In "Open Season" Ben Crump tackles racism in America's justice system
Earlier this month, I caught civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump on Book TV speaking at the Boston Book Festival about his new book, Open Season that examines what its cover page describes as the "Legalized Genocide of Colored People."
Surprisingly, his audience was overwhelmingly white, yet apparently captivated by Crump's low-key, yet authoritative tone. He had come to engage, not confront.
In his soft-spoken, North Carolina drawl, Crump carefully laid out disparities in profiling, arresting, sentencing, incarcerating, executing, and exonerating "colored" people whom he describes as "black and brown people and people who are 'colored' by their sexual preference, religious beliefs, or gender."
Crump is that tall, somber, dark-complexioned African American man often seen standing with the families of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, and most recently, Botham Jean, as they talk to media about their personal tragedies. He is at the forefront of efforts to stem the growing number of unarmed black men and women killed, at the hands of, or in the custody of, police officers and to end the high rates incarceration for African Americans.
In Open Season, Nick Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute, says, "If you're a Black baby born today, you have a 1 in 3 chance of spending time in prison or jail' If you're Latino, its a 1 in 5 chance. And if you're white, its 1 in 17. And coming to terms with these disparities and reversing them, I would argue, is not only a matter of fairness and justice but it's , I would argue, but a matter of national security."
There are many disturbing stories of black men and women who are the victims of the what Crump describes as "implicit bias" in the justice system.
Isaac "Pops" Singletary, an 80-year old retired repairman, yelled at two drug dealers to get off his property. Unbeknownst to him they were undercover officers, who "disregarded Singletary's warning....(that they) were illegally on his property." The elderly homeowner, who believed he was acting within his rights under Florida's Stand Your Ground law, goes in the house and returns, armed. The officers fired on him, and he died at the scene. The offices were never charged, although, one of them was later fired for unrelated reasons.
Ernest Hoskins, Jr., 21, shoot and killed by his boss, Christopher Reynolds, during a routine business meeting after a verbal disagreement. Reynolds shot Hoskins in the head with a .44 Magnum pistol. He was arrested 15 days later and charged with one count of manslaughter, not murder, accepted a plea deal, and received a 10-year but could serve as little as three years.
Crump provides a plethora of evidence documenting the unequal justice afforded African Americans whether accused of a crime or the victim of a crime. He also documents "the racism and oppression still visibly present in the United States, particularly when it comes to law enforcement, the legal system, and the very foundations of our nation...(and) the systemic legalization of discrimination...and how it can lead to genocide--the intent to destroy in whole, or in part, a people...as it relates to colored people."
All in all, Open Season is legal history, social commentary, and a harsh indictment of our justice system.
Ben Crump is "In the Spotlight" this week on One Mother's Voice: In the Name of Justice podcast.
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