Before double murderer Kyle Rittenhouse was set free by a disgraceful, almost all-white jury, Bruce Shrouder, the judge overseeing the trial, all but freed the fresh-faced killer.
Shrouder’s anger and disdain for the prosecution’s case and his lovey-dovey treatment of the youthful double murderer Kyle Rittenhouse was one of the worst instances of white ‑power displayed in a courtroom.
But as black is to white and front is to back, Shrouder’s love affair with the defense and the ruthless killer should only be processed against the background of white judges’ racial animus toward black defendants.
Those judges sentence black defendants to exponentially harsher sentences than they do white defendants. On average, a black defendant receives 20% more time in prison than a white defendant who commits the same offense.
In 2017 the Washington Post reported Black men who commit the same crimes as white men receive federal prison sentences that are, on average, nearly 20 percent longer, according to a report on sentencing disparities from the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC).
According to the report, the black/white sentencing disparities have been increasing in recent years, the report found, particularly following the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Booker in 2005. Booker gave federal judges significantly more discretion on sentencing by making it easier to impose harsher or more lenient sentences than the USSC’s sentencing guidelines called for. Before that decision, federal judges were generally required to abide by those sentencing guidelines.
The Sentencing Commission’s reported that the black/white sentencing disparities are being driven in large part by “non-government sponsored departures and variances” — in plain English, sentencing choices made by judges at their own discretion. Judges are less likely to voluntarily revise sentences downward for black offenders than for white ones, in other words. And even when judges do reduce black offenders’ sentences, they do so by smaller amounts than white offenders.
If you ever wondered what the term institutionalized racism means, this is it. It is the built-in racial animus in the United States that is neither subtle nor implicit.
This travesty of a criminal justice system is a disgraceful spectacle that shouldn’t fool anyone into believing it works the same for all Americans.
From Police to Prosecutors, judges, and every bottom feeder on the food chain, the animus toward people of color is a disgrace to the entire world. It is well-oiled machinery of racism and racial privilege.
Shroeder insisted that Prosecutors not refer to the two men who died and one injured at the hands of Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as victims.
His logic is that it is exactly what the jury is supposed to be finding out, the question of whether or not they are victims or just … well, by his logic, disposable looters and arsonists.
In fact, he told the defense attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse that they could label the two deceased arsonists and looters if they could prove it.
To an apologist of this system, this seems a fair tradeoff, but to someone attuned to the system, these were guardrails put in place to preserve the sanctity of white fragility.…white innocence.
Berating the hapless prosecutors while acting as a pseudo defense attorney for Rittenhouse, Bruce Shrouder laid the perfect foundation for the coup de grâce, the not guilty verdict by the almost lily-white jury.
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We witnessed a double-murderer close to an unperturbed trial judge as if it was the most common thing in the world. Someone asked me why it is that Black defendants are generally shackled? Hands shackled to chains around their waists, and feet shackled together, reducing them to shuffling unsympathetic creatures that must be guilty.
On the other hand, we saw Rittenhouse in a suit sitting and talking, wearing a suit in all his white fresh-faced glory.
To begin with, a person in a suit is a more sympathetic figure than a shackled one. The very shackles make the defendant unsympathetic, already condemned.
So how do some murderers get to wear suits while others are shackled like runaway slaves?
Judges grant white killers bail, so they get to wear suits to court.
Judges hardly grant the Black accused bail or set bail at such an incredible outrageous amount that they cannot afford to post bond. So the Black defendant is brought to court in shackles.…… presumed guilty even before a trial.
This writer is not making a case for bail for murder accused, even though I respect the idea of innocent until proven guilty; I am merely stating the blatant inequity in the system.
On February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was gunned down in Miami Gardens by a wannabe white, wannabe cop vigilante George Zimmerman.
The political right rose in defense of the vigilante killer, and the system found Zimmerman not guilty. Kyle Rittenhouse, a vigilante, left his home state of Illinois and went to Wisconsin, where he murdered two men and seriously injured another. The Political right rose in defense of this killer; the system found him not guilty.
The message inherent in these acquittals and others is that more and more the political rights have so corrupted the system that justice may now be an idea only.
The country is fast approaching full fascist mode…
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.