NCJ Number
83303
Date Published
Unknown
Length
0 pages
Annotation
Before an audience of community organizers, two civil rights activists (an ordained minister and a lawyer) discuss criminal justice issues that adversely affect many communities, particularly those with large minority populations, and suggest tactics for overcomming these problems.
Abstract
Reverend Ben Chavis calls for more leadership in the black community and less divisiveness among minority groups (particularly blacks and Hispanics). He suggests that religious leaders support those politicians who are devoted to liberating oppressed people and emphasizes that they are part of a world struggle. He calls for the black community and LEAA to address the growing problem of black-on-black crime and uses the 'Wilmington Ten' case, a controversial civil rights case stemming from a week of violence in North Carolina in 1971, to illustrate how the criminal justice system is manipulated to keep the poor oppressed. He points out the presence of racism in this case and the lessons to be learned from it. Chavis also notes that churches can play a role in educating the community on how to manipulate the criminal justice system for their own betterment and suggests that minority communities not be intimidated by the system. The attorney points out the discrepancies between enforcement and prosecution of street crime (of which minorities and the poor are most frequently accused), and corporate of white-collar crime. He suggests that rich corporate and white-collar criminals have a vested interest in an unchanged criminal justice system, that the legal profession and the police have too much power, and the police mentality has controlled LEAA since its inception. He suggests that community groups identify those issues that must be dealt with, that citizens select their own actors in the judicial system, and that local groups gain control over the executive branch and its agencies.