Comment by toomuchtodo
5 hours ago
American Bar: Prosecutors confront ugly repercussions of bias - https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2... - February 3rd, 2023
> The pervasive problems with racism in our criminal justice system has been clear. Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly five times the rate of white Americans.
> The systemic racism in the system starts before the first contact and continues through charging decisions, plea deals, conviction, sentencing recommendations, incarceration, release and beyond.
How do you respond when others use that information to instead assert "well of course they're incarcerated at a higher rate; they commit more, and worse crimes than -we- do!"
I reassess and begin living in reality.
I’ve given up trying to convince people about any of this. You will be accused of some -isms at best. So I just quietly use demographic information to pick where to live and where to send my kids to school. And try to be sympathetic when my friends complain about being impacted by crime.
I ignore the feelings of others and trust the data of subject matter experts. Everyone has an opinion, reality is built on a foundation of data, evidence, and facts. Like flying a plane in IFR; ignore your senses and feelings, only rely on the instruments. “In God we trust. All others must bring data.”