Judging the Judges, Judging Ourselves

The tragic and saddening death of Chevonne Ecclestone, the Strongsville woman that was senselessly and brutally attacked in a Parma park a few weeks ago by Todd Torok (a persistent felon with multiple convictions) has sparked outraged calls for judicial reform from various quarters.

Suggestions run the gamut from electing tougher judges more willing to mete out longer sentences, to enacting Draconian new three strikes legislation that will take away those same judges’ latitude and discretion. However, all of the suggestions I’ve heard so far only prove how truly naive the average citizen happens to be in regards to how our criminal justice system actually works — or, more precisely, doesn’t work.

One of the first lessons a journalist learns is, if you don’t ask the right question, you’ll never get the right answer... especially from government. As outraged citizens demand firm and fair treatment from a justice system that has proven itself to be neither firm nor fair, we won’t ask the right questions because we — as a society — would (or at least should) be embarrassed by the answers.

Mark my words: No matter how “broken” our criminal justice system happens to be we will not truly fix it — because to accomplish that task would require us to come face-to-face with some hard truths about said system that are too uncomfortable for the electorate to look squarely at.

Truth #1: We don’t elect the best, the most qualified lawyers to the bench because we limit the pool from which they are selected, and we limit it by surname; which, in some cases, is the shallower end of the gene pool. By and large, no Blacks (no matter how experienced or able) need apply because it’s virtually impossible for them to get elected... not here in Cuyahoga County. And, yes, there is an easy method to insure racial parity on the bench while raising the caliber of the judiciary at the same instant, but no one is interested. White voters obviously like it just the way it is... that is, until something goes wrong like it recently did in Parma.

Truth #2: There is little public outrage over unfair or unequal sentences because they almost always impact “the other (read, Black) guy.” Last year two almost identical cases were in front of two different (naturally, White) judges: Both involved drunk drivers that drove the wrong way on a highway and killed an innocent person. One was Black and the other was White. The Black driver got a sentence of 20 years, and the White driver (who had a previous DUI) got a sentence of six years. And here’s the real kicker, the prosecutor (who was the same on both cases) facilely explained away the disparity... as if only fools would find fault with the egregious outcomes.

Truth #3: America’s criminal justice system is, by longstanding and surreptitious design, grossly racist and unfair because that’s the way the majority culture wanted it to be at its inception, and hundreds of years historical jurisprudence — no matter how tragically flawed — is hard to change. If our system were fair, with our current laws, instead of having 2.2 million people in our prisons we’d have over 20 million people behind bars (the majority White) and we’re not willing to pay the bill for those kinds of numbers. So we’ve developed these neat little tricks to get around the problem; they’re called “selective enforcement,” “selective sentencing” and “selective parole.” And guess who does the “selecting,” and on what basis.

Now, if anyone cares to argue with the foregoing, then will they please explain how Todd Torok, with his record of 36 arrests and 22 convictions, was able to get out of prison yet another time ... if it wasn’t due to his Whiteness.

Here’s how the “just-us” system usually reforms itself: A White addict commits a heinous crime against an innocent White victim in a virtually all-White suburb, and the result will be a severe crackdown — on petty Black and Hispanic drug dealers in the inner-city. Go figure.

The only possible way to fix our deeply flawed criminal justice system is for Whites to willingly give up the White privilege that many have come to view as their birthright... and we all know that’s not about to happen. In a moral universe privilege and parity are mutually exclusive... they both cannot occupy the same philosophical space.

Hush, truth — you’re making people uncomfortable.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
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