Senator says subcommittee focuses on legislation, not lamentation
By Denise M. Champagne
The Daily Record Newswire
NEW YORK - Militarized policing, racial bias and profiling, and over criminalization and incarceration are just a few of the civil and human rights issues facing the nation.
Those and other topics were discussed last week by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights in a special hearing on "The State of Civil and Human Rights in the United States."
While not everyone agrees with the approach, Senators and those testifying did agree still more needs to be done.
The issues are not new, but have come to the forefront in recent months in the aftermath of the killings of unarmed black men and children in Ferguson, Missouri; Staten Island; and Cleveland.
"Our identity is based on ideas and values, not ethnicity and creed," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the subcommittee, who opened the hearing. "But since its founding, there has been a divide between the promise and the reality of America. The man who wrote in our Declaration of Independence 'All men are created equal' was a slaveholder. And the Constitution - our founding charter - treated African-Americans as property and women as second-class citizens which those of us in Congress or sworn to uphold and defend."
He said the committee focuses on legislation, not lamentation, which struck a chord with Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, one of six witnesses testifying.
"As you said, the time for lamentation is passed," Booker told Durbin. "The time for legislation is upon us."
He related growing up in the only black family in his neighborhood and schools and witnessing the bias and explosion of incarceration he has seen in his lifetime.
He said the federal prison population has increased 800 percent, half filled with non-violent offenders, disproportionately minorities, costing taxpayers $250 billion a year.
Booker said blacks are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana usage than a white person, and that drug sentences for black men are 13.1 percent longer. He said the sad reality is that one in three black men can expect to be incarcerated and that they are 21 times more likely to be shot dead by a police officer.
"There has been enough death in this country," Booker said. "There has been enough over-incarceration."
He said states - remarkably red states - are better addressing the problems than the federal government and that Congress should follow their efforts with its own legislation to reduce the prison population, lower crime, save taxpayers money and "more effectively herald the highest ideals of our country."
"This hearing is taking place at a pivotal time for the nation," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition. "The recent killings of unarmed black boys and men by police officers across the country have fueled a growing, diverse, passionate and increasingly organized movement for justice across racial lines that cannot be ignored."
He was referring to several killings, including the more recent shootings of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Missouri, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice Nov. 22 in Cleveland, and the July 17 chokehold strangulation of Eric Garner on Staten Island.
"Without question, our criminal justice system is in crisis," Henderson said. "Racial and ethnic bias persist at every stage, from policing to trial to sentencing and finally to re-entry. We should use our resources to more adequately address public safety and invest in alternatives to incarceration where appropriate and we must put in place common sense reforms that prohibit discriminatory profiling, demilitarize law enforcement, redefine standards for use of force by police and establish accountability."
Published: Mon, Dec 15, 2014
