Restorative Faith - Race Conversations Virtual Event

[joshuabgood]

https://www.facebook.com/restorativefai ... SEARCH_BOX

[queserasera_2]

Don't use the term "white fragility." It comes from a self-flagellating book by a white woman.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ty/614146/

[joshuabgood]

Harlan spoke on this last night...summarized by Jewel Yoder Kuhns. There are many other similar stories to this...

Who do you picture when you think of a person in jail?

Harlan Barnhart told a story last night on the Restorative Faith panel discussion that describes so well how the prison system fails many, many people.

About 17 years ago, Harlan was living in New York City, and one day as he was walking down a street, he saw a young man and realized this guy was living in an abandoned car. So he stopped to talk to him, and they had an interesting chat.

Harlan kept stopping to talk to this young man and brought him food several times. They struck up a friendship, and eventually, the teenager began coming over to Harlan's apartment, keeping his clothes there and using his shower. Harlan learned that this young man was just 17, that he had run away from home.

Later Harlan found out that the teenager had gotten a job, working as a delivery person in Manhattan. He rented a single-room apartment and moved his clothes out to his own space.

Harlan thought the kid's life was looking up, so he was surprised to get a call from Rikers Island (a huge NYC jail) awhile later. The young man had been arrested.

He had been riding the subway and was in a hurry because he had to get to his delivery point on time. So he was running down the street, wearing his company name tag, carrying a package, and the police tackled him. They told him that he "matched the description of a suspect they were looking for."

Then, while the police were running a background check on this young man, they discovered he had missed a court date. While he had been homeless, at some point police had issued him a desk ticket for drinking in public, and had ordered him to appear before a judge. Of course, he never got the notification, because he was homeless.

Well, about every three weeks, officials from the state would come and ask him to sign papers admitting he had committed armed robbery. The young man refused: "I didn't do that." So the officials would ask the judge involved to give them more time, ostensibly to "build a case" against him. And the judge would grant it.

The young man got beat up so badly at Rikers Island that he had to go to the hospital. His mother wired money from Boston to New York City for his release, and Harlan went down and bailed him out. He had three days until his court date, and in those three days, he went and got a haircut, bought a suit, and hired a lawyer.

Well, when the prosecutor came to court, he looked over at the young man, neatly dressed, with a lawyer beside him. Then he looked at the judge and said, "We move to dismiss this case."

Harlan was watching this, and he said, "I was so mad." They had been holding this kid there all this time to get him to sign the paper. They weren't building a case.

Harlan concluded this by saying that there were people at every point in this system that could have stopped this ridiculous case.

The police could have called the young man's supervisor--the company number was right on the name tag.

The court-appointed attorney was too busy to notice what was happening in the case.

"Everybody was just doing their job, getting their paycheck, and going home."

And that, friends, is why I believe there are systemic problems. If this young man's case was the only one, it would be terrible. But here's the thing: this casual neglect, this disruption of poor people's lives is ongoing and widespread. It's become normal.

If you find this hard to believe, I'm actually glad to hear that. You should think that this is nuts, because it is.

But mass incarceration--the huge expansion in our prison population--looks like thousands upon thousands of stories like this. Missing court dates. Failing to meet a parole appointment. Not realizing there was an outstanding warrant. Being found with some pot. Stacking charges on minor infractions. Plea deals pushed on people.

A fraction of the 10.3 million arrests each year are for serious crimes.

It doesn't affect us, so why does it matter?

It matters. Because people are losing days, weeks, months, and even years for pathetic, petty "crimes." Losing jobs over this. Losing kids over this.

It's making poverty worse. It rarely helps drug addictions. It leaves people hardened and embittered.
It divides communities from police forces.

[RZehr]

I am very much aware of stories like this. Not sure what the point is supposed to be, race again? 100% of the people I personally know that experience things like this are not black. Again, because of demographics I’d guess. The system is messed up. It’s a legal system, not a justice system.

[Josh]

Big cities with big politicians and big Democratic parties tend to look like that - lots and lots of people with government jobs, who by definition have to be getting paid by depriving some person who actually works a real job of some of their living. Look no further than cities like Minneapolis, Baltimore, or Detroit to find more corrupt city governments.

I have a few stories similar to that one myself, including one where I decided to intervene and cough up a few hundred of my own dollars to end the endless state harassment. Short of us all becoming small-government Republicans, I’m not sure what else any of us can do.

[joshuabgood]

I am very much aware of stories like this. Not sure what the point is supposed to be, race again? 100% of the people I personally know that experience things like this are not black. Again, because of demographics I’d guess. The system is messed up. It’s a legal system, not a justice system.

Yes...this story is in the context of race. And while for sure, white people suffer in similar ways, the proportion of people of color who are incarcerated speaks for itself regarding the additional risks associated with being black.

[Josh]

I am very much aware of stories like this. Not sure what the point is supposed to be, race again? 100% of the people I personally know that experience things like this are not black. Again, because of demographics I’d guess. The system is messed up. It’s a legal system, not a justice system.

Yes...this story is in the context of race. And while for sure, white people suffer in similar ways, the proportion of people of color who are incarcerated speaks for itself regarding the additional risks associated with being black.

So do you want to have more justice, or do you want to just keep focusing on race?

[RZehr]

I am very much aware of stories like this. Not sure what the point is supposed to be, race again? 100% of the people I personally know that experience things like this are not black. Again, because of demographics I’d guess. The system is messed up. It’s a legal system, not a justice system.

Yes...this story is in the context of race. And while for sure, white people suffer in similar ways, the proportion of people of color who are incarcerated speaks for itself regarding the additional risks associated with being black.

I believe black people widely suffer unfairly from bias and/or racism, profiling in America because of the color of their skin. Brown people do too, in some places to a lessor degree.

[joshuabgood]

I am very much aware of stories like this. Not sure what the point is supposed to be, race again? 100% of the people I personally know that experience things like this are not black. Again, because of demographics I’d guess. The system is messed up. It’s a legal system, not a justice system.

Yes...this story is in the context of race. And while for sure, white people suffer in similar ways, the proportion of people of color who are incarcerated speaks for itself regarding the additional risks associated with being black.

So do you want to have more justice, or do you want to just keep focusing on race?

Yes

[Wade]

Yes...this story is in the context of race. And while for sure, white people suffer in similar ways, the proportion of people of color who are incarcerated speaks for itself regarding the additional risks associated with being black.

So do you want to have more justice, or do you want to just keep focusing on race?

Yes

JBG, if I recall correctly you wanted CAM to suffer for their mistakes, you said you support protesting, you give implied accusations that people are racist, you support memes that sarcastically make fun of people's religious beliefs, and now you want people to listen to you about restorative faith?

I've got the impression you want to tear down even sincere people and now your trying to connect people with restorative faith? -. Do you see any challenge you might come to in promoting this? Your answering "Yes," continues the mixed signals going on...