tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34496865826236268382024-03-12T23:53:17.767-07:00Gangs and the MediaJohn Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-57060108325297960502018-05-06T17:39:00.003-07:002018-05-09T18:33:26.702-07:00Stereotypes killed Robert Butts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/05/04/us/04reuters-usa-georgia-execution.html"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he State of Georgia executed Robert Butts</a>, Friday night, May 4, 2018 at 9:58 EDT. But the real killer was a lethal injection of stereotypes by prosecutors, callously upheld by the courts. I have a long history with Robert and his </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">co-defendant, Marion Wilson. Since 2005 I</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">'ve testified in various hearings about the pernicious use of gang stereotypes which frightened their juries into returning a death sentence. For Robert, my best efforts failed.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Robert Butts</b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>No
case in my twenty three years of expert witness work has been characterized by
so many inflammatory and false claims about gangs as this one</b></span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>.<br /> </b><br /> <a href="http://gangsandthemedia.blogspot.com/2017/11/on-folks-and-definitions.html">I've previously written </a>about this case. Prosecutors went to extreme lengths to label </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">a robbery gone wrong </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">as a gang-related crime</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Baldwin County Sheriff Howard Sils had testified the absurd claim that since the bullet type was "F shot" surely the"F" must have stood for Folks? Read that again. "F for Folks." But that was not the worst gang "evidence" at the trial.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <br /> District Attorney Fred Bright put Milledgeville Deputy Ricky Horn on the stand. Horn was qualified as an "expert" on gangs despite his sworn testimony that most of what he knows about gangs he learned from "TV and the movies." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Horn testified to an all white jury in a town that he admitted was "very religious" that "FOLKS" stood for...wait for it....<i><b>F</b>ollowers of <b>O</b>ur <b>L</b>ord <b>K</b>ing <b>S</b>atan</i>. So Mr. Butts was a young black male gang member, convicted of murder and a devil worshipper as well. Death qualified juries, Fleury-Steiner finds, can justify sentencing someone to death if they can dehumanize the defendant, to see him as "the other," as something </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">less than human</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Devil worshippers by any measure surely qualify as "them."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I testified in earlier hearings that I had even consulted with Chicago Police Gang Squad officers and none of us had ever heard such ridiculous meaning for "Folks." That term, of course, is the name of a now defunct coalition of Chicago gangs, the opposite of "People." As in, "your people, my folks." </span></div>
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But frightening the jury with the specter of devil worshipping black gang members in Baldwin County was only the fuse to set off a time bomb in DA Fred Bright's closing argument in Robert's trial. The jury was told that Baldwin County was being held hostage by the "carnage" of a violent crime wave by vicious gangs. Interviews with jurors uncovered that the jury was unaware of such a threat to their lives and the allegations of a gang crime wave was among the most decisive arguments in the jury arriving at a sentence of death. They were even sequestered, it was thought, to protect them against gang retaliation.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>No Crime wave in the 1990s<br />in Baldwin County</b></td></tr>
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Except the crime wave was wholly imaginary. In previous testimony I had pointed out that the homicide rate in Baldwin County, where Milledgeville is located, actually declined in the 1990s after gangs had formed. While the nineties saw a surge in gang homicides in most large cities, Baldwin County had a 33% decrease in homicides over the previous decade. There was also no change in the number of assaults between the 1980s and 1990s. The formation of gangs was related to a <i>decline</i> in violence, not an <i>increase</i>.<br />
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When we form stereotypes, or frames, <i>unless we think about it,</i> we shape any new facts to fit the frame. Thus being told of a devil-worshipping gang and a murder case, and given unrebutted dangerous stereotypes of gangs, the jury accepted the "fake news" that Milledgeville was in the midst of the "carnage" of a gang crime wave — despite the fact that no such crime wave existed. Frames trump facts. Stereotypes can kill. And do. And did.<br />
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Juries in murder cases are especially vulnerable to relying on stereotypes. Terror Management Theory explains when we are confronted with images or evidence of our own mortality we tend to unconsciously rely on familiar folk wisdom, what Kahneman calls "thinking fast" rather than utilizing critical thought. Robert's jury was frightened to death, or rather frightened into rendering a death sentence.</div>
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Gang allegations hover like a phantom over a jury's subconscious or in this case the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole, who briefly considered commuting his death sentence. Like any demon, gang stereotypes need to be continually cast out until they are chased away. Prosecutors are advised to always use gang allegations when available because the very mention of gangs is effective. Such evidence is "prejudicial" and "that's the point!" exclaims a prosecutors' manual. Think about that word: "pre-judicial." This means prosecutors rely on pre-existing stereotypes, not evidence, to get a conviction or harsh sentence. This is no less than a threat to basic principles of justice. This is why I do this work. </div>
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I think of Donovan Parks, the innocent murdered victim in this case. I don't blame his father for saying Robert's execution was <a href="https://www.myajc.com/news/crime--law/stay-lifted-robert-earl-butts-set-for-execution-friday/vPk4YHo9jsokRlUkS0DT1L/">"good news."</a> Our criminal justice system is not about fairness, deterrence, and by no means rehabilitation. It is too often a system of revenge, of "just deserts," lashing out at those who offend the sacred standards of an imagined community. Juries don't need to think what is right or just. They are urged by prosecutors to act on their rawest feelings. They dehumanize, or in this case, demonize the offender so they can more easily allow him to be killed. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I've realized the jury didn't sentence a human being, "Robert Butts," to death. They sentenced a caricature of a gang member, a dehumanized monster of the jury’s darkest nightmares. The DA could have recalled the elements of malice murder and made his case for death to the jury without recourse to any mention of gangs. But instead he chose to visit the nether world of demonization where an offender is so unalterably evil there is literally no choice to the jury but to sentence him to death. </span></div>
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As Robert's execution date arrived May 4th I unconsciously watched the clock: 10:02am....1:47pm .....5:32pm. Then the US Supreme Court's brief stay of execution followed immediately by a terse text that the court would not consider his case. Then 9:58pm. I thought back over the phone conversations I had over the years with this bright, creative man, Robert E. Butts. His deep feelings of responsibility for his family and remorse for his actions. His playful FaceBook messages to me under a pseudonym, daring me to guess who he was. His calls to me from his "cell phone." His joy.</div>
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Robert wrote this stanza in a book he published of his poems and drawings from Death Row. The poem is entitled "Tomorrow."</div>
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Never will I stop seeking you,</div>
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From this I'll never sway...</div>
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I know that we'll meet eventually,</div>
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That tomorrow will come one day...</div>
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Until it won't. Good bye Robert. Your death by stereotype made me cry... made me angry... made me shiver to my very soul. But it also motivates me to use my experience and abilities to confront the unjust and unjustifiable uses of gang stereotypes. I won't forget you.</div>
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Berreby, David. 2005. <i>Us and Them: The Science of identity</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago.</div>
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Butts, Robert E. 2013. <i>A Portrait of My Journey: Memoirs from Death Row</i>. Lexington, KY.</div>
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Devine, Dennis J. 2012. <i>Jury Decision Making; The State of the Science</i>. New York and London: New York University Press.</div>
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Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin. 2004. <i>Jurors' stories of death : how America's death penalty invests in inequality</i>. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.<br />
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Greenberg, Jeff, Sheldon Solomon, Mitchell Veeder, Tom Pyszczynski, Abram Rosenblatt, Shari Kirkland, Deborah Lyon. 1990. "Evidence for Terror Management Theory II: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who Threaten or Bolster the Cultural Worldview." <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology</i> 58(2):308-18.<br />
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Jackson, Alan. 2004. "Prosecuting gang cases: What local prosecutors need to know." Alexandria, VA: American Prosecutors Research Institute.</div>
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Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. <i>Think Fast and Slow</i>. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.</div>
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</style>John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-53078907926659073182017-11-27T09:39:00.001-08:002017-11-27T10:04:14.372-08:00Chicago: gangs, homicide, and housing<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="OLE_LINK2"></a><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">The high homicide rate in Chicago today is no
mystery. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But understanding it requires courage
to look bravely at Chicago’s past and confront the Windy City’s historic structures of
racism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">I’ve been studying gangs and violence in Chicago for more than 20 years.
I’ve concluded three factors underlay Chicago’s high homicide rate.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;">First, 2016 did not represent a spike, but more of a return to
Chicago’s historic level of homicide. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Homicide
rates jumped from 17/100,000 in 2015 to about 29/100,000 in 2016. This "spike" brought us to rates that were considerably higher than
rates over the past decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this near-sighted focus omits this city’s
persistently high rates of homicide before 2004. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chicago’s <i>average</i> homicide rate from 1970 to
2016 is 24.3. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our 600 plus homicides so
far in 2017 put us squarely at the average homicide rate of the past half century. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHrQxxzGscG6prVS0gaqHWihr7OFp3hTOpUgzyORKJOwMACYbnhMcmID9Jz3kaIvPXFnlm5WZFRlBfqbDCM_a0rsSd2-eZYZishJeI15JJjkK3vAhYAB-hde9HEy6Weg1GSogj8s2pP5RL/s1600/ustbelt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="630" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHrQxxzGscG6prVS0gaqHWihr7OFp3hTOpUgzyORKJOwMACYbnhMcmID9Jz3kaIvPXFnlm5WZFRlBfqbDCM_a0rsSd2-eZYZishJeI15JJjkK3vAhYAB-hde9HEy6Weg1GSogj8s2pP5RL/s320/ustbelt.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Second, Chicago’s homicide rate is very similar to other rustbelt
cities, e.g. Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Memphis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the early 1990s, homicide rates of all US cities soared with the
crack wars. Like other rustbelt cities, as well as big cities like Philadelphia,
Chicago’s rate fell moderately. Cities like New York and Los Angeles saw their homicide
rate plummet while high homicide cities like Baltimore, New Orleans St. Louis and
Detroit stayed high.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should realize
that Chicago's murder rate today is 5-6 times higher than New York City’s and shows
no sign of breaking away from other rustbelt cities. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWpGOiaI98U1B6eQFCEFI31zrn9z_8Pf-CvOfIOfq2Cv_21hOPbuw9ev8oPpgqORZvEkFiultfqwG_rU9Ofv1IWqlu7c1XwOb7wM92heuljCKMwBzvxm1gGRwk92zj7CFH4EM12Sbq1Qf/s1600/Distress.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="695" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWpGOiaI98U1B6eQFCEFI31zrn9z_8Pf-CvOfIOfq2Cv_21hOPbuw9ev8oPpgqORZvEkFiultfqwG_rU9Ofv1IWqlu7c1XwOb7wM92heuljCKMwBzvxm1gGRwk92zj7CFH4EM12Sbq1Qf/s400/Distress.tiff" width="400" /></a><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">What rustbelt cities have in common are severely distressed areas
with many unemployed and desperate young black men — and high homicide
rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While New York City has only 15%
of its population in what Richard Florida calls “distressed” zip codes, Chicago
has almost 40% of its citizens living in such areas, about the same as Philadelphia,
whose homicide rate is identical with ours. Detroit, with its even higher
homicide rates, has an astounding 99% of its citizens living in such distressed
areas. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">The high homicide areas in Chicago on the west and south sides are
the areas of the greatest distress and extreme poverty, with youth unemployment
rates exceeding 90% according to a UIC Great Cities study. These are not
coincidentally areas of concentrated black poverty. The key to understanding
homicide in Chicago is race, not gangs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are likely as many Latino as black gang
members, but African Americans account for 78% of all homicide victims and
Latinos 16%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Finally, why didn’t Chicago’s rate fall to single digits like New
York and LA?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Observers point to out of control violence due to the "fracturing" of Chicago's gangs. But why did gangs fracture? </span>The crucial factor appears
to be the impact of the demolition of the Chicago Housing Authority projects
which were originally built to keep Chicago segregated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CHA projects had become fortresses for the
gangs and treasure chests for their drug businesses. Gang wars waged in the
1990s between CHA towers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faced with similar
problems at that time New York invested more than $5 billion dollars in
repairing their low income housing projects and stabilizing neighborhoods. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contrast Chicago diverted renovation money
to law enforcement, then tore down the projects, scattering tens of thousands
of residents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">In the early 2000s, gang members forced out of public housing
migrated to areas already home to traditional gangs. These gangs had been weakened
by their leaders isolated in maximum security cells, declining crack markets, and
exhaustion after years of war. The massive influx of CHA gang members into
south and west side neighborhoods caused youth to reorganize into local
cliques, often named after fallen homeboys or rappers as Robert Aspholm has
brilliantly described.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cliques today
contain members of many different traditional gangs and their allegiance is to one another
not the old hierarchically organized gangs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The years of
2004-2015 were years of reorganization and brand new rivalries were heating up.
Violence today is more spontaneous and looks nothing like the organized wars of
the 1990s. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The release of the video of LaQuan McDonald’s murder
and a long history of police abuse set off a contagious plague of violence. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It is the large pool of angry,
unemployed, young black men in a segregated rustbelt city along with the
history of racism in Chicago that explains our high homicide levels.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Investment in neighborhoods of concentrated black poverty is an obvious remedy. Less obvious, but just as important, is for youth
organizers and social movements to provide a positive outlet for the new,
alienated and largely leaderless new gangs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is the glimmer of hope in a story of racism and despair.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Aspholm, Robert. 2015. "It Ain't the Nineties Anymore." in</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span><i style="font-family: helvetica;">Social Work</i><span style="font-family: helvetica;">. Chicago University of Illinois-Chicago.</span></div>
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Hagedorn, John M. and Brigid Rauch. 2007. "Housing, Gangs, and Homicide: What We can Learn from Chicago." <i>Urban Affairs Review</i> 42(4):435-56.</div>
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Popkin, Susan J. 2000. <i>The hidden war : crime and the tragedy of public housing in Chicago</i>. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.</div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-40323202218302798602017-11-05T07:37:00.000-08:002017-11-08T14:51:44.515-08:00On Folks and Definitions<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is February 2005 and I’m in Jackson, Georgia at a hotel room close to the state prison. I’m prepping with Brian Kammer and pro bono private attorney David Harth to testify in the Marion Wilson case. I’m consulting because the defendant is accused of being in the Folks gang and the "gang" label was used to get the death penalty for Marion and his co-defendant, Robert Butts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I had never testified in person in a death penalty case before and I’m a bit nervous. The stakes are pretty high. I am scheduled to appear the next day at a habeas hearing located in a special courtroom in the prison right next to the execution cell on death row. The lawyers are arguing Wilson had received ineffective counsel and should get a new trial. Among other issues, Kammer and Harth reasoned the original trial attorney failed to call a gang expert to question countless stereotypes and prejudicial statements about gangs. My job was to provide expert testimony that, had I been called to testify at the original trial, at least one juror would not have voted for the death penalty. Harth and Kammer went over the questions they would ask and the questions they expected from the state. We rehearsed several hours until I got it right. These are two top notch attorneys.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Later that night after my mock testimony I read and re-read the transcripts of the original trial. I was dismayed by the many ludicrous and unchallenged statements by prosecution witnesses. We had subpoenaed a manual of the Milidgeville police gang squad that, among other amazing claims, instructed officers that gang members "all dressed alike" and "most gang members died before they were twenty one." Ricky Horn, the Milledgeville PD gang "expert" and Baldwin County Sheriff Howard Sils talked about gangs in language right out of the manual with little apparent understanding of the lives of poor black men. There were pages of testimony denigrating Mr. Wilson but I suddenly stopped when I realized I had the names mixed up. I was reading statements by “Westin” believing he was the prosecutor. No! The prosecutor was Fred Bright and Westin was the “defense” attorney. I could not tell the difference between them from the transcript. They both talked in crude, denigrating language about Mr.Wilson. It appeared they were working together for a conviction and death penalty. It was worse than "ineffective counsel."</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But these sensational stereotypes were activated because the defendant was a member of a gang, the legal equivalent of a terrorist. In fact the name of the statue Wilson was charged under was <i>The Georgia Street Gang Terrorist Prevention Act.</i> It defines a gang in standard terms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Criminal street gang "means any organization, association, or group of three or more persons associated in fact, whether formal or informal, which engages in criminal gang activity as defined in paragraph (1) of this Code section.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Back in the 1960s Walter Miller and Malcolm Klein were the first criminologists to give a theoretical foundation to such soon-to-be created statutes. They discarded the classical definition of gangs that described the process of adolescent gang formation and replaced it with one that highlighted criminality. Mainstream criminologists believe their definitions are neutral generalizations of an empirical reality of gangs. This is what gangs really “are” they say.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But another way of approaching definitions is to consult social psychology and the literature on categorization. This approach tells us definitions are constructs of the mind, not scientific generalizations of reality. I demonstrated in <i>A World of Gangs</i> that gangs are of many types and behaviors, and are constantly in flux. To define something is to freeze it as one thing with no room for change. Defining is similar to framing. Entman states:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition<i>,</i> causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Mainstream criminologists have lent support to punitive policies by selecting out and promoting criminality as a defining characteristic of gangs. Following Entman, they have defined the problem of gangs as criminality not youthful rebellion, implied crimes were not individual acts but caused by a criminal organization, and this moral condemnation of criminal gang members laid the basis for harsh, enhanced sentences. A definition, like a frame, is a choice by rule makers, and the foundation for laws like Georgia's were laid by criminologists. Let's l</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">eave to one side that definitions of gangs like Georgia's can also describe most police districts. What characteristic of police do you consider most salient?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11px;">Frames or definitions are not scientific generalizations of a phenomena but a category that allows us to treat everyone the same. When a "human kind” is defined, Berreby says, we have a guide for our actions toward them. Once crime was put into the definition and sanctified by law, the label "gang" becomes a code to a court that this kid is evil. It’s like a jig saw puzzle </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-indent: -72px;">—</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11px;"> we see only a gold chain, dark skin, a gang tattoo and we can fill in the rest of the puzzle and conclude this guy is a violent criminal. The code "gang member" is a map that cues </span><span style="font-size: 11px;">familiar stereotypes</span><span style="font-size: 11px;"> in our brains, what Winter calls "dangerous frames." </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"> We transform </span><span style="font-size: 11px;">every </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">piece of evidence in such cases and make it gang-related.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z5KhKnAvdXMiGxNus9ZQ7g5H_jTz_V9sMhbYiv80EP17UfWLxfo9_fbuMN8Hrr5U2OpGwUCQ4TxC8rgCmGxgGW0RUFvYRcA8u-uSJfylysJimnJRBCGrN0J2WI_qGvVc_G9_EhXLj9j5/s1600/F+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="370" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z5KhKnAvdXMiGxNus9ZQ7g5H_jTz_V9sMhbYiv80EP17UfWLxfo9_fbuMN8Hrr5U2OpGwUCQ4TxC8rgCmGxgGW0RUFvYRcA8u-uSJfylysJimnJRBCGrN0J2WI_qGvVc_G9_EhXLj9j5/s320/F+shot.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">How does this work in court? In the Wilson case, my testimony was unsettling to the state, especially as I pointed out there was no evidence the crime was gang related. Sheriff Sils was becoming red faced and visibly angry sitting in a row a few feet from the witness stand. We could hear his muttering and eagerness to testify to counter my arguments. As David Harth began his re-direct examination Sils was searching for a way to demonstrate the shooting was indeed all about gangs. Harth asked him when he had first thought the shooting had something to do with gangs? </span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-indent: -72px;">Harth</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-indent: -72px;">: You must have thought of that since your deposition.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-indent: -72px;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-indent: -72px;">Sills</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-indent: -72px;">: It was the fact they used F shot. I never heard of F shot before this crime. It’s a very large shot, bigger than normal bird shot. The </span><span style="text-indent: -72px;">gun had been stolen out of a car,</span><span style="text-indent: -72px;"> but that ammo hadn’t been stolen with it. I always thought to myself that that F stood for FOLKS. It </span><span style="text-indent: -72px;">is not widely sold. Other grades are numbers, except BB shot. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -72px;">There was not any outright laughter in the court since the judge would have held us in contempt. Brian Kammer and I looked at one another and pressed our lips suppressing incredulous guffaws bubbling up from within. Just sit back for a moment and consider <b>F...</b>olks and<b> F </b>shot. Of course they are related and what else could<b> F</b> shot be but a sign of the <b>F</b>olks gang? What about <b>F</b>...armers or<b> F</b>....renchmen or <b>F.</b>..igments of the imagination?</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -72px;">To reiterate: categories are not scientific generalizations of reality but processes of the mind. We are picking out some characteristics as salient and others as not important. For criminologists, prosecutors, journalists, and executioners crime is the most salient characteristic of a gang. For some of us, though, the most important aspect of a gang is alienation and rebellion, and criminal acts should be punished for the harm they do, not because they were committed by a gang member.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -72px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Gangs are a "them" category that cues to "us" — in a court to judges and juries — that this guy is bad news and likely to be guilty. If the evidence isn't there a prosecutors can always search for the equivalent of F shot.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Berreby, David. 2005. <i>Us and Them: The Science of identity</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Entman, Robert A. 1993. "Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm." <i>Journal of Communications</i> 43(4):51-58.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Winter, Nicolas J. G. 2008. <i>Dangerous Frames: How Ideas about Race and Gender Shape Public Opinion</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.</span></div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-60103401907423781652017-10-12T08:04:00.000-07:002018-05-31T05:54:47.797-07:00Dehumanization Begins with the Law<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">I cried when I read my report to the court on the sentencing of 15 year old Diego Melendez. I had actually advocated for a </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">30 year sentence for </i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="font-size: 11px;"><i>this </i></span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="font-size: 11px;"><i>child</i></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">. Why? Because the judge determined the sentencing range was between 30-40 years. Thirty years was the </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">least</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"> he could hand out to this angel-faced kid waived to adult court.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Talking with Diego afterwards he clearly did not grasp what 30 or more years would mean. Thirty years is two life times for him. He asked me if the court might reconsider his sentence in 10 years or so? It broke my heart but I told him while it was possible, the current law and climate made it unlikely. It does no good to lie to someone going to prison. They need a firm grasp on reality to survive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve been studying dehumanizing language but maybe I haven’t been thinking broad enough. Donald Trump recently called the Central American gang <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/07/28/remarks-president-trump-law-enforcement-officials-ms-13"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">MS 13 “animals” </span></a>and has pledged to eradicate them. In my courtroom cases gang members have been called “rats.” “snakes,” “beasts,” and wild animals of all sorts. Diego was called “cold blooded” like a reptile. One of the main points David Livingstone Smith makes in his <i>Less Than Human</i> is that dehumanization offers “</span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">a method for counteracting inhibitions against lethal violence by excluding our victims from the human community.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Maybe dehumanization is a good way to describe our sentencing policy. How can judges rationalize sentences of 30, 40, or even life in prison? They say “let the punishment fit the crime” but the US is an outlier in our use of incarceration and the length of our sentences. For example. i<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/05/07/why_does_norway_have_a_21_year_maximum_prison_sentence.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent;">n Norway, the longest sentence someone can get is 21 years</span></a>, for <i>any</i> crime. In our country, one way to rationalize locking gang members up and “throwing away the key” is to consider them “animals.” We rationalize the violence of incarceration by dehumanizing gang members and other dark skinned offenders.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Let me tell you about Diego Melendez and how he came to be caged for 30 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Diego was what we call “socialized to the streets.” His parents had been Latin King and MS 13 members. He started hanging out with gang members at age 8 and was jumped into the Maniac Latin Disciples (MLD) at 10 or 11. I told an incredulous judge that for Diego the gang was <i>normal. </i>The judge was engaged with my testimony and asked me numerous questions about why such young boys join gangs? The Assistant States Attorney tried to cut me off several times, but the judge reprimanded him and told him to not “cut off a witness again.” This white suburban judge was struggling to understand how a young kid like Diego could be in a gang and kill. This kind of judicial questioning is what you want to see as an expert witness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The homicide, like all murders was heart-rending. Diego’s MLD leader told him and another child soldier that the Latin Kings were invading and gave them guns. Diego saw two guys running 30 or 40 yards away. He told me he thought he fired into the ground. Most likely he and his comrade fired in the general direction and as fate had it one of their unlucky shots hit home and killed Jonathon Quebrado. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The States Attorney made a big deal about how after the shooting, Diego laughed. That proved to him Diego was cold blooded and a long prison term was needed to protect society from such a heartless killer. I’ve seen this response many times after a shooting. It is part of the process of dehumanization. The prohibition of killing is so strong that when you actually kill someone, you need a response that counteracts the searing emotional pain of having violated the internalized moral code: “thou shalt not kill.” Laughing, scoffing, flashing your gang sign, or even shouting in triumph are not indications of inhumanity, but psychologically are the opposite. Professional hit men do not celebrate a shooting, they go about their business. Diego was not a hit man, he was a child with a gun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When Diego learned the young man who been killed was not a Latin King, but an innocent bystander, he was disconsolate. He cooperated with the prosecution which will not be helpful for him in the Illinois prison system. He talked to me about his interests and life in a suburban jail. My written statement to the court tried to bring the boy in Diego to life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But did you know Diego Melendez loves to read? When I asked him if I could send him a book, he lighted up and said “Eclipse,” by Stephanie Meyer. Looking over my shoulder he said Meyer, with an "e" not "a" This isn’t my idea of a great read but Meyer’s books are intensely popular among teenagers of every race and class. As he described the plots of various books he liked, I thought sadly, “he’s just a kid.” That “kid” is there alongside of the gangster, competing for his life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I stayed on for the sentencing which immediately followed my testimony. I think the judge was moved by Diego’s youth but felt constrained by the law. After he handed down a 33 1/2 year sentence I was taken aback by the Public Defender’s congratulation. “The betting pool among PDs” he said, “was 38 or 39 years. Your testimony saved him five or six years.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">These small victories may be all we can get in today’s cruel world of lengthy sentences. But they speak to the limits of the kind of work I do or the often futile efforts of Public Defenders and defense attorneys. If I do my job well, I can humanize a gang member, like Diego Melendez. But I can’t humanize a system of mass incarceration that throws away lives since they aren’t really considered to be human anyway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Diego’s mother had a tear drop tattoo and had been told by attorneys to get rid of it or not show up in court since it would cue “gang involvement” to the judge. As I left, I told her to make sure to keep that tattoo and look at it everyday in the mirror and think of Diego. How can we not cry over a system that is drenched in the pain of dehumanization?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Berreby, David. 2005. <i>Us and Them: The Science of Identity</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Fine, Gary Alan. 1987. <i>With the boys : Little League baseball and preadolescent culture</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Smith, David Livingstone. 2011. <i>Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others</i>: Amazon Kindle.</span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-3894833380651724972017-07-26T05:05:00.003-07:002017-07-26T05:09:15.248-07:00On Murderers and Babysitters (Part Three)<div class="p1" style="text-align: left;">
There is a postscript to this story that explains why I added the word "babysitter" to the title of these blogs.</div>
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<span class="s1">I had maintained contact with Ike along with his dedicated lawyer,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Aviva Futorian. I remember one visit at Pontiac when Ike was led out in chains to talk with us through glass. He was intensely aware of his “slave-like” status and told me he was deeply embarrassed. He didn’t want to be seen in chains and we found discussions labored and the visit didn’t last long. We did talk about my six year old son Jess.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ike’s art gave meaning to his life and my little Jess had artistic talent.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ike had sent Jess a picture and Jess drew one for him along with a few words that a six year old could muster to someone in such an incomprehensible situation.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ike's letter to my son, Jess</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">It was at this Pontiac visit that Ike told me that he would not be able to send any more pictures to Jess since his pencils had been taken away from him as possible “weapons” and he was unable to draw with the crude colorless implements they allowed him to have. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">As someone who had killed a prison official Ike had to be constantly aware of threats to his life by correctional officers. His treatment by guards was hostile and at times cruel.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Taking away his colored pencils seemed to me mainly about breaking his spirit.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Things changed a few years later. As Ike sat on death row, Illinois Governor George Ryan became aware of the torture of black gang members by Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Several of these men who had been sentenced to death were exonerated by DNA evidence. Ryan ordered hearings to be held on every inmate on death row to allow testimony, mainly from victims, on whether the Governor should grant clemency. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Two motivations drove me to show up to testify on Ike’s behalf. The nature of his trial had convinced me that some ways had to be found to counter the reign of stereotypes and demonization of gang trials.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And second, my own interactions with him had taught me Ike was not an evil monster, despite having committed evil acts. He was more than one thing and there was a depth of humanity to a man who interacted so sensitively with my son. I had found Ike was <i>likeable</i> and I believed he could be redeemed and rehabilitated.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I showed up at the state office building where the hearing was to be held and entered a room packed with prison guards and officials. They were lining up to testify and filled with hate. One mid level corrections bureaucrat said “Easley must be killed before he kills again.” The testimony went on for a couple of hours before the chair introduced Ike’s new appointed attorney who was visibly intimidated by the show of force by dozens of armed correctional officials.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">His comments are a good example of what passes for a legal defense in many gang trials. He was appointed to make the case for clemency.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’ll repeat <i>all</i> of his comments verbatim. He said “Here is Professor Hagedorn who will say something on Ike’s behalf.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That was it, his whole case.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Everyone’s eyes glared at me as I took the stand. My <a href="http://www.healthline.com/health/oppositional-defiant-disorder#symptoms2">Oppositional Defiant Disorder</a> kicked in and I briefly summarized the unfairness of Ike’s trial. But my main argument was that this man, who was labeled a monster who had to be killed, was a human being with much good in him. I talked about his abused childhood and feelings of abandonment. I recalled his peacemaking actions in the prison. But I mainly talked about his exchanging letters and art work with my young son. Why would you kill someone who could show such feelings of empathy? Why not treat his emotional distress and let him channel his anger into art?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">There were some jeers but mostly angry stares implying “how dare you defend this monster.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But the room was stunned when I concluded that if Ike Easley could be paroled and given another chance at life I would welcome him as a babysitter for my son.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I remember a couple of journalists running out of the room to phone in the story and a<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/75722859/"> few newspapers reported my comments</a>. The correctional officials just looked at me in disbelief. My testimony made no sense to them whatsoever. I lived in a different world than they did. Some frames never interact.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Ike only was granted clemency since Gov. Ryan commuted sentences for <i>everyone</i> on death row.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If you haven’t read Ryan’s remarkable clemency statement,<a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/ryans-words-i-must-act"><span class="s2"> it can be found here</span></a>. If Ryan had looked at clemency case by case I’m quite sure he would have succumbed to pressures by the correctional bureaucracy and Ike would not have been spared.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">It was Ike Easley’s trial and humanity that put me on the path to confront stereotypes and demonization at criminal trials.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>To me justice in gang trials means two things. First jurors should decide cases and sentences on evidence not on fear and false generalizations. Second gang members are human beings.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Doing evil doesn’t mean you <i>are</i> evil. My empathy for the families of victims does not stop my feeling empathy for a gang member who killed. Another word for “murderer,” after all, is “human being.” </span>And I know that is hard for most people to accept.</div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-73344561000900912052017-07-25T05:47:00.001-07:002017-07-25T06:21:58.649-07:00On Murderers and Babysitters (Part Two)<div class="p1" style="text-align: left;">
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<span class="s1"><i>Defendant also attached to his post-conviction petition a report by John Hagedorn, who is a sociologist and an expert on street gangs. In his report, he conceded that the gang-related evidence may not have changed the outcome of the guilt phase of the trial. However, he opined that the gang-related evidence "exercised considerable influence on the jury in the penalty phase of the trial. In other words, if the gang issue had not been such a major focus of the trial, I believe the jury would have been substantially less likely to ask for the death penalty.”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>We disagree…</i></span></div>
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<span class="s2"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></span><span class="s1"> <span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>People v. Easley.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Supreme Court of Illinois.<b>·</b>148 Ill.2d 281 (Ill. 1992)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">My involvement with Ike Easley’s appeals led me to immerse myself in studying the power of stereotypes. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>One key lesson I’ve learned from my studies in social cognition is that a jury already has an image of a gang member in mind before a trial starts, what is called a prototype. This prototype is typically of a gang member as a “savage beast” and left unchecked, juries will be receptive to evidence that confirms their stereotype and reject any evidence that contradicts it. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> My expert witness work is aimed at helping jurors question their stereotypes so they are more able to accept "discrepant information" or evidence that doesn't fit with pre-existing images. </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1">We think in metaphors which according to Winter “are neither true nor false, but have consequences, perceptions, inferences, and actions.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> This means i</span>f a gang member is like a savage beast then a jury will believe he is likely to have killed "like an animal" as alleged. The savage beast metaphor includes the related notion that such wild animals need to be “put down.” Stereotypes can kill.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You probably guessed Ike's jury was all-white. But this was not by accident. The prosecutor excused every black potential juror with the argument that since they lived in black communities where black gangs also resided,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>jurors were likely to be intimidated by the threat of gang retaliation. Despite criticism of this tack by the<a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1386329.html"><span class="s3"> Seventh Circuit</span></a> Ike did not face a jury of his peers.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">But it gets worse, much worse. Because of the intense publicity in the area around Pontiac, Ike’s trial was moved to Will County and the city of Joliet. In the week before the trial, three El Rukn gang members had murdered a Joliet prison guard and newspaper accounts of this crime circulated among Ike’s jurors. Ike remembered the judge making comments about the El Rukn murder during the trial. If Ike's case evoked a frame of gang members as savage beasts who kill prison guards, the environment in Joliet at the time strongly reinforced that frame.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pontiac Correctional Center</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">The prosecutor had been prohibited by the court to allege the killing was the result of a gang conspiracy. The court found there was no evidence of such a conspiracy and this was affirmed by the Illinois Supreme Court on appeal. Despite this admonition, the prosecutor claimed in his opening statement, during trial, and at closing that the killing was ordered by the Black Gangster Disciples. The image was the gang letting the beast Ike Easley out of his cage and telling him to “kill.” The Supreme Court ruled that while the allegation of a conspiracy was “improper” Ike “suffered no prejudice therefrom.” I disagreed.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Let me tell you about killing. Randall Collins says violence is hard. While there are “hit men” who are cold and mechanical about killing, most murder is done in passion and with adrenaline flowing. The court acknowledged after Ike was detained he yelled out ““all you honkey motherfuckers want is a nigger donkey to pin this case on, and I am your donkey, I am your killer.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ike denied to me that any gang meeting had ordered the killing. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In one of the most emotional exchanges of my life Ike talked about the “uncontrollable” urges that streamed over him once the violence had begun and he and Taylor fought for their lives. Afterwards Ike said he blacked out and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“I threw up like a motherfucker.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>These are emotions, triggered by an extreme event — the killing of Ike's best friend and revulsion toward his own violent act. Therapists say people like Ike can be responsive to long term treatment.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>To me Ike's emotional response to his violence was an indication of his humanity and an example of how killing violates deeply held norms.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The final “nail in the coffin” in enflaming the fears and prejudices of the jury was not mentioned in any of the court decisions. I pointed out in my statement that a “moral panic” atmosphere surrounded the trial. My field notes capture the pièce de résistance that inhibited reason from deciding this case.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Finally, in my mind, the most damaging event was the manner in which the jury was protected during trial. Defense attorneys have told me that sharpshooters were deployed to protect the jurors. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When the jurors asked why there were sharpshooters, they were told something like that "the gang may want to kill jurors." It is hard to underestimate the impact this must have made on the jury.</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">It is not easy to use <a href="https://gangsandthemedia.blogspot.com/2017/04/winning-over-other-side-part-2-of-3.html">System 2 logical reasoning</a> when you are in a state of fear. “Terror Management Theory” finds that people, e.g. jurors, when faced with threats to their own mortality are more likely to rely on stereotypes and not think analytically. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Duh. What do you think the jury was feeling while being told Ike’s gang might kill them?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Consider the scene: An all-white jury, in a setting that recently witnessed a similar murder of a local guard by gang members, listening to a prosecutor who improperly alleged a gang conspiracy and then had the deliberating jurors surrounded by sharpshooters protecting them from being assassinated by the gang.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I don't care what the jury decided, it was not based on a reasoned judgement of Ike Easley’s potential for rehabilitation or any dispassionate consideration of justice. Fear, not facts, drove that jury to their fatal decision and sent me on my path of studying the power of stereotypes in court.</span><br />
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One final chapter remains: the clemency hearings and the commutation of Ike's death sentence.</div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Cohen, Stanley. 1972. <i>Moral panics and folk devils</i>. London: MacGibbon & Kee.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Collins, Randall. 2008. <i>Violence : a micro-sociological theory</i>. Princeton: Princeton University Press.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Greenberg, Jeff, Sheldon Solomon, Mitchell Veeder, Tom Pyszczynski, Abram Rosenblatt, Shari Kirkland, Deborah Lyon. 1990. "Evidence for Terror Management Theory II: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who Threaten or Bolster the Cultural Worldview." <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology</i> 58(2):308-18.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Maruna, Shadd. 2001. <i>Making Good:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild their Lives</i>. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Winter, Steven A. 2001. <i>A Clearing in the Forest:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Law, Life, and Mind</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago.</span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-30878618840470508622017-07-24T07:36:00.001-07:002017-07-24T07:41:29.560-07:00On Murderers and Babysitters (Part One)<div class="p1" style="text-align: left;">
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<span class="s1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 12px;">As I near my 70th birthday I have been asking myself why I spend so much of my remaining time in life consulting for the defense of gang members who are charged with murder. While some may be innocent, most are guilty.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 12px;">How can I justify this?</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1">For many of the lawyers I work with defending gang members means upholding civil liberties and giving their client the best defense they can offer.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’m not a lawyer and many cases boil down to technical disagreements and narrow applications of the law more than issues of justice.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">On the one hand, ethically, I do not believe people who kill should get away with it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I feel empathy for offender <i>and</i> victim.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>On the other hand I think our sentencing policy is draconian.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Incredibly, <a href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Still-Life.pdf"><span class="s2">one in every five African Americans in prison today are serving life sentences</span></a> and two thirds of all inmates serving life are minorities. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Human beings, even those who kill, are still human beings and I do not think they should be caged like wild animals for their natural life. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">During sentencing I try to explain gang involvement in such a way that a judge can have a bit more understanding, if not compassion.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A gang member’s life should not be reduced to a snapshot of a crime scene, but considered as one frame in a life long movie of change and maturation. I believe everyone deserves a chance at rehabilitation.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I’ve been immersed for two decades in the literatures on how we think in stereotypes,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>but I began my court work not through books but experience. What directly pulled me into this field was getting to know gang members who killed and learning how their trials were conducted.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Let me introduce you to Ike Easley.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ike Easley's current IDOC photo</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Ike was one of the first expert witness cases I took and I’m afraid explaining his importance will take three blogs over the next three days.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The issue with Ike was not whether he killed: he committed not one, but two homicides. Let me walk you through his case from its beginning to the commuting of his death penalty sentence by then Gov. Ryan of Illinois.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Ike was a severely abused child who was bullied at school. When his sister was being repeatedly struck by her boyfriend and threatened his mother, Ike intervened. When the the abuser went for a gun, Ike shot him first.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Wolfgang calls this victim-precipitated homicide and this kind of murder is quite common. Ike reasonably argued it was self defense. He had no criminal record and was taken by utter surprise by a guilty verdict and a sentence of 20 years in prison.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Cook County Jail was also a shock, and Ike’s membership in the then Black Gangster Disciples was both a protective factor and an emotional response to what he saw as an unjust sentence.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Ike’s second killing got headlines and a high profile trial. Ike stabbed and killed Robert Taylor,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the Assistant Superintendent of Pontiac Correctional Center. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Taylor was a widely admired African American administrator and his murder sparked outrage among prison officials and prosecutors. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ike’s trial resulted in a guilty verdict and the death penalty.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I got involved with the case through Ike’s appellate lawyer, Aviva Futorian, on a habeas petition of ineffective counsel in his original trial. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">I traveled to Menard where Ike was incarcerated and awaiting an execution date. I did not know what to expect in meeting this double murderer.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He had been transferred from Tamms, Illinois’ super max prison that was recently closed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He was singled out in <a href="http://thesouthern.com/news/local/tamms-outpost-of-the-infamous/article_391bb9fc-e9b4-11e1-a385-0019bb2963f4.html"><span class="s2">media accounts</span></a> as among the “worst of the worst.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This didn’t fit with the man I met. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I found Ike to be a gentle giant, soft spoken and an astute cultural critic. He was keenly aware of the culture of violence<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>promoted on TV and on the streets where he grew up. He admitted he experienced the effects of this culture personally and felt an obligation to warn youth of its dangers. In my statement to the court I compared him to troubled white kids I knew growing up in Clintonville, Wisconsin.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Magic to My Soul by Ike Easley</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">On my first visit we had an intense four hour conversation about what had happened on the day of his lethal assault on Taylor and exchanged personal experiences and outlooks.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ike had never admitted to the murder and his vivid description of the incident to me was one of the most emotionally draining experiences of my life.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space">Ike</span> is extremely emotional and his pent up rage contributed to both murder charges. He also displayed a sensitive, artistic side and questioned me about my own children and life. I'll explain the "babysitter" in the title in a later blog. We connected on a human level in the first and subsequent meetings.</div>
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<span class="s1">My conversations with Ike were the beginnings of my realization that gang members, like all of us, have multiple conflicting identities. While Ike had killed he also loved and at most times lived a life of peace. In prison he had often functioned as a peacemaker, breaking up fights. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>For abused children like Ike who have faced unjust, racist treatment throughout their life extreme events can trigger inner violence. This is what happened at Pontiac in 1987 as Ike snapped.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The events surrounding the murder were much more complex than presented at the trial as a cold blooded gang-ordered “hit.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Conditions at Pontiac were described by many observers as “out of control.” Gangs were at war within the prison and weapons and drugs were everywhere. The year after Ike’s conviction, 16 guards were <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-07-17/news/8801150504_1_homemade-knives-pontiac-correctional-center-corrections-officials"><span class="s2">indicted for drug trafficking at the prison,</span></a> This confirmed Ike’s sober explanation to me of how prison corruption was related to the murder.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">According to Ike, various persons and factions within the prison administration were maneuvering to get their share of drug profits by allying with the Vice Lords and El Rukns against the Black Gangster Disciples. One of Ike’s best friends, Billy Jones or “Zodiac” was killed by guards and Ike and others believed his killing was part of a power play by guards and their new gang allies to seize control of the drug trade.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The guards claimed Zodiac swallowed a bag of cocaine and “accidentally” died but Ike told me he saw the assault on his best friend and became enraged.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Soon after Zodiac’s death Ike entered Taylor’s office with a “shank” and stabbed him to death. Tragically, there is no evidence Taylor was corrupt but only an available target for Ike’s out of control rage.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">While Ike’s history of abuse may be mitigating, his crime is surely deplorable. It is easy to see why any prosecutor or jury would be outraged. “Outrage” also isn’t a bad word to describe his trial as well.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In the next blog let me describe Ike’s trial in Joliet IL which to me is symbolically adjacent to Salem, MA.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Wolfgang, Martin E. 1957. "Victim Precipitated Criminal Homicide." <i>The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Police Science</i> 48(1):1-11.</span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-53635430153145480532017-05-22T09:34:00.000-07:002017-05-23T08:09:42.607-07:00Priming, Racism, Brains, and Gangs<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In most of my trials a young African American male is led out to the defense bench by courthouse guards. Sometimes he is handcuffed and sometimes he is clad in a faded orange jumpsuit. But he always appears in basic black. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Social cognition literatures call the jury’s first impression of a man with black skin in custody a prime or cue. The cue of his black skin involuntarily brings to life in juror’s minds cultural associations of black men with violence and criminality.</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Susan Fiske says “The racial schema of black people is the belief blacks are dirty and physically skilled (e.g., athletic)…as well as militant, violent, criminal, and hostile.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 9px;">Blacks are seen as more violent , lazier, and less intelligent than whites</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 9px;"> General Social Survey 2000.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 9px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 9px;">National Opinion Research Center</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If the defendant is also claimed to be a gang member in the prosecution’s opening statement, that association is unlikely to fade away. Mock jury studies find that the mere association of a defendant with gangs makes it more likely he will be convicted.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Black √ Male √ In custody √ Gang Member √ — four strikes are more than enough. From the first moment of court it becomes apparent to the average juror that this kind of defendant is guilty until proven innocent. Eisen calls this “reverse jury nullification” or when the gang issue influences a jury to convict despite evidence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Once cued that the defendant is a gang member and therefore likely to be violent and probably guilty of the charges, a jury’s critical thinking or system two reasoning often shuts down. Gilovich says: “When examining evidence relevant to a given belief, people are inclined to see what they expect to see, and conclude what they expect to conclude. Information that is consistent with our pre-</span></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: x-small;">existing beliefs is often accepted at face value, whereas </span><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: x-small;">evidence that contradicts them is critically scrutinized and discounted.” In other words the jury is on the prosecution’s</span><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: x-small;">side unless heroic efforts are made by the defense.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11px;">I</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">n Claude Steele’s classic, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Whistling Vivaldi,</i> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">he describes his experience jogging as a black man in liberal Hyde Park, home of the University of Chicago. New to the area and decked out in what might look like ghetto attire of a sweat shirt and pants, he fit the dangerous black male stereotype. He got “looks” and people went to the other side of the street. How could he signal to his fearful white neighbors that he was </span><i style="font-size: 11px;">one of us </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">and not </span><i style="font-size: 11px;">one o</i><span style="font-size: x-small;">f </span><i style="font-size: 11px;">them</i><span style="font-size: x-small;">? He solved the problem by whistling Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as he jogged, cueing his sophisticated watchers to his having a European classical background that would be unlikely to be in the repertoire of a street thug.</span><span style="font-size: 11px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It’s not so easy to whistle Vivaldi in a courtroom.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Once a jury believes the defendant is likely guilty, confirmation bias does the rest. As Michael Shermer says “research consistently shows that once people have established what they think is the cause of an event they just observed—(in other words, they have formed a link between A and B)—they will then continue to gather information to support that causal link over other possibilities—if they can even think of alternatives once the first causal link is established, which they usually cannot.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And sadly, its not just a matter of culture. fMRI scans indicate that the amygdala is automatically activated whenever an out group is present. Link that activation of evolutionary “danger” of the presence of outsiders to stereotypes </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">of black men and gang members and the courtroom becomes an arena where the defense is put in a position of having to prove a black gang-related defendant is not guilty.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The power of even unconscious primes has been demonstrated through much research. Steele reports female students who were shown subliminal images of professional, competent women before a math test performed significantly better than those who were similarly shown images of women in traditional gender roles. By the way the girls primed by professional images did even better than the boys on the test. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We don’t have many studies of what happens during juror deliberation, but Fleury-Steiner’s research on death penalty juries reveals jurors routinely dehumanized a defendant, in interviews calling one a “ beast…sociopath…evil person.” Jurors, Fleury-Steiner found, saw themselves as “us” and the defendant as “them,” more able to condemn to death a defendant because he was defined as an out group, particularly a racial out group: “I saw the defendant is a very typical product of the lower socioeconomic black group who grew up with no values, no ideals, no authority, no morals, no leadership, and this is come down from generation to generation….. he wasn't a white kid.” Sentence: death.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">These findings are a warning to defense attorneys who think mitigation means to paint a picture of the defendant as an abused child and the product of an unforgiving environment. This kind of testimony can evoke sympathy, but Fleury-Steiner found that it can also reinforce stereotypes and the “us vs them” dichotomy, making the death penalty or very long sentences more likely. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A defendant is convicted or given a long sentence not so much by the evidence itself but by how the evidence is interpreted or framed by juries and judges. That frame is guided by non rational processes that include the racial and “gang” cues that establish likely guilt in a jury’s mind. My job as an expert witness is not just about using “research not stereotypes” but counteracting dehumanizing cues by explaining the defendant’s actions in terms a jury may condemn but still understand. In other words, my job is to “whistle Vivaldi” to the jury so they can look at the defendant as one of us, not one of them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yeah. That’s hard.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Eisen, Mitchell L., Brenna Dotson, and Alma Olaguez 2014. "Practitioner: Exploring the prejudicial effect of gang evidence: under what conditions will jurors ignore reasonable doubt." <i>American University Washington College of Law Review. </i> Brief 41.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin. 2004. <i>Jurors' stories of death : how America's death penalty invests in inequality</i>. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Gilovich, Thomas. 1991. How We Know it isn't So: The Fallibility of Reason in Everyday Life. New York: The Free Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Shermer, Michael. 2011. <i>The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths</i>. New York: Henry Holt & Company.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Steele, Claude. 2010. <i>Whistling Vivaldi : and other clues to how stereotypes affect us</i>. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.</span></div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-25403338915526670412017-04-10T05:26:00.000-07:002017-11-25T08:34:40.066-08:00Winning Over the Other Side (Part 3 of 3)<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Once upon a time, in a galaxy not so far away, Chicago’s Gangster Disciples invaded Mahnomen, Minnesota, a bustling “metropolis” 235 miles north of Minneapolis. Fear tore through the northlands as the “gang frame” was imposed to explain a local homicide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A Gangster Disciple branch had secretly formed in upper Minnesota, two men said in a plea deal. They claimed the murder they committed was not their fault but ordered by Timothy Shanks, the “Pharaoh” of the gang. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Minnesota Attorney General was so alarmed by their state being invaded by a notorious Chicago gang that they sent in a team of Minneapolis lawyers to make sure Shanks would be convicted for this heinous gang-related crime.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This trial is a successful illustration of reframing, one of George Lakoff’s key techniques on persuasion. Lakoff’s <i>Don’t think of an Elephant</i> was written in the wake of George Bush’ 2000 Republican electoral victory. Lakoff argues that Democrats tried to beat the Republicans by accepting their language and their “strict father” frame of reality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For example Lakoff points out that when the right says “family values” they mean obedience to the rules of a “tough love” father and an absolute sense of right and wrong based in obedience to God the Father. The sanctity of unborn life is enshrined in the Bible and God and priest need to be obeyed. Rather than talk about family values as adherence to rules, Lakoff says we should “reframe” or suggest a different understanding of family, ie. the capacity of a mother to nurture and properly care for her child and who should be able to make her own decisions about her body. Lakoff’s books give numerous, rich examples of reframing, of getting others to see things through shared, empathetic values.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Lakoff doesn't deal at length with crime, perhaps because crime (and gangs) in a courtroom immediately and powerfully cue the strict father frame through our System 1 reasoning. From the judge sitting on high and a prosecutor who casts moral blame, gang-related trials reverse the presumption of innocence. Gang members are assumed guilty and defense attorneys need to prove otherwise. It worked that way in Mahnomen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The prosecution of Timothy Shanks began as a gang-related murder and looked hopeless from the start. The judge who appointed local attorney Peter Cannon to defend Shanks, privately told his long time friend to forget about putting up a defense. The Minnesota Attorney General’s office had vast resources and in a trial of a black gang member in an all-white Scandinavian community, conviction seemed to be guaranteed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Like many of my stories, the real hero is an attorney who refuses to surrender to stereotypes. Something didn’t sound right to Peter Cannon and after many phone calls looking for a “gang expert” he finally reached me. I talked with Mr. Shanks and quickly concluded that not only was this crime not gang related but Shanks was completely innocent. Shanks was being tried by the gang frame, not by facts. The actual shooters had got off with only a couple of years sentence by claiming Timothy, the “Pharaoh" of the GDs had ordered the “hit.” The key to this trial was to persuade the judge that the crime had nothing to do with gangs. And if it had nothing to do with gangs, there was no evidence whatsoever to charge Shanks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">My first reason for thinking the gang-related charge was bogus was that there is no rank of “Pharaoh” in the Gangster Disciples. In a written affidavit and later in testimony in court I disputed the gang frame in its entirety and went through all of the evidence, giving an alternative story that explained the crime without the gang frame. By doing so i encouraged the court to use System 2 reasoning and not settle for System 1 stereotypes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Timothy Shanks was a black man from Gary making his living on the carnival circuit in northern Minnesota. He had a faded tattoo from his youth of the GD six pointed star. Having such a tattoo I explained was not evidence of current gang membership, but was normal for many poor black kids in the Chicago area and meant little a decade or so later. What about his “order” to murder? At a party the two shooters asked Shanks what they should do about money owed to them by the victim? By all accounts, Shanks, who was surrounded by several local girls, huffed “Do what you gotta do.” That was it. No gang meetings or evidence of any other gang activities. Just words at a party impressing a couple of young white girls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Shanks’ murder charge, I argued, could be reduced to a desperate ploy by the shooters to cut a deal with gullible prosecutors. My cases are filled with allegations by jail house snitches or co-defendants claiming a crime <i>actually</i> was gang related in order to get a favorable deal for themselves. In this situation the two pleaders got the gang leader title wrong, but in others cases I’ve discovered “gang evidence” was completely fabricated. What is amazing is that such skimpy evidence could invoke a “gang as evil” frame that would cause prosecutors to imagine Timothy Shanks ordering a murder. This is the definition of System 1 thinking.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGV9zL8bY0k-s6BUHdYHbSe79ohU0lR8M662VhPz3us-5Ubu5mAv4H8WT8tvBwBX1zum8YL2mfI71qz_vtpyckA_YdG4oKr7G0YfC9GNo4djPVY5Wx8Ux9CyE4i9sYXXEpYKFNV_9eYaEN/s1600/thatsallfolks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGV9zL8bY0k-s6BUHdYHbSe79ohU0lR8M662VhPz3us-5Ubu5mAv4H8WT8tvBwBX1zum8YL2mfI71qz_vtpyckA_YdG4oKr7G0YfC9GNo4djPVY5Wx8Ux9CyE4i9sYXXEpYKFNV_9eYaEN/s320/thatsallfolks.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;">There was one other piece of evidence tying the carny worker to the Gangster Disciples. It was established in testimony that Shanks often used the expression “What’s up Folks.” By the time this came up in the trial things were already getting dicey for the prosecution. My reframing the crime as a ill-informed plea deal plus the rather questionable notion of gangs running wild in Mahnomen was raising doubts to the judge and even the prosecutors. I calmly explained that “what’s up folks” is a common greeting in black communities, not necessarily gang related. If everyone who said “What’s up folks” was a gang member, I testified, then the court ought to indict Porky Pig and his Disney folks gang. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Well the judge had had enough. He called the Assistant Attorneys General to the bench and it was agreed to drop all charges. Peter Cannon dug into his pocket and gave Timothy bus fare back to Gary. Justice was served, though Timothy had spent months in jail awaiting trial in what was truly a “gang frame-up.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Lakoff gives four pieces of advice in how to win over the middle: Show Respect; Respond by Reframing; Think and Talk at the Level of Values; and Say What You Believe. In the Mahnomen courtroom I responded with reason and facts but mainly reframed the crime as having nothing to do with gangs. Rather than an actual gang hit what we had was 1. Two guys trying to avoid long prison terms; 2. The stereotype that black men + a murder means they must be in a gang; and 3. All-too-common macho talk at a party. Shanks’ old tattoo, his saying “What’s Up Folks,” and being black in Mahnomen are flimsy evidence to prove he was a “gang leader” who called a hit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Unlike the Tennessee judges, these prosecutors were open to my arguments when I activated a different frame. They had read <i>People & Folks</i>, my first book, and in cross examination I was treated with respect and I gave it back on the stand. Prosecutors aren’t always so reasonable and most of my clients are not innocent. But the lesson is that among those who disagree with you there are some who can be won over by conscious reframing. In blogs to come, I’ll draw on more of my cases to explain the power of stereotypes in court and relay different tactics I’ve used to combat them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. <i>Think Fast and Slow</i>. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Lakoff, George. 2004. <i>Don't think of an elephant! : know your values and frame the debate : the essential guide for progressives</i>. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub. Co.</span></div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-48090715582263346092017-04-03T08:47:00.000-07:002017-04-03T08:47:45.982-07:00Winning Over the Other Side (Part 2 of 3)<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 12px;">There are some people you can’t win over, at least in the short term. That doesn’t mean you don’t try, but presenting the facts alone won’t cut it.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">A few years ago I gave a talk at the Tennessee Judicial Conference, an annual meeting of judges. Tennessee is a death penalty state and judges there, like everywhere, are hostile to gang members who are on trial. I made my standard presentation on stereotypes, drawing a laugh here and there at my powerpoint graphics. But otherwise the judges were silent. After a while I suspected most had stopped paying attention. </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When I finished I asked for questions and there were none….. just stares. This same talk had received enthusiastic applause and numerous questions at a Vanderbilt University law conference the year before, but the judges hated it. Why?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Trying to figure this out I have turned away from sociology and have been exploring social cognition literatures, defined by Susan Fiske as “how ordinary people think about people and how they think they think about people.” In the academic tradition where I was trained, there is an unstated assumption that rigorous research will produce facts that will persuade others. I found it seldom works that way.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">WYSIATI means "What You See is All There Is"</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Daniel Kahneman had made the important discovery that we think in two distinct ways. Kahneman points out we are generally lazy thinkers and prefer to use what he calls our System 1 thinking that looks for simplified cause and effect patterns consistent with our prior beliefs. “System 1 is designed to jump to conclusions from little evidence" when that evidence is consistent with our stereotypes. System 1 is our <i>default</i> way of thinking and it includes a gendered ethnocentrism and identification with one's own group. It operates mainly by associations and in frames, not by logic. It requires effort by more complex System 2 thinking to break stereotypes and most people typically would rather not put in that much work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For example, in several of my court cases, police officers have taken the stand to explain that a murder was committed “to advance the defendant’s status in the gang.” This sometimes makes a crime “gang-related” and eligible for enhanced penalties. In <i>every</i> case of mine where this assertion was made by police, there was absolutely no evidence that “advancing in the gang” was any part of a motive. The defendants denied it and there were no interviews with other gang members who could confirm such a dubious claim. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Where did this imaginary but useful notion come from? From police "training" on gangs, of course! According to the American Prosecution Research Institute manual on gang prosecutions, such “expert” testimony by police gang squad officers "explains the inexplicable.” In other words, a wholly made up “motive” works because it fits with juries’ stereotypes of gangs. Juries tend to accept these allegations unconsciously through their System 1 thinking. Unless challenged, such imaginary motives are accepted as facts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">On a grander scale, Donald Trump’s unsupported claim that millions of people voted illegally fits with stereotypes of “aliens” taking advantage of "our" America. Trump repeats this lie and millions accept it by relying on the frames and confirmation bias of their System 1 reasoning. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While Allport explained long ago that we all think in categories the content of our stereotypes largely depends on our world outlook. Many Trump supporters and the Tennessee judges, I suspect, share what George Lakoff calls the “strict father” world view. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The strict father outlook is fundamentally authoritarian asserting “following the rules is most important.” For my judges and millions of others, evil exists and the world is a dangerous place. The law protects us from the “other” who need to be harshly punished. Criminals’ less-than-human status also means they are incapable of rehabilitation. By punishing “them” we reaffirm “us,” what Durkheim called the organic solidarity of society. This outlook underlies our policies of mass incarceration which have put a disproportionate number of African Americans in prison. Preserving the dominant white culture against dark-skinned threats like gangs is a core element of this view.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Gangs, to the Tennessee judges, are essentially evil and an insult to authority. In a world with absolute rights and wrongs, gangs are simply wrong. Many harmful stereotypes of gangs are accepted on their face since they fit into a popular story line reinforced by prosecutors of gangs as intrinsically evil. While gangs can be a “scapegoat” for white anxieties, a deep antipathy exists in our culture for the dark other, and gangs are a metaphor for what is perceived as an existential threat to white identity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The main reason I couldn’t get through to the judges was that they and I were operating within different frames and with different values. The judges never moved beyond System 1 thinking because I was unable to “reframe” my comments in ways they could understand. While I’m sure I could have done a better job, one thing I’ve learned is that <i>there are a large number of adherents to this hard core authoritarian outlook who cannot be won over in the short term no matter how persuasive we are. </i>We are literally living within different worlds and talking within different frames. Tune in to Rush Limbaugh and hear this for yourself. Some arguments can only be won at the ballot box, in the streets, or by jury verdicts. The courtroom, unfortunately, is an inherently unfriendly theater with the defendant playing “them” and judge, prosecutor, and jury playing “us.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Lakoff points out all people have both strict father and what he calls nurturant parent outlooks. I’d call the two polar outlooks <i>authoritarian</i> and <i>empathetic</i>. These viewpoints do not coincide with “left” and “right” or Democrat or Republican. Leftwing authoritarianism has been responsible for mass murders in Russia and China and is characteristic of those who exercise bureaucratic power, e.g. Michels’ “iron law of oligarchy.” Some Christian conservatives can be deeply empathetic to the poor and the “other.” Prosecutors claim they are empathetic to the victims of crimes, but not to offenders. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While a minority of the population consistently holds one view or the other, most people have elements of both. The key to persuasion of those in the middle is to activate frames based on your values that resonate with theirs. In my final blog in this series I’ll turn to how Lakoff and others suggest we win over the undecided through an example from my court work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Alexander, Michelle. 2010. <i>The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness</i>. New York: The New Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Allport, Gordon W. 1954. <i>The Nature of Prejudice</i>. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Durkheim, Emile. 1933. <i>The Division of Labor in Society</i>. New York: The Free Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Fiske, Susan T., and Shelley E. Taylor. 1991. <i>Social cognition</i>. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. <i>Think Fast and Slow</i>. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Lakoff, George. 2004. <i>Don't think of an elephant! : know your values and frame the debate : the essential guide for progressives</i>. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub. Co.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Michels, Robert. 1962 {1915}. <i>Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy</i>. New York: The Free Press.</span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-85719082273965576132017-03-27T08:28:00.000-07:002017-03-27T08:28:06.979-07:00Winning over the Other Side (Part 1 of 3)<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">Do you think there something wrong with me? I not only read the New York Times</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">and listen to NPR and Democracy Now, but I also tune into to Rush Limbaugh, check</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">Breitbart’s website, and, gasp!, actually follow Donald Trump’s Twitter feed.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">You might diagnose masochism but I’ve long forced myself to listen to the other side. Yes, Rush Limbaugh has helped me understand why it is so hard to counter demonization of gang members in court. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Of course I’ve found the obvious: tens of millions of people in our country live in radically different worlds. Within these separate bubbles, people choose their media outlets, e.g. CNN, Democracy Now, Breitbart or Fox, to reinforce their pre-existing views. We are witnessing what psychologists call <i>confirmation bias</i> on a grand scale. While we convince ourselves we are using reason, Benferado says “really our minds are bending the facts, sawing off inconvenient corners, and tossing away contradictory information so that everything can be fit into ready-made boxes.” Not just them, us too. And unfortunately that is also how juries work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If you encounter a fierce partisan from “the other side” on social media or in real life, you might realize it is virtually impossible to have a rational disagreement. Sooner of later you conclude “they must be crazy,” and if you haven’t figured it out, they think the same about you. They look only within their <i>frame</i> and you look only within yours. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTLV6wM3Y_4ESrQEf66kzH7pYVqnoIk3emQikELDJ9yoWqGNIfmyfcZPrT5za41zCsTPttr-ZRDAHGEFawMGsd8QpmVvDyDHTUrl9mHq2WtOMvO-PjMB46WfnVce7h9x6hk1xfIbZNWc0g/s1600/mediaperspective.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTLV6wM3Y_4ESrQEf66kzH7pYVqnoIk3emQikELDJ9yoWqGNIfmyfcZPrT5za41zCsTPttr-ZRDAHGEFawMGsd8QpmVvDyDHTUrl9mHq2WtOMvO-PjMB46WfnVce7h9x6hk1xfIbZNWc0g/s200/mediaperspective.jpg" width="189" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;">What is a frame? “Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world”, social psychologist George Lakoff says. Think of a picture frame when you focus on what is inside and pretty much ignore what is outside of it. It is what mass media do routinely, pointing your attention to one aspect to what is a more complex picture. Lakoff (2004, 115) argues that “frames trump facts.” He claims you cannot win an argument with facts alone, a sober realization that also applies in the courtroom. <br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Frames are psychological cousins of the “social construction of reality,” a concept introduced by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman. In 1967 they asked philosophically (p 13), “What is real? How is one to know?” Their sociology of knowledge explains how reality becomes “institutionalized” and legitimated through secondary socialization. Today that socialization is fueled by one’s media choice. The proliferation of alternative media has led us into polarized camps, each of us drinking different flavors of cultural Kool-Aid. </span>Does this mean there is no “objective” reality? No, only that reality is contested.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This, of course, brings me back to gangs. The reason I stopped running gang programs in Milwaukee in the early 1980s was that while I directed a successful diversion program, it had no effect on what politicians or the public thought about gangs. In short, gangs were framed as evil incarnate and what the people and public officials wanted most was more police and longer prison terms. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">My solution was to do research to “reframe” the problem. My first study, which became <i>People & Folks</i>, won a front page headline in the Dec. 12, 1986 Milwaukee Journal, reframing the gang problem as a lack of jobs. Some good that did. Thirty years later on August 13, 2016 in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood where I had done much my research, gangs and other youth rioted because of lack of jobs and persistent police brutality. If anything has changed, it’s been for the worse. And in 2017 the mayor still wants to hire more police. I failed to change public opinion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">More recently President Trump said illegal immigrant gangs were the cause of most of the violence in Chicago. He has threatened to “bring in the feds” unless the city gets its gang problem under control. Simply stating the facts, like 3/4 of homicide victims and offenders are African American, not immigrants or Chicago’s homicide rate is considerably lower than the rate in Detroit or St. Louis, is hardly persuasive. Logic doesn’t change the beliefs of racists on the alt-right or divert Chicago’s violence-torn black community from fears of much-too-frequent violence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is the problem I’ve confronted in all of my gang related trials. In court, reality also has two sides: the prosecution insists the facts prove guilt; the defense says they do not. In a trial, both the prosecution and the defense construct theories or frames that explain and dispute the facts. Demonizing gangs and reinforcing stereotypes is a winning strategy for the prosecution, constructing frames so hard the facts will bounce off. Thus my job as expert witness is to use research to combat stereotypes and try to reach a judge or jury. But if disputing the facts is insufficient, what rational tools do we have to combat stereotypes?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In a trial, the defense goal is often to win over just one juror to not convict, which is much harder than it might seem. In the court of public opinion, we are looking for ways to win over millions of people who may be open to not getting on the Trump train or might want reasons to duck out. My work in court exemplifies this problem of the limits of rationality. In my next two blogs I’d like to outline a few of my ideas on the power of stereotypes by applying concepts from the works of George Lakoff and Daniel Kahneman. Coming next week: <i> Two</i> <i>Opposed Ways of Thinking.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Benferado, Adam. 2015. <i>Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice</i>. New York: Crown Publishers.<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckman. 1967. <i>The Social Construction of Reality</i>. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company Inc. Anchor Books.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Lakoff, George. 2004. <i>Don't think of an elephant! : know your values and frame the debate : the essential guide for progressives</i>. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub. Co.</span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-52611011594365043032017-02-22T17:31:00.000-08:002017-03-01T14:50:56.114-08:00Trump, Deportations, and “Gang Members”<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Latino youth beware! You may be a gang member and not even know it! And no, you might not be able to dispute that label if it is made by ICE. Welcome to America, or rather….. Farewell.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">President Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration and his <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/17_0220_S1_Implementing-the-Presidents-Border-Security-Immigration-Enforcement-Improvement-Policies.pdf"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Implementation Memo</span></a></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> dated 2/20/17 are aimed to “take the shackles off” of the nation’s immigration enforcers. According to Sean Spicer, the EO makes it clear that “the No. 1 priority is that people who pose a threat to our country are immediately dealt with” (New York Times 2/21/17). Among others, this means gangs, or at least people ICE decides are gang members. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And that’s the rub. Bureaucratically law enforcement has a process to officially label a youth a “gang member.” There are checklists like this one:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">However the judgements are highly subjective. In the recent highly publicized case of </span><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/2/20/daniel_ramirez_medinas_lawyer_absolutely_no" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Ramirez Medina</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">, ICE agents apparently mis-identified a tattoo as “gang related” and</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">although Ramirez was a DACA protected Dreamer, held him as a gang member and began deportation proceedings.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Law enforcement agencies have a long history of stereotyping and mis-labeling minority youth as gang members. In </span> Los Angeles, California Supreme Court Justice Chin questioned official gang identifiers, pointing out that “the City would consider a person to be a member of a Sureño gang if, for example, that person on two occasions wore baggy pants, blue clothes, or 'Los Angeles Raiders' garments.”<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> In Denver police created a data base that classified an astounding two out of every three black youth as gang members. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As one law review article put it, police officers and ICE agents already “exercise virtually unchecked discretion” when it come to gangs. This means racial stereotypes can be given free reign. A deportation case I consulted in demonstrates how dangerous stereotypes plus ICE's “unchecked discretion” can be. For obvious reasons I changed the name of my client and masked some of the circumstances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Dante Menzies was a 15 year old high school student. He was a rebel, and he and two friends formed a group called “Cholo or Die.” They spray painted it on walls and had hats made with “COD” letters. One of Dante’s friends got into a tussle with a teacher. Dante intervened and punches were thrown. Dante was arrested, and then the astounding happened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The local police claimed out of the blue that Dante was a “Sureño,” and COD, Dante's gang of three, was a chapter of MS-13. He was turned over to Homeland Security and subject to deportation. His lawyer called me and I interviewed Dante via Skype, reviewed the documents, and talked to local police officials. My question was simple: how did the officer determine Dante was a MS-13 member? </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The checklist above is from Dante’s case. Here is the evidence: the graffiti on buildings was Dante and his two friends writing “COD” on the school bathroom walls. Dante apparently was determined to be MS-13 because he wore the color blue..... and get this, the only blue he had on were his <i>blue</i> <i>jeans</i>. The arrest for a violent crime was the juvenile adjudication of delinquency in the scuffle which resulted in a couple of months in detention. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The police department refused to explain what “correspondence" named Dante a gang member. My guess is that the local Gang Investigators Association sent some background information or this referred to memos within the file between local officers. Police departments or ICE do not have to disclose “gang intelligence” information as with other evidence subject to discovery. In other words, like in this case, ICE can allege gang membership as a basis to deport and never reveal how they drew that conclusion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I have no way to know if 15 year old Dante was actually a secret MS-13 member. But the evidence the police presented led me to conclude that Dante’s “MS-13” membership was most likely made up by the officer so deportation proceedings could begin. It was a false generalization that was necessary to justify punishing Dante, as in "Aren’t most of those Mexican kids gang members anyway?" Why not just make up the evidence — who will know? </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Well the attorney called their bluff and I made an aggressive case that there was no evidence to even assume Dante was a MS-13 member. He was spared deportation but not every youthful immigrant will enjoy such advantages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I think Sean Spicer got it right. Trump’s order is meant to “take the shackles off” ICE agents, to give them even greater discretion to act on their hunches and biases in order get “them” out of the country. The facts be damned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Gang members, along with Muslims, are the quintessential “them” to the virtuous “us” of the all-white alt-right. Being in a gang is not illegal.....yet. But even the allegation of gang membership puts Latino youth at risk of deportation. This over-broad net of ICE predates Trump and former President Obama can't escape culpability. The fight against demonization in all its forms is an on-going struggle for us all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Hufstader, Rebecca A. 2015. "Immigration reliance on gang databases: Unchecked discretion and undesirable consequences." <i>New York University Law Review</i> 90:671-709.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Leyton, Stacey. 2003. "The New Blacklists: The Threat to Civil Liberties Posed by Gang </span>Databases." in <i>Crime Control </i></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> <i>and Social Justice: The Delicate Balance.</i>, edited by Darnell Felix Hawkins, Samuel L. Myers, Randolph N. Stone,. Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group.</span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-6014009097599113842017-02-08T08:52:00.000-08:002017-02-09T08:29:16.650-08:00Lynching, Gangs, and the Courts <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 31.5px; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">…the prosecutor’s remarks were designed to humanize the victim, demonize the defendant and his alibi witnesses, and remind jurors of the brutality of the crime. His intentions were to give the trial one last heavy dose of emotionalism. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This quote could describe prosecutors' rhetoric in every gang-related legal case I’ve worked. Emotional appeals to racial stereotypes and the routine demonization of gang members is “expected behavior” for states attorneys. As a manual on gang prosecution argues, when the defense objects to gang evidence as "prejudicial" prosecutors should respond: “Of course it is. That’s the point! “ Offering research to combat stereotypes is why I consult on gang related legal cases. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The trial the first quote comes from, however, was from 110 years ago in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In his final appeal to the all-white male jury, prosecutor Matt Whitaker raised his voice and thundered:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Send that black brute to the gallows and prove to the world that in Chattanooga and Hamilton County the laws of the country does not countenance such terrible crimes, has not ceased to mete out the proper punishment for such horrible outrages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Contempt of Court</i> tells the story of Ed Johnson, accused of the rape of a white woman. Likely innocent with multiple alibi witnesses, Johnson was hurriedly tried and convicted in an emotionally charged city. Attempts to change venue were denied because the judge and sheriff stated the mob would lynch him before letting him leave Chattanooga. During final arguments, one of the jurors tried to jump out of the jury box and </span>threatened <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">to tear out the defendant’s heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Two black attorneys made an unprecedented legal journey to the US Supreme Court in 1906. When Justice </span>John Marshall <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Harlan granted a stay of execution, an angry white mob of hundreds of locals, aided and abetted by Sheriff Joseph Shipp, broke Johnson out of the jail, lynched him and filled his still-shaking body with bullets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The story of the book is that this event caused the Supreme Court for the first time to apply the 14th amendment to state criminal courts, with a particular concern with the lynchings that were terrorizing black people in the south. The Supremes were split about whether to interfere in criminal matters traditionally left to the states. They had decided less than ten years previously in Plessy vs Ferguson that “separate was equal” and had given free reign to Jim Crow. Justice Harlan, who dissented in Plessy, argued not only that ignoring the Supreme Court’s habeas order was a direct insult to the Court, but Johnson’s unfair trial and subsequent lynching violated the basic rights of black people to equal protection under the law. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Harlan’s argument was buttressed when a deliberating court heard about of another lynching in Oxford Mississippi. That mob was brazenly led by a US Senator, W.V. Sullivan, who boasted to the press: </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I directed every movement of the mob. I wanted him lynched. I saw his body dangling from a tree this morning and I am glad of it. I aroused the mob and directed them to storm to jail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This was too much and the court unanimously found Sheriff Shipp and others in contempt bringing them to trial. While Shipp and the others got off with light sentences the Fourteenth Amendment would from then on be applied to state criminal proceedings and actions. Federal courts would be used to bring civil rights suits against local authorities and to challenge egregious violations of justice in local courts.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAIwvTnorVrLgoRUkqjy7fgEE1T-Aq43JoUsoaX1VjQ27k4zzyq5EIHGb9zVkARoeTP6iGs8gYEe-V2RQPOB03NTQwjEUAlebdIVpAF-ckuy9ruKAXWZjMHR8xbu0qjjypJ477px5wfIay/s1600/milledgeville.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAIwvTnorVrLgoRUkqjy7fgEE1T-Aq43JoUsoaX1VjQ27k4zzyq5EIHGb9zVkARoeTP6iGs8gYEe-V2RQPOB03NTQwjEUAlebdIVpAF-ckuy9ruKAXWZjMHR8xbu0qjjypJ477px5wfIay/s200/milledgeville.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;">The last two lynchings in the US took place in 1944. That is progress. But this does not mean that black people receive equal protection of the laws. Like Ed Johnson, black males — in my work this means gang members — are still considered guilty unless proven innocent by extraordinary efforts of defense attorneys.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So while we celebrate progress, we must note mass incarceration is a Mark of Cain on our nation, persuasive evidence of the permanent nature of racism. Remarks by prosecutors still seethe of racial resentment and routinely spout out “alternative facts.” For example in one case in Georgia where I consulted, the prosecutor, Fred Bright, claimed that a gang related homicide was an example of a “the carnage” gangs had brought to Milledgeville, Georgia in recent years. His theatrics led to death sentences for the two defendants, Robert Butts and Marion Wilson.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I was retained by counsel for both defendants in appeals. The habeas hearings where I testified had been made possible by US vs. Shipp a century before. On the stand I pointed out that with the advent of gangs in the late 1980s, the homicide rate in Milledgeville had actually declined, not spiked. Gangs in that city, the former capitol of the Confederacy, were in neighborhoods that were far apart and conflict between them was held to a minimum. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We don’t know if Ed Johnson was innocent of rape, though after <i>Contempt of Court</i> was published his conviction was set aside 94 years later. Butts and Wilson, however, likely participated in the homicide on Donovan Parks. Does their guilt make the unbridled demonizing rhetoric of prosecutors acceptable?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Bright grandstanded in his opening statement that the murder was a gang related crime. Despite offering not a shred of evidence of gang involvement he kept hammering his “alternative facts” into the heads and hearts of the all-white jury, stoking their fears. He knew gang evidence is prejudicial and he kept riding that bucking bronco in rodeo-like proceedings. In closing he evoked images of Muslims and terrorism as well as continuing his “Satanic” version of gang rituals of murder. The appointed defense attorneys offered few objections at the original trial — they were indeed “friends of the court.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Like in the Johnson case, the prosecutor got his death penalty. Unlike Chattanooga in 1906, the convicted defendants were not lynched. Times have changed and fortunately America is still not “great again” as in the good old days of vigilante justice. </span>But despite years of hard work by the Georgia Resource Center and two high power private law firms working pro bono, both Butts and Wilson remain on death row. </div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I think the use of “alternative facts,” demonizing defendants, and evoking strong emotions to cloud judgement violates the spirit of what we mean by justice. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">A cynic might call what happened to the two Folks gang members a “legal lynching.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Curriden Mark and Leroy Phillips, Jr. 2001. <i>Contempt of Court: The turn-of-the-century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism</i>. New York City: Anchor Books.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jackson, Alan. 2004. "Prosecuting gang cases: What local prosecutors need to know." Alexandria, VA: American Prosecutors Research Institute.</span></div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-36585625394988908772016-12-21T06:32:00.003-08:002016-12-21T07:27:44.679-08:00Riots, Race, Stereotypes and the Law<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Unrest in Milwaukee's Sherman Park</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">Dontre Hamilton was shot by Milwaukee Police officer Christopher Manney April 30, 2014. Manney was fired five months later but Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm announced in December there would be no criminal charges against the officer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">On December 15. 2016 </span>Chisholm charged <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">MPD officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown </span>with reckless homicide for the shooting August 13 of <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Sylville Smith. In justifying his decision, he said:</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> “I have an ethical obligation to just look at those facts and ... not to consider extraneous things like public sentiment.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">Really. I think the contrary was more likely true. These DA’s decisions were clearly responsive </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">to public sentiment, ie. fear or lack of fear of riots, rebellions, and unrest. Additionally, the way </span><span style="font-size: 11px;">police</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11px;">officers</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"> Manney and Heaggan-Brown have been "framed" in the public mind is related as much to </span><span style="font-size: 11px;">racial</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> stereotypes as any “facts.”</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">First the “facts.” Dontre Hamilton was sleeping lawfully in Red Arrow Park April 30, 2014 when he was confronted by officer Christopher Manney. Dontre’s resistance to being poked by a baton, according to Chisholm, was legal justification for Manney to use lethal force. The officer fired 14 shots at an unarmed Hamilton. There was no video.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://gangsandthemedia.blogspot.com/2015/03/stereotypes-can-kill.html"><span style="font-kerning: none;">MPD Chief</span><attachment webkitattachmentpath="/Users/huk730/Desktop/grnetimages/milwaukee/manneycourt.jpg"></attachment></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://gangsandthemedia.blogspot.com/2015/03/stereotypes-can-kill.html"> Edward Flynn fired Manney in October of 2014</a>, more than five months after the shooting. Flynn said Manney had not followed police procedures but also that he had not broken the law in shooting Hamilton. The</span> firing occurred only after local protests and more importantly major riots and <a href="http://gangsandthemedia.blogspot.com/2015/08/ferguson-social-movements-and-gangs-i.html">demonstrations in Ferguson</a> and other cities over other police killings.<span style="font-kerning: none;"> In December of 2014, after mass arrests on Milwaukee’s downtown freeway (full disclosure: I was among those arrested) DA Chisholm declined to indict Manney. The arrests did prompt eight Milwaukee </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Aldermen to successfully demand police begin to wear body cameras. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">In the more recent Smith killing, Mayor Tom Barrett said a body cam video — though incredibly he admitted he has never viewed it — fully explained the indictment. According to DA Chisholm, Heaggan-Brown fired one shot when Smith was holding a gun, which Chisholm said was justified. A second shot, fired less than two seconds later after Smith had thrown his gun over a fence, was the stated reason for the homicide indictment. The officer claimed he thought Smith was going for a second gun. Similar to Manney he was not fired for the actual shooting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Heaggan-Brown’s defense, that he fired two shots within two seconds at an <i>armed</i> man, seems to me stronger than Manney’s firing 14 shots at an <i>unarmed</i> man. Still Heaggan-Brown is headed for prison while Manney enjoys a full pension. Why was Manney not charged at all but Heaggan-Brown faces 60 years in prison? More than the law is at work here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">One difference between the cases is that protests were slow to break out after Hamilton’s April 30 killing. They gained steam after rioting broke out in Ferguson more than three months later in August of 2014 and as the country swirled with Black Lives Matter protests. The Coalition for Justice in Milwaukee began small but persistent protests. However the size and orderliness of the demonstrations likely led city officials to conclude there was not much of a chance of widespread unrest. Manney was supported by the police union and enjoyed sympathetic treatment in the media.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">The response to Smith’s killing was more immediate and violent. Riots shook Sherman Park where the shooting took place. Businesses were burned, the National Guard was on stand-by. Local officials were traumatized. Just firing Heaggan-Brown, local leaders must have been thinking, might not be enough to pacify an angry and wary public.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">The two officers also presented contrasting portraits. Heaggan-Brown was charged with a sexual assault soon after the shooting and newspapers discovered he had been an aspiring rapper. In stark contrast to the mild mannered Manney, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sylville-smith-milwaukee-police-shooting-facts-support-charge-against-former-officer-dominique-heaggan-brown-prosecutor-says/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Heaggan-Brown looked more like “them”</span></a> and pictures of him framed a narrative of Heaggan-Brown as a “bad apple.” View the standard media images the public saw of the two presented here and above. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">I’ve learned one way to combat stereotypes is to “sub-type.” In other words the stereotype of someone like a gang member as evil — or a police officer as good — is so strong, that it’s not likely to be overcome easily. So one avenue is to argue that the stereotype may be true but “not for this case.” The white, well-mannered Manney fit the police stereotype of “officer friendly” but the black rogue male Heaggan-Brown did not. In other words, the DA could successfully “sub-type” Heaggan-Brown as deviant while conveniently declining to demonize Manney.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">The point is not that Heaggan-Brown is a victim and should get to live on a pension like Manney. To me, they both deserve prison if convicted at trial. But our US culture is so racialized that it extends even to the police. African American police officers have often found that black is more salient than blue, and have been <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/05/03/black-parole-officers-police/26843733/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">victimized by white police officers</span></a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: xx-small;">We also should not believe the fairy tale that a wonderful liberal Milwaukee DA strictly followed the law and was not influenced by "extraneous public sentiment." No, in both cases city fathers feared unrest and the DA's response fit with a varying estimate of the probability of riots. While legalities matter, DAs and judges often frame decisions in response to broader events. Does anyone believe that the indictment of officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago was not related to the fear of an angry black response to the video of the killing of Laquan McDonald? Police killings have been routinely covered up in Chicago and elsewhere until the Ferguson uprising and Black Lives Matter youth took to the streets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">We need to be honest that in Milwaukee violence successfully produced an indictment in one case and peaceful protest failed in the other. I do not advocate violence, but our non-violent protests need to be more tactically sound and combine small group action with broad mass demonstrations and exploitation of divisions of elites. Donald Trump’s election, some surveys have found, has more to do with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/26/these-9-simple-charts-show-how-donald-trumps-supporters-differ-from-hillary-clintons/?utm_term=.86277ba72564"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">racial resentment than desire for a strong leader</span></a>. Sadly, this means will have likely have many more occasions to organize around police violence.</span><span style="font-size: 11px;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 11px;">I also see these cases as a demonstration of the ubiquity of race in the criminal justice system. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;">The DA’s decision to prosecute Heaggan-Brown relied, consciously or not, on the usefulness of racial stereotypes — to the extent that a police officer was sub-typed to the </span><span style="font-size: 11px;">public</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11px;"> as a black “thug.” Heaggan-Brown is finding out that blue doesn't trump black. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">While we need to insist on vigorous prosecution of killer cops, our main tactics are in the streets, not the courts</span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></i></span><br />
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-74676092157526365302016-10-14T13:24:00.000-07:002016-10-27T08:15:37.173-07:00Jacqueline Montañez and our Culture of Demonization<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Today Jacqueline Montañez was <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/murderer-who-got-life-as-juvenile-resentenced-to-shorter-term/">re-sentenced</a> for a highly publicized 1992 gang-related double homicide she participated in when she was 15 years old. My bike accident hasn’t healed enough to allow me to travel so I watched the hearing live streamed by WGN-TV. For more than a decade I’ve been struggling with the meaning of this case Judge Alfredo Maldonado called “senseless.” Jackie’s hearing was a victory for the US Supreme Court’s Miller decision which overturned mandatory life without parole sentences for all juveniles. For Jackie the prison will not be a tomb.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For me however, this case did not result in justice. Rather it exposed serious defects in how we “do justice” in our courts and indeed in our broader culture. I’ll start, incongruously, with Donald Trump. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcSZ_xWau5OeVGw1ISlOZVU90Lj2KKxYBouMDhSDaLcUt0axIh1o90ZiD_M7AOGPuuwcxZHNFc2Ui2FGxuDa1dWQGyh0vd5BK-WHxSyGOKyFbwvk9VuWnpIyekUOLRu58BejlAG_PnvjmC/s1600/JM+-+HappyMothersDay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcSZ_xWau5OeVGw1ISlOZVU90Lj2KKxYBouMDhSDaLcUt0axIh1o90ZiD_M7AOGPuuwcxZHNFc2Ui2FGxuDa1dWQGyh0vd5BK-WHxSyGOKyFbwvk9VuWnpIyekUOLRu58BejlAG_PnvjmC/s320/JM+-+HappyMothersDay.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;">I cringed when earlier this week Trump called Hillary Clinton “the devil” and said to her face she should be put in jail. His venomous call to lock up a political rival is reprehensible and should be scary for us all. But his demonizing words are also merely a pale imitation of the unbridled rhetoric used by prosecutors routinely in trials of stigmatized defendants, like gang members. For example Jackie was called the “teen queen of criminals,” a “cold-blooded…hitman” of whom “Al Capone could be proud,” a “rat in a corner” and many more horrific and depraved names. In order to justify punitive sentences, like life without parole, prosecutors routinely have relied on dehumanizing rhetoric which, I suspect, for them is not always just rhetoric. Law breakers — otherwise known as human beings — are essentialized as pure evil. An evil nature, rather than evil deeds, can never be changed so it must be punished or obliterated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As the current political environment so sadly demonstrates it is fashionable to look at the world through Manichean lenses. Our opponents are not just wrong they are <i>deplorable</i>, and we can’t or won’t understand them. In the criminal justice system, this demonization is one cause of the mass incarceration that has earned the US world wide condemnation and shame.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve learned through my many years of working with gang members — and yes, some who have murdered — that gang members, like all of us, are not one thing. Jackie, for example, was shamelessly used by gang chiefs and tricked into thinking the gang was her “family.” Her childhood of abuse was not an excuse, but as the Miller decision explained, a factor to be taken into consideration in sentencing. Jackie, like all of us, is a complex human being. But transcripts of Jackie’s trial display an all out deluge of demonization by prosecutors that reduced her to a one dimensional cartoon character and left no room for even a hint of capacity for rehabilitation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Gordon Allport first pointed out that we think in categories and this leads to what Hillary Clinton referred to as “implicit bias.” <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Implicit Association Tests</span></a> demonstrate that we not only have categories like race and gender embedded deeply in our mind, but we unconsciously act on them. Our culture ascribes meaning to race and gender — women are the “weaker sex” and thus seen by men as willing to accept any sexual advance. African Americans are judged by whites as likely to be violent and often are charged, convicted and sentenced on scant evidence. Women who kill, like Jackie, are de-gendered and transmogrified into monsters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The stigma of blackness = evil has permeated our culture from slavery to Jim Crow to ghettos and mass incarceration as Loic Wacquant and Michelle Alexander have argued. Patriarchal culture is even more powerful and invisible, like “water for fish,” as Judith Lorber said. We are not always conscious of this implicit bias because it seems normal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the trial of Jacqueline Montañez attorneys were helpless as prosecutors raged and demonized a young teenage girl. She was given a mandatory life sentence but a more appropriate charge by prosecutors could have resulted in a sentence that would have allowed parole and rehabilitation. One of her co-defendants, Madeline Mendoza, received 35 years and has already been released. It was Cook County prosecutors’ successful dehumanization and demonization of Montañez that led to her being charged in such a manner that life without parole was the only possible sentence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I have great sympathy for the families of the two victims, Hector Reyes and Jimmy Cruz. As Jackie’s tears and words in court expressed, nothing can be done to bring back their lives. While today Chicago’s homicide rate is not nearly at 1992 levels, it is indeed a “cancer” as the judge said and has not gone away. But a culture of demonization, so aptly demonstrated by Montañez’s prosecutors, flourishes as well. It runs rampant in our criminal justice system but, sadly, also permeates American mass culture.</span></div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-76855351955500978712016-09-01T08:10:00.001-07:002016-09-01T08:10:34.432-07:00Violence and Healing<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTvHOkE9j5sX-DEsNrohXhDZ1K-nGHPh2em0bdIDIuNWnainEYPFdiaqiwosZ1i8gFUfcCd7YqW5xPVkaTR3KQk9BddmG2O03jJHv54Li8Ucw8-XME1K7r056s97O2YAShYunA0BMjnu9N/s1600/thumb_IMG_3035_1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTvHOkE9j5sX-DEsNrohXhDZ1K-nGHPh2em0bdIDIuNWnainEYPFdiaqiwosZ1i8gFUfcCd7YqW5xPVkaTR3KQk9BddmG2O03jJHv54Li8Ucw8-XME1K7r056s97O2YAShYunA0BMjnu9N/s200/thumb_IMG_3035_1024.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve had some thoughts on violence and healing. They are personal but also reflections on what has happened to my city this past month.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">On August 2 while riding my bike I was hit by a car. Witnesses said I was hurled two car lengths and landed on the side of the road.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">I was taken by flight for life helicopter to Froedtert hospital. I suffered a broken neck, brain injuries and three breaks in my right clavicle.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">I had spinal fusion surgery August 5 and was released from the hospital August 22.</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’m not able to concentrate on much besides my rehab. Walking, eating, and sleeping are all difficult and require my full attention. I’m now in a long, hard rehab process and am on medical leave from my university job. I’ve had to postpone or bow out of several important legal cases where I am an expert witness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It’s time for me to begin to heal. But watching the “unrest” in Sherman Park from my hospital bed it occurred to me that it is <i>not</i> yet time for healing in Milwaukee. Healing is what you do after surgery or after major interventions to change oppressive conditions. Healing means the patient is on the road to recovery. That is <i>not</i> the situation today in MIlwaukee. Now is time for action. Healing comes later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the early 1980s I lived in Sherman Park and this was where I began my work with gangs. In my first book,<a href="http://www.johnhagedorn.com/p/people-and-folks.html"> <i>People & Folks</i>,</a> I pointed out that the desperation in Milwaukee’s ghetto guaranteed the gangs would not go away. And they haven’t. In the 1990s I wrote an article titled “<a href="http://gangresearch.net/Archives/hagedorn/articles/Dying.html">Milwaukee I Do Mind Dying</a>” and argued that unless radical measures were taken Milwaukee’s future would look more like Detroit or East St.Louis than Minneapolis or Indianapolis. Twenty-five years later we are Detroit’s equal in poverty, even more segregated, and by some measures the nation’s worst city for black people to live in. Thousands of Milwaukee’s black youth are as desperate today as they were when gangs first formed. The busy construction in today’s downtown is a sign our city leaders have embraced a “city of spectacle” but continue to ignore the “city of desperation.” </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizeX0XP59zOiFv8nJVDU63GBKO0gK-YP1pUg7h3t68p49IJhAsRPXDqYCbqyqmbyhh2qpL0TA8bKfG_Ws7AZ2UxvSJQ31FsrIvZtW5FeTB4cEwmfylVlhPJ10LUpoCXH1rVIAMCMyBrXKj/s1600/zerojobs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizeX0XP59zOiFv8nJVDU63GBKO0gK-YP1pUg7h3t68p49IJhAsRPXDqYCbqyqmbyhh2qpL0TA8bKfG_Ws7AZ2UxvSJQ31FsrIvZtW5FeTB4cEwmfylVlhPJ10LUpoCXH1rVIAMCMyBrXKj/s200/zerojobs.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And now these same leaders and their media call for “healing” with no accompanying agenda to bring us the sweeping changes we so desperately need. Weeks after the police shooting of Sylville Smith, the body cam video has still not been released. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span>We don’t need healing when each day the wounds of oppression are inflicted anew in the nation’s fourth poorest city. To call for healing as oppression continues is to provide a cover for our city’s inexcusable inaction on jobs, unwillingness to control police, and persisting policies of mass incarceration. This is what is meant by the slogan, “no justice, no peace.”</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am a Unitarian and my partner Mary Devitt has been among those leading an effort to mobilize Milwaukee's religious community to “<a href="http://www.standingonthesideoflove.org/">stand on the side of love</a>.” To me this does not mean “healing” it means <i>empathy</i> for those who continue to be oppressed. Empathy means demands for action to address the real needs of the black youth living in our city of desperation. Long ago, Dr. King called for nothing less than “a radical reconstruction of society.” We've heard the empty words of politicians for decades and these failed promises are why youth have been incited to riot. These angry soldiers of the night need our empathy and understanding as we stand on the side of love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the 1980s I wrote that Milwaukee’s gangs were signs of rebellion — much of it destructive, but still rebellion against desperate living conditions, police violence, and a one-sided policy of jails not jobs. Nearly 30 years later these remain the principle factors that sparked the “unrest” in Sherman Park. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am physically healing but our city can begin to heal only <i>after</i> our leaders wake up and begin needed fundamental changes, This awakening starts with a major jobs program and concrete measures for greater police accountability. We can't begin healing "until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” </span></div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-4955083350229768492016-04-15T07:27:00.000-07:002016-04-18T06:43:51.563-07:00Gangs, Racism and Homicide in Chicago<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">The Mayor’s Task Force has said the obvious: Racism is at the heart of the problems with Chicago Police Department. Consider CPD history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Chicago Police looked the other way when racist gangs attacked the
black community during the 1919 race riots. They enforced the “era of hidden
violence’ from the 1920s to the end of the 1940s, when whites attacked any
black family daring to move across segregated lines. They were paid off by the
Outfit, Chicago’s mafia, in protecting Outfit gambling and vice businesses, but
cracked down on black and Latino small scale hustling. CPD officers pretended
they did not hear when Jon Burge physically tortured, in CPD stations, more
than a hundred black gang members. The code of silence meant violence against
African Americans, including police murder, has been business as usual for
decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In recent years the excuse for police violence has been the need to
combat gangs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gang violence, in the mind
of much of the public, justifies brutal and illegal police tactics. After all,
doesn’t everyone agree that gangs are behind Chicago’s high homicide rate?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I don’t. I’ve studied gangs and homicide in Chicago for the past 20
years. While gang members certainly account for more than their share of
homicides, we might consider some discrepant information. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">To start off with there are at least as many Latino gang members in
Chicago as African American gangsters. Yet three quarters of all homicide
victims and offenders are black, and have been for decades. Hmm. We
have <i>Latino</i> and <i>Black</i> gangs. Much higher rates among <i>Black</i>
gangs? Maybe being Black has something to do with it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A recent </span><a href="https://greatcities.uic.edu/2016/01/25/young-black-and-out-of-work/"><span style="color: #386eff; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">UIC
Great Cities Study</span></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> reports nearly half of young black men in Chicago are
unemployed. Homicide worldwide, the UN Study on Global Homicide tells us,
is related to the desperation of unemployed young men. Conditions in
Chicago’s African American communities qualify as desperation in my book. A war
on gangs? Why not a war on unemployment or poverty?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Similarly claims by DEA’s Jack Riley that Chicago homicides are
related to the Mexican cartels defies logic. If homicide is mainly about drug
trafficking, why are are there so few homicides of Mexicans compared to African
Americans? Some say the six Mexican family members killed in February in
Gage Park was a cartel hit. Maybe, but regardless the vast majority of
all homicides remain between very poor African Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Today there are no citywide wars over drug turf as the organized
gangs wars of the 1990s. The violence of that decade contributed to the
shattering of Chicago’s African American “super-gangs.” Black
gang drug dealing today is small scale and local and that means deadly
disputes have largely stayed local. Despite scary violent drill rap
videos, the number of homicides today is at half the level of the carnage of
the 1990s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If gangs are the root of the homicide problem, why does Los Angeles,
with as many gangs as Chicago, have a homicide rate of 7.3/100,000 while Chicago’s is
at 17.2? Maybe the hopelessness of African Americans in the rustbelt has something
to do with it? Chicago’s homicide rate is similar to other rustbelt
cities, like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland or Memphis who are all between 20
and 25. While Chicago’s homicide rate is <i>four times higher</i> than
New York City’s 3.9, thankfully, it has not risen to Detroit’s level of 44 or
St. Louis’ 50.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Homicide in Chicago has been relatively steady since 2004 when the
city wide gang wars ended. This year’s jump in the first three months is
similar to jumps in 2008 and 2012 which saw small spikes that fell the next year.
The 135 total homicides in the first three months of this year are slightly
more than the 114 in 2012 but far below the 200 in the first three months of
1991. While homicide this year is likely to level off, the main point is Chicago’
homicide rates is steady and not falling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Is there a “Ferguson effect?”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>The
<a href="http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Ferguson_Effect.pdf">Sentencing
Project</a> doesn’t think so. The jump in St Louis homicides occurred <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i> Michael Brown’s killing by police.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the CPD claims the new policies of
reducing Chicago’s stops of African Americans is responsible<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">for Chicago’s 2016 uptick in homicide, it is more likely that the CPD’s behavior having</span><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: ProximaNova-Regular;">"no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color" </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">in the words of the <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2801130/Chicago-Police-Accountability-Task-Force-Report.pdf">Mayor’s Task Force</a> has been a major factor contributing to the hostility of young black men over the years. For example, the CPD’s 250,000 stops of citizens in 2014 “dwarfs” the rate of stops by the New York Police Department in their highest years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica;">A large percentage of Chicago’s homicides appear to be related in
some way or another to African American gang or clique members.</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">However, in my opinion, gangs today are more
effect than cause of high homicide rates. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I concur with the Mayor’s Task Force who
argues:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We
arrived at this point in part because of racism.<br />
We arrived at this point because of a mentality in CPD that the ends justify
the means.<br />
We arrived at this point because of a failure to make accountability a core
value and imperative within CPD. <br />
We arrived at this point because of a significant underinvestment in human
capital. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I’ve stated in this blog <a href="http://gangsandthemedia.blogspot.com/2015/11/laquan-mcdonald-and-cpds-responsibility.html">previously</a>
that the CPD bear a large degree of responsibility for our city’s entrenched
gang problem. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gangs make good headlines
and scapegoats but Chicago has to take a hard look in the mirror at the
desperate conditions facing black youth and the CPD’s responsibility for a
culture of alienation and hostility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There are no easy answers to reducing Chicago’s homicide rate. Police
officers must follow the law and the blue code needs to be undermined. Radical
changes in police culture must accompany investment in black communities,
better and more stable housing and education, reductions in prison population,
and more jobs. The Task Force points out we have reached this crisis in policing
because of racism. We have to also recognize the uncomfortable reality that our
homicide rate is also more about race than gangs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-47782998454483390942016-04-01T14:57:00.000-07:002016-04-01T14:57:50.190-07:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Amazing Transformation of William
“Sonny” Fletcher<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.5in; text-indent: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By John M. Hagedorn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Outta all the stuff I been
through, I been shot and everything, left for dead and all this, it’s time for
me to give something back and I’m doing it and I feel good about it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Redemption.
From the streets to the prisons and back to the streets. But now he isn’t
robbing people — he’s helping them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14pt;">Born in 1957, his family was one of the first
black families to move to Lawndale in 1960.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14pt;">They owned the “Thirteen Ten Club” on Kedzie. As he grew up he watched
the Vice Lords as they transformed from a street gang into a group that helped
the community. He explains how the Vice Lords worked back then:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCEkV_D0sG1aTOyu_2BNc1XRhNatWsv3deuuFsXMhBdvHnH6B2lZ4_fpyyi0ZCKLq_TsAaaIHpLisyW915WwhYj0hR3A6Ap2fG_3RIivcspHgqDFJxhGxLVrsmzpgs6UHcBuKgOrno663/s1600/IMG_0848.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCEkV_D0sG1aTOyu_2BNc1XRhNatWsv3deuuFsXMhBdvHnH6B2lZ4_fpyyi0ZCKLq_TsAaaIHpLisyW915WwhYj0hR3A6Ap2fG_3RIivcspHgqDFJxhGxLVrsmzpgs6UHcBuKgOrno663/s320/IMG_0848.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William "Sonny" Fletcher</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">…say that they snatched
somebody’s purse …if Mrs. Johnson came up on the corner and told one of the
guys “I know who did it my purse got snatched” call the police?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll go get him and we’ll come up with the
purse and mostly all the belongings maybe a little money be gone ‘cause drugs wasn’t
that bad back then and we would deal with ‘em, you know what I’m sayin?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll rough him up, where they know not to do
it no more… <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean Vice Lords did a lot,
they paid some peoples rent…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had
buildings where people could stay in…..if you needed help they would help.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14pt;">But Mayor
Daley and his cops came down hard on the Vice Lords, cutting off funds for
their programs and jailing Bobby Gore and other leaders.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">…here’s a group of Black guys
that trying to get together on something positive and you wanna destroy it, instead
of saying “hey they doing something pretty good over there lets go over and
talk to these guys and see what they doing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sonny
joined the Renegade Vice Lords and became a terror on the streets. He went to
prison for the first time at 17:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 31.5pt; margin-right: -.5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Altogether I was incarcerated
nine times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was just looking at it the
other day and it was about 29 years altogether off and on.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He was
a bright kid who fell under the lure of dope but gained a reputation in the
prisons as someone to talk to, who would help with the law and getting along in
prison. Then when he was released in 1981 he met Bobby Gore who was working at the
Safer Foundation. He said he was Bobby’s “first success story.” Bobby told him:
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 31.5pt; margin-right: -.5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“what are you doing here?” (I
said)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just come home man- Im trying to
do something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he said<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“look- don’t bullshit me, you want a job, you
got a high school diploma.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said
yeah I been going to college in the joint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He said <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I can get you a job
today.”<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sonny got that job at a gas station and within a month
he was the manager. Today he works at St. Leonard’s, counseling younger men
released from prison, leading them on a path away from crime. He has some
strong, but simple advice:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But the young guys, they see
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m talking ‘bout, they used to call
me Mr. Buzzard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a rough cat, anything
goes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I’m a substance abuse
counselor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they say to me “Man, you
don’t even come around no more, you don’t do this.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say “I come around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When now when I come around.. you’ll say “what
a transformation. No more robbing, no more dope.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They ask me for money, but I’m not giving you
any money to go out and kill yourself, I’m sorry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But you used to.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say “yes, think what you’re saying, I used
to do a lot of things, I don’t do that anymore.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I try to explain to ‘em that doing what
they doin’ now is easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doing the right
thing is hard</span></i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You can still find William Fletcher at 16<sup>th</sup>
& Lawndale. But now he isn’t robbing people but collecting food donations
and sponsoring free meals. He’s organizing programs for summer jobs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His plans include a social center in an
abandoned building in the center of the “Holy City.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has found redemption in serving his
community. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s doing the right thing
and it ain’t hard no more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-60969068055602745012015-12-09T20:43:00.000-08:002015-12-09T21:09:49.975-08:00Chiraq ain't Chicago<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>pike Lee's new movie is <b>NOT</b> about Chicago. 'Chiraq' is a metaphor for senseless violence and the desperation of the public to stop it. Chiraq is also Hollywood entertainment and if success is measured in dollars, it's a likely loser.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT0nlybIlFnai-wyHFqeKVzGqtH39D27HxP6vJGXRsvyzPPEmZOW6goaIjOoKhyphenhyphenLvopA5F2ZpK-TsyPmzv9FO38yc3cs7Z1kWeRtD9WH5HI3Wk6rbS6NMA0nf5cSl-9rmuDM626JIZfyU_/s1600/chiraq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT0nlybIlFnai-wyHFqeKVzGqtH39D27HxP6vJGXRsvyzPPEmZOW6goaIjOoKhyphenhyphenLvopA5F2ZpK-TsyPmzv9FO38yc3cs7Z1kWeRtD9WH5HI3Wk6rbS6NMA0nf5cSl-9rmuDM626JIZfyU_/s320/chiraq.jpg" width="320" /></a>Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata, the model for this movie, as one of a series of plays about the futility of the Peloponnesian wars. Those wars devastated and exhausted Athens and Sparta between 431-404 BC. Lee's comparison of the war-weary Athenian public to inner city African Americans works on a general level.<br />
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The message of both Aristophanes and Lee is the same: most wars are about power and masculine pride. The true cost of such wars are measured in the lives of innocents. These wars can get out of control and the movie is a plea for peace. </div>
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Okay, I buy that. And I liked the idea that a mass movement — in this case of women — is the way to force the warriors to put down their arms. This is also my argument in <a href="http://www.johnhagedorn.com/?zx=bf86a166144aab2">The In$ane Chicago Way, A World of Gangs, and People & Folks</a>, my books on gangs. </div>
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But there are many problems in the movie that alienated me. First, as with Aristophanes, the characters in Chiraq are reduced to stereotypes, even cartoons. The gang leaders, for example, have no depth and seem only concerned with sex until Chiraq (the gang leader) is overwhelmed at the end of the movie with images of victims and repents. The women are nearly all one-dimensional as well, crude stereotypes of sex-obsessed black women wearing alluring attire. Such shallowness may have been all right in the Athenian theater, but we should expect more in a two-hour movie. What the shorthand of this movie does is reinforce racial stereotypes, not undermine them. </div>
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Second, Lee's location of the movie prompts us to look for insights into Chicago's gangland. Don't. In the very first scenes of the movie, comparing the deaths in Chicago in 2000-2015 to those in Iraq and Afghanistan, the movie veers away from reality. The years since 2004 have marked the <i>lowest</i> level of homicide in Chicago since 1967. The violent years — the organized gang wars — were in the years 1989-1999 when Chicago's homicide rate was twice as high as now. Lee's nostalgic references to "back in the day when children weren't shot" forget the gang ordered murder of 11-year-old Yummy Sandifer in 1994, who was featured on the cover of Time and<a href="http://genius.com/1424504"> memorialized by Tupac</a>. We forget how much worse violence was during the gang wars. Once again, Lee reinforces media stereotypes. </div>
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The climax of the movie is the signing of a peace treaty between gang leaders and with the mayor and police chief. That's not happening today, even if women withhold sex. There are no Chicago African American gang leaders anymore with the authority to negotiate any broader truce. Young people don't know their laws and prayers but instead memorize sexist and violent "drill-style rap" lyrics. Today's gang-bangers are not directed from above, but are stimulated to violence by local incidents, neighborhood feuds, episodic humiliations, petty drug deals, and social media provocations. An early scene in the movie where a rapper is shot in a concert with provocative rap lyrics tweeted in text on the screen is intended to recall the 2012 <a href="http://www.hipwiki.com/Lil+Jojo+(Chicago+Rap+Artist)">Chief Keefe and Li'l Jo Jo beef</a>. But gang homicide today has dropped dramatically from the 1990s, not getting worse as Chiraq would have us believe.</div>
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The hard reality masked by Lee's stereotypes is that no gang leaders or magic bullets can stop the kind of spontaneous gang violence we are witnessing today. The gang peace conference in 1999 described in <i>In$ane</i> ended in the assassination of a gang leader by his own gang homies as he tried to negotiate peace. The futile tactics of the Chicago Police and CureViolence to threaten or cajole gang leaders don't work because gang leaders aren't in control of any armies. Rep. Bobby Rush's trip to the federal prison in Florence, Colorado to meet with Jeff Fort and Larry Hoover was 20 years too late and out of touch with reality. The 1990s gang wars ended for many reasons spelled out in my book. But the principle outcome was the undermining of established gang leaders and fracturing of African American gangs. </div>
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Don't forget I said Lee's movie was NOT about Chicago. But that made one aspect of the movie maddening. One of the lead characters in Chiraq, who contextualizes the violence and leads the protest march is a white priest played by John Cusack. He is supposed to represent the real-life Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabinas parish. In a Spike Lee movie, bewilderingly, a white person is the moral leader. There are many views of Pfleger, but why are there no serious African American community leaders in the movie who talk to gang youth and work for peace? Why didn't Spike Lee feature Minister Farrakhan or the active NOI gang outreach of Minister Michael D Muhammed? If the movie is only loosely tied to present day Chicago, why feature a white priest?<br />
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I think this is the Hollywood angle of the movie. Chiraq seeks to be a cross-over and such movies need white heroes. I'm not sure it's going to work. My wife and I went to the movie at prime time in an upscale theater near our home. There were only about two dozen people in the audience and we were the only whites. What message did placing a white priest as the voice of reason and empathy send? In Chicago's ghetto, as well as in other cities, it is African American community leaders who do the lion's share of the work for peace. Shame on you, Spike Lee.<br />
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I was also unsatisfied with the film's minimizing of the impact of police violence. The movie invoked BlackLivesMatter with a familiar list of names of victims. The idea that police violence, like the horrific police execution of<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow27I3yTFKc"> Laquan McDonald</a>, has played a major role in stoking the hostility of black youth is totally absent. As I said in the last line of <i>In$ane</i>, "In Chicago and elsewhere, history shows the gang <i>problem </i>is broader than just a problem of gang <i>members</i>." This movie lets the cops off the hook.<br />
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Spike Lee's movie is about stereotypes. Unfortunately, instead of undermining them, he promotes them. </div>
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<br />John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-18109338538544909282015-11-26T10:16:00.000-08:002015-11-27T04:31:34.643-08:00Laquan McDonald and the CPD's Responsibility for Chicago's Gang Problem <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />I</span>nternal Chicago Police Department documents claimed recently that gangs were attempting to use the protests of the murder of Laquan McDonald to<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/11/25/chicago-braces-more-protests-over-graphic-video/76362520/"> commit crimes and attack police</a>! Huh? </div>
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What Laquan's murder actually shows is the culpability of the Chicago Police for the severity of Chicago's gang problem. <br />
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Police culture in Chicago has always been ugly, racist, and corrupt. It's history, <a href="http://www.richardlindberg.net/biography.html">Richard Lindberg</a> summarizes in his book on the CPD is "to serve and collect." The problem isn't really accountability. The CPD has always been supremely and supinely accountable..... but to the machine not the people. </div>
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<b><i>My conclusion from more than a decade of research on Chicago gangs is this: corruption and brutality by the CPD are principle reasons why Chicago has had such an entrenched gang problem.</i> </b></div>
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Lets look back. A major reason why the Outfit, Chicago's mafia, has been around now for more than a century is their cozy relationship to the top echelons of the machine and the CPD. Al Capone was best buds with Mayor Big Bill Thompson in the 1920s. For decades the Outfit got away with murder..... literally. Here is what the reform commissioner OW Wilson said in the early 1960s about his CPD's record clearing Outfit murders: </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Since 1919 there have been 876 gangland-style slayings in the Chicagoland area. [Of these] <i><b>only two</b> </i> have been cleared by arrest and conviction of the killers.</span></div>
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The CPD did more than allow Outfit hitmen to operate with impunity. In 1997, Chicago Police Superintendent and champion of "community policing" resigned when it was disclosed he vacationed with Outfit figures. In my book, <a href="http://www.johnhagedorn.com/p/the-inane-chicago-way.html?zx=7e82e5ec7889018d">The In$ane Chicago Way</a>, I report Rodriguez's protection of an Outfit hit man, Pierre Zonis, who was also a Chicago police officer. And then there was Deputy Superintendent and Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt <span id="goog_1053055409"></span><span id="goog_1053055410"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>who was convicted in 2001 on running jewel theft ring for the Outfit. And don't forget influential <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Roti">Alderman Fred Roti</a> who was indicted in 1990 for fixing a murder trial, racketeering, and extortion. The FBI publicly named him as mafia "made man'" while Alderman. The Outfit has persisted for a century in no small part to active support by the CPD and the machine.</div>
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The CPD's policy toward African American street gangs, on the other hand, was brutal repression and lawless violence. Corruption didn't stop, but as I conclude in <i>In$ane</i>, changed its nature and vastly expanded during the war on drugs. When the gangs took over retail drug sales, the Outfit did not also order their loyal servants in the CPD to protect the new vice lords and gangsters. As the "Don," a blue blood Outfit leader told me in an interview for In$ane, "Without the cops none of this could happen." The gangs had to do it from the bottom up while the Outfit did it from the top down as our<a href="http://pols.uic.edu/docs/default-source/chicago_politics/anti-corruption_reports/policecorruption.pdf?sfvrsn=2"> study of police corruption</a> showed.<br />
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However, the main way the CPD has fueled Chicago's gang problem has been by its brutal and lawless behavior. The outright assassination of <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-pantherraid-story-story.html">Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton </a>by Chicago Police was only a sign of horrors to come. We can never forget how <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/tools-of-torture/Content?oid=917876">Jon Burge</a> tortured more than a hundred African American gang members. No officer reported him, though the screams could be heard throughout the station house. Burge represented the attitude by Chicago Police and their machine masters that extreme brutality on black people was acceptable. To the CPD and machine, black lives have never mattered. Oh, buy off their votes when necessary, but treat them as less-than-human on the streets. If you were repeatedly beaten and locked in cages like a dog, how would you respond? The history of racist hostility by the CPD explains the strength of gang culture in Chicago. And that brings us back to Laquan.<br />
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There are three important points about the murder of Laquan McDonald. First is the assumption by officer Jason Van Dyke that gunning down a black man would be acceptable. "I feared for my life" is now the standard response of police killers. Before they were caught on camera, they got away with it — and often still do.<br />
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Second, there were good reasons for him to think he could get away with it. Just as fellow officers heard the screams of Burge's torture victims, look at all the officers in the video allowing Van Dyke to kill. When gang members are present at a murder, prosecutors charge them all as party to a crime and they are deemed by law to be as guilty of the murder as the shooter. The CPD may be upset that the community has a no-snitching culture, but the only effective no-snitching culture in Chicago is the blue code of silence.<br />
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Finally, States Attorney Anita Alvarez, McCarthy and Emanuel were aware of the murder and kept it under wraps. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-laquan-mcdonald-emanuel-kass-met-1126-20151125-column.html">John Kass</a> points out that if the video was made public before the mayoral election, Emanuel likely would have lost to Chuy Garcia. If there wasn't a storm of protest and a "smoking gun" video do you think they would have ever fired Van Dyke or indicted him? Even Burge was never indicted for his tortures. Laquan's murder was not an aberration but business as usual by the CPD.<br />
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Protestors are filling the streets. The CPD's ploy to "look out for gangs using the protests to attack officers" fools no one. It has been the long standing violence by police against African Americans that has fueled Chicago gang hostility and fanned violence in the black community. To understand why black youth are so hostile just <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/24/us/laquan-mcdonald-chicago-shooting-video/index.html">watch the video</a>. The BlackLivesMatters movement has the capacity to focus the anger on the streets toward police reform and the machine.<br />
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A measure of justice for Laquan should include the indictment of all those police present at the shooting who did not immediately arrest Van Dyke. And it should include the resignation of Alvarez, McCarthy, and Emanuel for trying to cover up a murder.</div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-34069787572291620812015-10-17T14:34:00.000-07:002018-05-31T05:56:04.442-07:00Talking Common Sense About Gangs and Violence<div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">
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<span class="s1">The violence problem in Chicago is mainly about race, not gangs, guns, laws, or cartels. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">That’s what I’ve learned from two decades of gang research in Chicago. Today there are more Latino than African American gang members and gangs in Chicago. Yet nearly 80% of homicide victims and offenders are African American. Despite this, CPD Superintendent McCarthy and Mayor Emanuel continue to blame “gangs" and avoid linking homicide to Chicago’ history of racial oppression.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Other conventional explanations for homicide also fall flat. There is no evidence that homicide fluctuates with a rise or fall in the number of guns, which have plagued our streets for decades. The <a href="http://chicagoreporter.com/what-will-stem-chicago-violence-heres-what-the-research-says/"><span class="s2">Chicago Reporter</span></a> recently pointed out harsher penalties for gun laws are also uncorrelated with homicide drops.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The notion that our homicide rate is a product of drug cartel rivalries is similarly specious. The cartels are Mexican and their local distribution thrives on kinship connections. The cartels have been at war in Mexico for nearly a decade yet their violence has not spilled over even to the other side of the border, much less Chicago. El Paso, only a bridge away from violence-plagued Juarez, is statistically one of the safest cities in America. The DEA may claim violence in Spike Lee’s “Chiraq” is about drug cartel rivalries, but their self-serving proclamations stretch credulity. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Our homicide rate, with two small spikes and dips, has stayed constant for more than a decade. With an alarming number of gunshot wounds, it makes sense that random fluctuations in the number of people dying of gun injuries account for occasional increases and drops in deaths. Our homicide rate has settled in at about four times higher than New York City and half of Detroit’s. There is no evidence law enforcement tactics or interventions by groups such as CureViolence have had any measurable impact on our city’s homicide rate since its 50% decline from 1992 to 2004.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Superintendent McCarthy blames the gangs for violence but maybe he doesn’t understand that gangs in Chicago are radically different than in the 1990s. My book, <a href="http://on.fb.me/1L21916"><span class="s2">The In$ane Chicago Way,</span></a><i> </i>explains how organized wars, led by incarcerated gang chiefs, brought homicide levels in the 1990s to twice as high as they are today. Those wars didn’t end because of any new police tactics, but rather exhausted and fractured the gangs, breaking the hold of the old gang leaders. Today’s black gang members particularly are rebellious even against their old gang chiefs. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Current research by Robert Aspholm and others finds violence is driven by spontaneous, local incidents, sometimes gang related, sometimes not. Drill raps on YouTube often replace memorized gang “laws and prayers” as motivations for violence. What underlies the shootings in black communities are the same factors that for a century have produced higher rates of African American violence: the daily humiliations of powerless, desperate, unemployed black men. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">From the 1919 race riots to the years of restrictive covenants and “hidden violence” to the building and then destruction of CHA housing projects there has been an unbroken line of oppressive conditions in Chicago’s black communities. Have things gotten better? Despite a growing middle class, the black poverty rate has increased since 1960 to reach one third of all African Americans. Indices of segregation have remained unchanged since the 1960s and the black unemployment rate has doubled. The pool of young, poor, unemployed black men are still on street corners and they are killing each other as this 2012 <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2012/07/26/concentrated-poverty-and-homicide-in-chicago">Chicago Reader </a>graphic shows.</span><br />
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<span class="s1">The attempt to blame the gangs fundamentally diverts attention from the fact that to McCarthy’s police </span><span class="s3">— </span><span class="s1">and the Emanuel machine to which he owes allegiance — black lives don’t really matter. In the 1990s CPD clearance rates for homicide ranged from 64% to 69%. The Superintendent admitted that by September 2015, only 23% of all homicides were cleared. Read that again: <i>less than one in four homicides resulted in an arrest</i>. When the gangs were at war in the 1990s it was relatively easy to figure out who was doing the shooting. Despite gang claims they don’t snitch to police, court records show they did, pointing their fingers at rival gang shooters. Today, shootings are more spontaneous, and less controlled, making them in a way more dangerous. Young men hand out violent street justice as retaliation since police can’t seem to find the actual offenders.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">This means McCarthy should stop his out of date tactics of threatening old gang leaders to control youthful members over which they no longer exercise control. His “Call Ins” claimed their first death October 13 when Tracey Morgan was gunned down after a meeting with CPD officers. While there have been persistent attempts by gangs to minimize their own violence, from the People & Folks coalitions to Spanish Growth & Development, gang leaders today simply do not have the legitimacy, organization, or authority to stop the shootings.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Blaming the gangs also diverts attention away from police brutality and corruption. Jon Burge’s legacy has not been forgotten and serious attempts to bring real accountability to McCarthy’s CPD have been largely frustrated. My book demonstrated how police corruption helps gangs thrive. While good police work is part of the solution, bad police work is part of the problem.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">All violence is paid for, the philosopher Pierre Bourdieu said. Chicago’s “structural violence” of racism and poverty is coming back to haunt us in many ways, including the hostility of poor young black men. The rebellion that has been going on in Ferguson for the past year may be a portent of the fire next time in Chicago. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Here is the uncomfortable truth: <b>There is no easy answer to violence in Chicago.</b> Our city has to soberly confront its legacy of racism in employment, housing, education, and policing. McCarthy and Emanuel should stop blaming the gangs and calling for new repressive legislation. If the mayor is serious about reducing violence he needs to steeply increase investment in black communities. The best way to prevent violence is to provide hope to the desperate underclass of African Americans in our city. </span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-55478335241405721152015-09-10T12:32:00.001-07:002015-09-12T05:50:37.085-07:00Trumping the Gang Problem<div class="p1">
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“We’re going to get rid of those gang members so fast your head will spin”…..“One of the first things I’m going to do is get rid of those gang members”….. Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy “is a phenomenal guy. He could stop this if we allowed him to stop it. … Believe me.”</div>
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<span class="s1">Well I don’t believe him one bit. When McCarthy became the CPD police chief, he vowed to “eradicate” the <a href="http://gangsandthemedia.blogspot.com/2011/07/obliterating-gangs-in-chicago.html">Maniac Latin Disciples</a>. Even his own officers made fun of him on that one. I’ve been doing research and working with gangs for more than thirty years. Gangs aren’t going away no matter what we do. With high levels of poverty, inequality, and racism, gangs are now a permanent fixture in American’s urban landscape. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I’ve concluded a bigger problem than gangs is our poisonous culture of demonization. Trump exemplifies this demonization, but he is far from alone. Any trip to a courtroom where a gang member is on trial will reveal even more outrageous comments from prosecutors. For example, in one Georgia court where two gang members were on trial, the prosecutor told the jury that the name of the gang, “Folks” stood for “Followers of Our Lord King Satan.” Let’s see: young, black, male, gang members, accused of murder and being devil worshippers to boot! It didn’t take long for the all white jury to come back with the death penalty. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I wasn’t in the courtroom for the trial, but years later I was called in on a habeas corpus hearing on the basis that the defendants had received ineffective counsel. I brought along a letter from a former Chicago gang squad officer saying how ridiculous the prosecution's “Folks” assertion was. The death penalty still hovers over these two young men as the courts weigh the fate of the habeas petition. But demonization is standard fare for prosecuting gangs.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Rather than seeing the gang problem as having complex structural, cultural, and situational roots, gangs are essentialized by the media, politicians, police, and prosecutors as little more than evil cartoon characters. And if gangs are evil, Trump’s final solution might be similar to Kurtz's in Conrad’s <i>Heart of Darkness</i>: “Exterminate All the Brutes.” You can’t reform evil so why try? Destroy that which you fear! Deport! Incarcerate! Annihilate! Let’s not take time to think, let's stamp them out — now!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Life is not so simple and never was. In my new book, <a href="http://www.johnhagedorn.com/p/the-inane-chicago-way.html"><i>The</i> </a><i><a href="http://www.johnhagedorn.com/p/the-inane-chicago-way.html">In$ane Chicago Way,</a> </i> I look at the darkest side of Chicago gangs, their horrific wars, ties to organized crime, and widespread corruption of police. In my other books I was focused on debunking gang stereotypes, but in this one I narrate the story of gang leaders </span>bent head over heels on grabbing power and money. I describe police who became drug kingpins in an unholy alliance with those gang chiefs. But my message in <i>In$ane</i> is familiar: “Gangs are not one thing.” We need to think first and then react. </div>
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<span class="s1">The gang leaders who rushed to war in the 1990s number at most in the dozens and are mainly out of the picture now. Professional hitmen exist but it is hard to be a hitman and most don't last long. The current fracturing of gangs in Chicago in part is a healthy rebellion of young gang members who were sent to kill, die, or spend their lives in jail by power tripping “OGs.” We have a unique opportunity now to win youth away from gang life and enlist them in the struggle for social change. The #BlackLivesMatter movement represents the most exciting possibility in generations for a social movement that includes the streets. We should all join in.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">But the 2016 elections are a dangerous time for demonization. Trump has realized “law and order” has been a winning policy for US voters at least since Nixon. Mass incarceration, stepped up deportations, and wars against gangs and drugs have defined both Republican and Democratic administrations for almost 50 years. Dare I suggest we have failed to learn the lessons of the rise of Hitler and Mussolini? Have we forgotten the KKK and their terrorist lynchings? Do we still remember the names of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-X4is9jMYk">Emmett Till</a>, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-michael-brown-ferguson-missouri-shooting-20140811-story.html">Michael Brown,</a> and Milwaukee's <a href="http://gangsandthemedia.blogspot.com/2015/03/stereotypes-can-kill.html">Dontre Hamilton</a>? Have we forgotten where unrestrained scapegoating can lead?</span></div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-59784314479138982712015-08-14T06:48:00.001-07:002015-09-12T05:40:20.649-07:00Ferguson, Social Movements, and Gangs<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">I went to Ferguson for the one year commemoration of the murder of Michael Brown. I accompanied my wife and Maria Hamilton, whose son was killed by Milwaukee police last April. I came away deeply moved by the dynamism of the young activists. It was clear to me that #BlackLivesMatter is spearheading a new black liberation movement that just might have the potential to transform society and reach alienated youth.</span></div>
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We were in Ferguson for the marches, the shootings Sunday night, and the civil disobedience Monday. We supported those who were arrested at the Department of Justice and trained for confrontation but fortunately were not among those jailed. The crowd was exuberant,<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">At the Canfield Green Apartments where Michael Brown was </span></div>
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chanting “We’ve Already Won” at the lines of armed cops. One young girl was wearing a T-shirt that summed it up: “This Ain’t your Momma’s Civil Rights Movement.”</div>
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No indeed. This new movement is decentralized, organized yet not organized, and its youthful activists exhibit courage, street smarts, and dedication. They don’t take orders from anyone. This new, dynamic set of comrades rely on social media to mobilize and educate, and won’t let the constant police provocations hold them back. Police murders are the essence of dehumanization and Michael Brown’s death has sent Ferguson into a state of rebellion. Young people are screaming, “Enough is Enough.” This is an American Intifada and I’m on their side.</div>
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<span class="s1">But the events in Ferguson are not one thing. I was not foolish enough to think in a few days I could learn anything about the gangs and the extent of their participation in the uprising. Lots of people claim they know, but there is no serious research. We heard that gang members in Ferguson pledged at one time to put down arms against one another and unite against police. So did Baltimore gangs, who publicly denounced lies that they were planning to shoot police and called for calm. In Seattle the gangs marched together. #BlackLivesMatter seems to be reaching the most alienated.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">If there is hope to stem gang violence, I don’t think it lies in formal programs like CureViolence or law enforcement schemes to threaten leaders, or even less in the failed strategy of mass incarceration. As I have been writing from <a href="http://www.johnhagedorn.com/?zx=549c260b7a04f0eb"><i>People & Folks</i> to <i>A World of Gangs</i> to <i>The In$ane Chicago Way</i>,</a> the real hope for us is to pull gang members into social movements — like those in Ferguson. Gangs are by nature made up of desperate, angry young men and women. I’m sure they are among the those on Florissant Street confronting the police. These youth are setting the fire this time for all of us.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">It’s not clear how the gun play started Sunday night. Some claimed two groups of youth were shooting at one another. Just because there is a movement for justice does not mean the internalized anger of black youth will be easily channelled into activism. The movement may offer hope, but it doesn’t promise as many jobs as the dope game. As it stands, our movement can’t even get more than a few killer police indicted, much less punished for murder. This won’t make gang kids’ anger go away but instead will heat it up.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">In <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Insane-Chicago-Way-Daring-Spanish/dp/022623293X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433791406&sr=1-1&keywords=insane+chicago+way">The In$ane Chicago Way</a> </i>I looked at how Latino gangs with their superior connections to Mexican cartels built a Spanish mafia in Chicago. Black gang members, already at the bottom of conventional society are also at the bottom of the drug game. In Chicago their old hierarchical “street organizations” have shattered. Like the movement in Ferguson, black gangs are decentralized and their youthful members look to social media not self proclaimed leaders for inspiration. </span></div>
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What Ferguson taught me was the vital importance of reaching out <i>now</i> to black youth on the streets. <i>The In$ane Chicago Way</i> argues that organized crime is a serious threat to our youth. However the lack of legitimacy of the old gang leaders means street youth are looking for something new and events in Ferguson show us the way. We need to realize #BlackLivesMatter means gang members too. The alternative to joining this powerful social movement is watching our youth succumb to an even deeper cycle of despair and destructiveness. Ferguson is above all a call to action.John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-11297671744047756382015-06-06T07:32:00.001-07:002015-09-11T10:06:06.142-07:00Spectacle, Desperation, and Justice<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">
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I'm for the deal for a new arena. Whether you like it or not, in today’s world you can not address the needs of the city of desperation without a city of spectacle.</div>
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Urban scholars are looking to a city of spectacle like Rio de Janerio, Los Angeles, or Barcelona as the 21st century standard. The industrial city model, like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, or Gary have been replaced by high tech or tourist capitols like San Francisco, Denver, or Miami, or even a sports mecca, like Indianapolis. </div>
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Chicago’s rebirth was not based on recapturing the steel industry or meat packing of a dead industrial era. Millennium Park, Navy Pier, museums, and a host of near-by sports facilities were incentives for highly paid professionals to settle on Chicago for a suitable residence. Chicago’s banking, futures, and nascent information industries in the Loop have near-by amenities that attract and sustain their wealthy middle and upper class consumers. Spectacle is necessary to attract capital and their high wage workers.</div>
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This means rejuvenating Milwaukee is more than raising — or lowering — the minimum wage. In order to recharge our economy our city has to agglomerate corporations in a few key sectors, like medical technology or water. But to do that it needs spectacle, starting with the underused Calatrava, our summer festivals, the Harley museum, and the Potawatomi Casino (bizarrely misplaced in the Menomonie Valley after their proposed move downtown was vetoed by former Mayor Norquist). If the Bucks arena is rejected, what kind of strategy do our leaders have to rejuvenate a truly depressing downtown Milwaukee? </div>
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But the dark side of the city of spectacle is the city of desperation. Milwaukee is both one of the poorest cities in the US and one of its most segregated. Black lives apparently don’t matter in this city even in a debate over a mainly African American sport. <a href="http://www4.uwm.edu/ced/publications/53206_revised.pdf"><span style="color: #6599cc; font-kerning: none;">Mark Levine’s sobering research </span></a>on the depths of inequality in our city needs to be heeded. <a href="http://gangresearch.net/Archives/hagedorn/hagartmil.html"><span style="color: #6599cc; font-kerning: none;">My own research on gangs</span></a> in 1980s and 1990s Milwaukee predicated that absent a turn about in jobs for the very poor, gangs would not go away. </div>
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And they haven’t. In Chicago, the danger of a one-sided city of spectacle can be seen in the depths of hostility in all-black, high poverty, high homicide areas like Englewood and Lawndale. Chicago’s leaders appear to have been blinded by spectacle and have wanted the public to not think about the wrenching poverty and desperation of the ghetto. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been franticly trying to control the headlines about “Chiraq’s” stubborn homicide rate. Do you know Milwaukee’s murder rate is even higher than Chicago’s? The city of desperation is a moral stain on us all and cannot be ignored.</div>
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Opposition to the Bucks arena come from a variety of interest groups. <a href="http://www.commongroundwi.org/fair-play/"><span style="color: #6599cc; font-kerning: none;">Common Ground</span></a> has proposed tying Bucks public funding to giving the Milwaukee Public Schools $150 million to rebuild playgrounds. A coalition of labor leaders has demanded high wages for local construction workers saying, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/labor-leaders-to-rally-at-courthouse-on-arena-jobs-b99513379z1-306137061.html"><span style="color: #6599cc; font-kerning: none;">Good Deal or No Deal</span></a>. Others, like <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/gov-scott-walker-republicans-have-distorted-priorities-for-wisconsin-b99509837z1-305699051.html"><span style="color: #6599cc; font-kerning: none;">Stan Stojkovic, </span></a>argue that funding higher education has more benefits than having a pro Basketball team.</div>
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It is crucial to struggle for investment in the central city. Construction jobs should be high wage and include minority set asides and quotas for black and other minority workers. It is also important to invest in, not cut, higher education. What could be more foolish in an information era than to threaten one of the nation’s top universities? </div>
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But the opposition to the Bucks arena needs to recognize the nature of the 21st century city is inextricably linked to creating a city of spectacle. The entertainment district proposed around the Bucks arena is a sensible piece of an overall strategy toward concentrating amenities for the wealthy and middle class. Forcing the Bucks to move would be an act of urban suicide. </div>
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But that does not mean we have to remain silent on the needs of the city of desperation. We need to link the two cities whenever we can. Indeed the Bucks arena financing might have provided some leverage but the needs of Milwaukee's ghetto have been lost in a foolish debate about whether it would be cheaper to keep the Bucks or let them move.</div>
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I want to watch Giannis and Jabari bring Milwaukee an NBA championship. But most of all I want to see a City of Justice that can link the dollars brought by spectacle to addressing the needs of the desperate.</div>
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John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449686582623626838.post-42645372813242114142015-05-26T12:58:00.000-07:002016-01-07T09:05:05.764-08:00#BlackLivesMatter and Gangs<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">
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In Ferguson, gangs are among those protesting the police murder of Michael Brown. In Baltimore Bloods and Crips denounce rioting and<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVnbCkwuZxw"> call for peace.</a> Are we witnessing something new where black gangs join in political protest rather than shooting one another? No, we’ve seen this before and there are important lessons from history for the “new civil rights movement” about gangs.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMAmbhq95ZVCBy1SrTLIwRnuWCX1OQsMaOZJ3DkelTewTXX6fIQa1X4k031uxGQtkMAf8PM4Sup24PGyCZKM7qkBKTaTlmKGnzDVNXv3phfdrxE00gdHcyQx_QxhdLMXv0xsVCJzHXTj_/s1600/Baltbloodstruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMAmbhq95ZVCBy1SrTLIwRnuWCX1OQsMaOZJ3DkelTewTXX6fIQa1X4k031uxGQtkMAf8PM4Sup24PGyCZKM7qkBKTaTlmKGnzDVNXv3phfdrxE00gdHcyQx_QxhdLMXv0xsVCJzHXTj_/s320/Baltbloodstruce.jpg" width="320" /></a> As a scholar who has called for the inclusion of gangs in social movements from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/People-Folks-Gangs-Underclass-Rustbelt/dp/0941702464/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432646508&sr=1-1&keywords=People+and+Folks">People & Folks,</a> to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Insane-Chicago-Way-Daring-Spanish/dp/022623293X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432646538&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Insane+Chicago+Way">The In$ane Chicago Way</a>, I’m closely focused on current developments. Police killings, brutality, and corruption are daily realities on the streets and gangs have a self interest in opposing police misconduct. The #BlackLivesMatter movement has created an “injustice frame” that has mobilized people from all walks of life, including gangs. It has long been my mantra that “gangs are not one thing” and gang members have “multiple conflicting identities.” Among other things this means gangs <i>can</i> take an activist role — and historically they have.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">In the 1960s, gangs in both LA and Chicago were politicized. In the HBO movie, </span><a href="https://myspace.com/blackmensmovement/video/bastards-of-the-party-pt1-of-2/58488637" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Bastards of the Party</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">, gangs are described as the offspring of the Black Panther Party, following Mike Davis’s history in </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/City-Quartz-Excavating-Future-Angeles/dp/1844675688/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432646150&sr=1-1&keywords=City+of+Quartz" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">City of Quartz</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">. At the same time in Chicago, the Black Panther Party sought an alliance with street gangs mediated by civil rights leaders, including Useni Perkins, whose book </span><a href="http://www.apple.com/" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">The Explosion of Chicago’s Black Street Gangs</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> is must reading. In the 1990s the NYC Latin King and Queen Nation took a pro-social path richly documented by </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Almighty-Latin-King-Queen-Nation-ebook/dp/B007ZDDL0G/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432645918&sr=1-9&keywords=Luis+Barrios" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">David Brotherton and Luis Barrios</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">. My own book,</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/World-Gangs-Gangsta-Globalization-Community/dp/0816650675/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432646084&sr=1-1&keywords=A+World+of+Gangs" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> A World of Gangs</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">, finds many examples of politicized gangs around the world.</span></div>
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What have these historical experiences taught us about gangs and activist politics? </div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"></span><b>Law Enforcement will make concerted efforts to suppress any gang involvement in social movements and create divisions between gangs and activists. </b>We see this today in Baltimore. After the gangs announced a truce the Baltimore Police Department spread the slanderous story they had “credible information” that the truce was designed to allow gangs to target police officers for assassination. In 1969, Chicago gang politicization prompted Mayor Daley to declare “war on gangs” killing and jailing important leaders. In both LA and Chicago the FBI did all they could to incite violence between the Black Panthers and gangs. In the 1990s the New York City Latin Kings' leadership were indicted in order to crush a transformed ALKQN. Gang involvement in politics in all three cities were effectively suppressed by law enforcement.</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Historically, gangs who turned to activism had strong organization and progressive leaders, unlike the situation today. </b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">In Chicago Bobby Gore was a transformational leader of the Vice Lords as was King Tone in New York. These leaders inherited strong organizational structures and through force of personality led their gangs into pro-social action. Today, at least in Chicago, the black gangs have little formal organization. The old leaders were discredited by the horrendous gang wars of the 1990s that cost thousands of lives. Contemporary black gangs are not nearly as organized as their 1960s counterparts. On the other hand, with weakened organization, the alienated and hostile young gang members may be open to being individually or in small groups pulled into activism. There is an important opportunity today to reach out to gang members who may be willing to join the protests. </span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"></span><b>Unfortunately, desperation on the streets and police repression means other paths, including organized crime, remain attractive options for street youth. </b>What we learned from Chicago in the 1960s was that while the gangs were being politicized some of their leaders were also negotiating with the mafia to control retail drug markets. Both progressive politics and organized crime coexisted among gang leaders who led a desperate, alienated membership. Both then and now the uncertainties of real progress, repressive policies of law enforcement, and the seduction of a lucrative and ‘always hiring’ entrepreneurial gang, means sustained activism by gang members is unlikely. </li>
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This does not mean we should neglect or reject participation of gangs and their members from the new civil rights movement. If we are ever to build a real movement that benefits those on the bottom of society, we need to include the US's one million gang members as allies. We must resist the lies of law enforcement and oppose their transparent tactics promoting disunity. But we also need to heed the lessons of history and understand gangs are not one thing. For me, the guiding point remains: #BlackLivesMatters includes gangs. </div>
John Hagedornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17468017373407363887noreply@blogger.com0