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| Women prisoners, c 1864, Cadillac, France |
This post is inspired by Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar's message on FaceBook. Click here. I agree with his saying that the newspapers and other media, that label the marches as anti-police, miss the point. They're protesting the anti-black, anti-poor, anti-minority, anti-youth, anti-vulnerable, attitude.
Volunteering in a prison, I can personally affirm that fact. Just look at the color of the majority of the prisoners. Look at the predominant nationality. Look at what economic strata the majority of prisoners come from. It all can be simply reduced to the fact that the majority of prisoners are poor--the vast majority. If you have the money to get a good lawyer, you can get away with murder.
Since most of the poor are profiled as a certain race/nationality/ minority, they are viewed and treated differently than the more affluent. Those profiled as such, are presumed guilty before even given their chance in court. That's what I deduce from Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar's comments.
The police aren't the enemy. They're the victims of this culture, too.
Once everyone recognizes that fact, maybe we can focus on figuring out what to do about it. How do you change minds? More importantly, how do you change hearts?
