America's Real Casualties of War

In Chicago, a rally denouncing the war on drugs was held outside the James R. Thompson Center in the loop. The purpose of the rally was to call for an end to the war on drugs 40 years to the day after it was declared by then-President Richard Nixon. Kathleen Kane-Willis, the director of Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, kicked off the rally by citing recent statistics indicating Illinois has a greater percentage for putting more African Americans behind bars for drug crimes than whites than any other state in the nation. Illinois continues to treat a medical and social issue as a criminal one which is obvious when the arrest/conviction rates are examined.

These factors directly relate to the dismal economic condition in Black communities. The current unemployment rate in Chicago is 9.4%, just a touch over the 9.1% nationwide. Yet the unemployment rate among Blacks is a staggering 21.4% the highest in the nation! How is this possible from a people that only comprise 36% of the city's population and 12% of the state? What's not taken into account is that Illinois incarcerates Blacks on a 8 to 1 ratio to whites for drug related offenses, therefore Blacks, upon release are labeled as unemployable and rendered economically impotent. Even if employers are willing to give an ex-offender an opportunity, often times their insurance carrier won't be willing to. Rural areas of Illinois where prisons are built, count inmates as their residents thereby securing additional federal funding as Black communities lose funding due to the absence of the incarcerated.

The war on drugs has been publicly regarded as a failure, not true, it is a success for its creators. These are three objectives that the war was designed to accomplish and has accomplished:
the mass incarceration of Blacks
re-establishment of a class system
legalized discrimination of ex-offenders

Nothing said publicly nor privately can be said to disprove the intentional damage that the war on drugs has caused. Law enforcement was given a license to target a race and society applauded their efforts. For over 4 decades, Chicago Police Department officers can be seen stopping African -Americans, most of them visibly harmless, (by age or physical condition) posing no threat to the community but being searched simply because they LOOK like drug users or peddlers. Statistics remind us that no race is any more inclined to use or sell drugs than any other. Only recently have eyes been opened to these atrocities, now that they have, a change must be made.

What has to happen is a full repeal of war on drugs sentencing and overhaul of the judicial system. A system designed to defame the character of African-Americans and an attempt to broadcast to the world an image of a truly worthless people. There are more people incarcerated now for drug offenses than there were for ALL offenses before the war on drugs was declared. Funds spent on housing inmates MUST be used to implement real rehabilitation programs. Programs that truly prepare ex-offenders for re-entry into society as well as programs that assist ex-offenders in creating their own economic recovery through entrepreneurship. Currently Illinois spends $100 to $300 daily per person to keep an individual incarcerated. Time & time again programs designed to benefit ex-offenders have been proven to only be a fraction of incarceration expenses.

If a change does not come, that will be proof positive of what is already suspected. The judicial system and the war on drugs is a farce, a facade to disguise its true purpose. The gradual dissemination of a people, the dismantling of the black family and the strategic destruction of a race by the removal of its male species. If change is not initiated, African Americans will be history's all time leaders in the casualties of war department.
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Criminal Justice System Legalizes Discrimination

For over 3 decades the criminal justice system has legalized and practiced blatant discrimination in the form of mass incarcerations aimed at Black communities, and society has applauded their efforts. Not since the days of slavery has America seen such a mass incarceration of a people. In 1982 the “War on Drugs” was declared by President Ronald Reagan. Americans initially expected to see arrest after arrest of large drug cartels and importers, this was not the case. What did follow, for more than three decades, was an incredible amount of arrests of Blacks by local law enforcement for petty drug offenses. According to federal records, there were no Blacks arrested for the transport and wholesale sale of narcotics. In fact only 33% of those arrested for ANY drug related offenses were Black, yet 73% of those serving time for those same offenses were Black. According to a 1998, University of Georgia study, Blacks receive sentences and average of 6 months longer than non-Blacks for the same crimes. According to Federal statistics, due to crack's prevalence in predominantly Black neighborhoods the sentencing for “crack” convictions are 3 times as long as the sentencing for “cocaine” convictions. For those that don't know, (cocaine+baking soda+ heat=crack), it's the same substance. For the last 30 years Blacks have been incarcerated at a rate that would make Jim Crow himself proud.

After the arrest comes the arraignment. Courts across the country are backlogged with cases of Blacks arrested for otherwise, “ticketable” offenses. During this period, the Blacks accused usually cannot afford competent representation, in these cases a public defender is appointed. Public defenders, present the defendant with the possibility of an exorbitant amount of time that the defendant may be sentenced to if a loss in trial is sustained. Therefore, in lieu of spending a great deal of time in prison, the defendant will plea bargain by pleading guilty to a crime to receive a lighter sentence, thus giving up any rights to appeal. The innocence or guilt of the defendant is never a factor in these situations. Local governments and law enforcement agencies directly gain from these incarcerations. Predominantly white communities, where prisons are built, count these inmates as citizens thereby reaping the benefits of these mass incarcerations through federal funding, just as the communities from which these men come lose funding, the men become disenfranchised and families destroyed.

The legal discrimination doesn't stop there. These same individuals are expected to make a way for themselves though they are no longer eligible for basic human rights. Housing and employment possibilities are all but diminished. These ex-offenders are not placed in a precarious position. This person, arrested and convicted for a punitive,non-violent offense that he should have been ticketed for, (if he is guilty of a crime at all) is now labeled a felon. This label permits every form of discrimination imaginable. Doors that were opened through the civil rights movement are closed, legally. The ineligibilities that come with this label is innumerable. Next the essence of manhood is proverbially stripped from this individual through his inability to handle his responsibilities, thereby making the next step practically inevitable, the re-offense which starts the cycle again.

Due to this, "War on Drugs" there are currently more Blacks under correctional control than there were enslaved 170 years ago. Surely one cannot truly believe that African-Americans are on a 30 year crime spree. To eliminate this mass incarceration, society will have to first acknowledge its existence and we as a people must lead by example and not continue to ostracize these members of our community. Through future blogs, ways to break this cycle will be covered, not by way of hair-brained schemes or by becoming radical militants, but by utilizing sound business practices combined with the act of thinking outside of “the box”.Through determination and hard work, ex-offender's can and will realize economic recovery and financial independence and no longer be seen as “casualties of war”.