[learc83]

Even when controlling for other factors like education (a proxy for income) and criminal history, Black male offenders receive a sentence 20% longer on average than White male offenders for the same crime. They're also convicted at a higher rate for the same indictments, and arrested at a higher rate in the first place.

https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-d...

[baybal2]

Now, how do you think you can clean the judicial system of racist judges, and in at large the whole legal fraternity?

Outright, publicly known racists get protection of judicial immunity, and only near impossible judicial impeachment can do anything about them.

What is the solution?

[learc83]

You're not going to find the solution buried in a random hacker news comment thread.

But step one is to acknowledge that systemic racism exists in the first place. Half of the voters in the country explicitly deny the existence of systemic racism and the need to change anything at all.

[giantg2]

Do you have a poll for that claim, or are you just stereotyping based on party?

[user982]

https://www.uml.edu/Research/public-opinion/polls/2020/Race-...

"Democrats, liberals, Americans under the age of 50 and those who score low on the racial resentment scale are all far more likely than Republicans, conservatives, Americans older than age 50, and those scoring high in racial resentment to think that Blacks are treated less fairly than whites by the police."

[giantg2]

"A majority of American adults think that policing in this country is not fair – 51% say that Blacks are treated less fairly than whites in their interactions with police, compared to 41% who say they are treated the same. Another 7% say whites are treated less fairly than Blacks."

I see that 48% of American adults view it as not a problem or a problem in the other direction. Granted this is only a 1000 person study based on subjective experience. I wonder if they have larger studies, or any studies on objective evaluation[0] of if someone was treated differently based on race. I know I've been treated poorly by police but I don't believe race was a factor.

[0] seems like the 20% harsher sentencing could be an indication, but I'll have to look at that more

[sdenton4]

Here's some background reading: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Jim_Crow

It's a great book, with copious references and research behind it.

Bryan Stevenson's book 'Just Mercy' is also well worth reading, and directly relevant to this discussion. Stevenson was the lead in the supreme court case that led to death and LWOP being off limits for juveniles.

[giantg2]

Most states have a judicial conduct board. You can file complaints against them for any misconduct and mistakes they make. If enough people do this, you might be able to cross reference complaints to show that they knowingly violated someone's rights, which fits into official oppression.

I've had a similar experience with a magistrate who was a former cop and retired police chief. He was biased the entire time, violated due process, and made false claims. The complaint is still ongoing. I doubt it will result in much, but it could be useful for future civil cases.

[baybal2]

The problem is a judge can be a 100% bigot, and yet be 100% legally safe for as long as he isn't openly proclaiming himself as such, and follows the process to its utmost.

You can't have a review board, or impeachment do anything with a judge with 100% black prosecution record just because it is such.

That's the paradox. Either you subject judiciary to political judgement, or you can't do anything about judges who are not politically impartial.

[giantg2]

But the thing is that they had to apply the law differently to interject that bias/persecution. If you can show that they applied it differently based on race or some other factor, then it should be sufficient... if you have police and a DA that are willing to do their jobs (they aren't, cause they're all buddy buddy). Doing it this way (looking for discrepancy in fact of law without explaination) shouldn't involve politics.