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Do You Agree With Cory Booker When He Says..... ?

Do you Agree When He Says the Justice System is Creating a Caste System?

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TheDemSocialist

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Sen. Cory Booker (D–NJ) sat down with Vox's German Lopez to discuss racial disparities in America's criminal justice system.
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Video @: [h=1]Cory Booker: US criminal justice is creating a "caste system"[/h]
Do you agree with what Cory Booker said in this interview? He states that the US justice system, especially when it comes to nonviolent offenders and the war on drugs, that it is essentially creating a caste system. Do you agree?


 
TheDemSocialist said:
Video @: [/FONT][/COLOR][h=1]Cory Booker: US criminal justice is creating a "caste system"[/h]
Do you agree with what Cory Booker said in this interview? He states that the US justice system, especially when it comes to nonviolent offenders and the war on drugs, that it is essentially creating a caste system. Do you agree?
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To an extent yes, however it is probably more accurate to see the justice system as a function of a caste system that is already in place.
 
If anything I think it creates a caste system between the rich and the poor, not by race. If you have enough money and top paid lawyers it seems you can get away with a lot or bargain down for a lower sentence.
 
digsbe said:
If anything I think it creates a caste system between the rich and the poor, not by race. If you have enough money and top paid lawyers it seems you can get away with a lot or bargain down for a lower sentence.
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That's simply not borne out by the facts. The discretion of the arresting officer is one of the biggest factors in this. A white kid is far more likely to simply be let of the hook for, say, misdemeanor marijuana possession, than a black kid in the exact same circumstances. So there's a serious problem before lawyers even enter the picture.
 
digsbe said:
If anything I think it creates a caste system between the rich and the poor, not by race. If you have enough money and top paid lawyers it seems you can get away with a lot or bargain down for a lower sentence.
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Bigotry based on social status and/or wealth may be a larger issue these days than racism is. Sometimes I think the two get confused.
 
I think money and race both play parts. Certainly the disparity in the criminal justice system among races is the greatest on the street, where the police are the ones calling the shots. Whites and blacks both smoke pot in about equal proportions. All other things being equal, a white person and a black person are walking down the street, each has marijuana in their pocket. The black person is more likely to be stopped and searched to begin with. Even if the white person is stopped, he is more likely to get off with a warning whereas the black person is more likely to be booked.

Now, if something goes to trial then I think money plays the biggest role. Sure, race can still influence the jury but more often than not you get what you pay for.

So if you are poor AND black you are doubly screwed.
 
Guy Incognito said:
To an extent yes, however it is probably more accurate to see the justice system as a function of a caste system that is already in place.
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Agreed.

I think the so-called "War on Drugs" just makes it more patently obvious to the casual observer.
 
The Mark said:
Bigotry based on social status and/or wealth may be a larger issue these days than racism is. Sometimes I think the two get confused.
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What you're seeing is that racism is still keep non-whites economically depressed, and therefore the social/wealth status is an outcome of the structural racism that still effects the lives of nearly all of those not white.
 
Summerwind said:
What you're seeing is that racism is still keep non-whites economically depressed, and therefore the social/wealth status is an outcome of the structural racism that still effects the lives of nearly all of those not white.
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Thing is it isn't just minorities, it's everyone who is in the lower tier of wealth.

It may be the least racist part of the whole thing, actually, cause lack of money doesn't give a damn what your genes are.
 
The Mark said:
Thing is it isn't just minorities, it's everyone who is in the lower tier of wealth.

It may be the least racist part of the whole thing, actually, cause lack of money doesn't give a damn what your genes are.
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I'm very poor and white, never have a problem with police even though there are times perhaps I should have. I've been CCW in CA (where I am NOT licensed nor was my gun registered), and they never knew, never asked. Had I been a poor black woman dressed as I usually am, jeans and a hoodie, I'd have been patted down and gun found and in jail. Hey, but I'm white and poor and that's a whole different ball of wax.

Yes, they pick on poor people, yes our historic and continuing racism assures most non-whites stay poor, NO white poor folks are not treated as badly (badly=suspiciously) as non-white poor folks.
 
Summerwind said:
I'm very poor and white, never have a problem with police even though there are times perhaps I should have. I've been CCW (where I am NOT licensed nor was my gun registered) in CA, and they never knew, never asked. Had I been a poor black woman dressed as I usually am, jeans and a hoodie, I'd have been patted down and gun found and in jail. Hey, but I'm white and poor and that's a whole different ball of wax.

Yes, they pick on poor people, yes our historic and continuing racism assures most non-whites stay poor, NO white poor folks are not treated as badly as non-white poor folks.
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I wasn't talking about police specifically, I was talking about the general overall situation. I think poverty negatively affects more persons than racism.

Which is not even close to saying that racism isn't a problem.
 
The Mark said:
I wasn't talking about police specifically, I was talking about the general overall situation. I think poverty negatively affects more persons than racism.

Which is not even close to saying that racism isn't a problem.
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Fair enough.
 
Declan said:
Our crappy education system is creating the Caste system. Criminal Justice just paints the dots on the foreheads.
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I'd take it a step further and say our political class is creating a caste system. Politicians control the budgets, Federal, State and Local - they are the one who FUND the educational system or in cases, do not fund it adequately as in poorer urban areas. That keeps students from seeing a future and staying with education. The Criminal Justice system simply follows the politicians lead as again, the politicians CREATE the laws the judicial system must enforce.
 
Ockham said:
I'd take it a step further and say our political class is creating a caste system. Politicians control the budgets, Federal, State and Local - they are the one who FUND the educational system or in cases, do not fund it adequately as in poorer urban areas. That keeps students from seeing a future and staying with education. The Criminal Justice system simply follows the politicians lead as again, the politicians CREATE the laws the judicial system must enforce.
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I'd disagree with you based on my own experiences. Our city used to give the schools whatever they needed. That changed and there started to be a lot of citizen push back against raising taxes/issuing bonds for education once all these policy changes started going into effect which amounted to pouring money down the black hole of administration while grades started and continued to decline.
 
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