, every experience I have had with a police officer has been acrimonious at best. There have been times where it felt like they were baiting me to lash out and take a swing so they could slap me around, slap the cuffs on me, and throw me in jail. One night, after hanging out with friends and stopping off in a store before heading home I was approached by at least six police officers and they all had their guns drawn. When they asked for some ID from me, I looked into their eyes and didn't move a muscle. I told the lead cop where my wallet was and told him to reach in and retrieve it. I wasn't about to get shot over my wallet like Amadou Diallo was. I also wasn't going to put myself in a situation where I was going to be at the mercy of the courts and the justice system. I rarely stepped out of line as a youngster, worst thing I ever did really was jaywalk and yet it seemed like my skin color made me a prime target for police to harass me and get me to lose my mind so they could get me into the system.

I say all that to say this, crime in this country, for the most part has been on the decline. Key word there being decline. The numbers on crimes of all sorts are either dropping off the table or slowly lowering and yet the prison population has exploded. That's where the head scratching thing comes in. To a rational human being, regardless of ones skin color that just doesn't add up. How can crime be going down and yet more and more people are being arrested and thrown behind bars? What are they being arrested for? In the town of Ferguson, MO. there are three warrants for arrest per household. Think about that staggering number for a second and then add in that the police force issuing those warrants is damn near 95% white and the town of Ferguson is 70% Black. So you have white police issuing warrants left and right for who knows what on the predominantly Black population. If it's happening there, you can rest assured the same types of things are happening all over this country to Black and brown people everywhere. Think about this...

Today, there are more African-Americans in the US Justice system, either in jail, on parole, or under some form of correctional control than there were slaves. 

All this leads me to one conclusion, that in this so called post racial America, with an African-American President, racism be it industrialized or otherwise is more rampant, evil, and corrosive as ever. The numbers bear that truth out and numbers when calculated correctly, never lie.