It’s time for drastic action
Body count continuing to rise in Black community

In the recent spate of deaths of young Black men due to gun violence the death of 23-year-old Aaron Steele from 16 bullets pumped into his body by three police officers is the most troubling because, based on family background and upbringing, it should not have happened.

Steele should not been stupid enough to reach for a gun when the officers ordered him out of his vehicle; one could even argue that he should not have been stupid enough to even be riding down the street blaring his radio (which is an excellent way to attract the attention of a police officer), with a gun under the seat and a warrant out for his arrest. But then, there were evidently a lot of stupid things Steele should not have done in his young life. Committing “suicide by cop” was just the last, final mistake he made in a long list of “mistakes.” Nonetheless, Steele’s life should have turned out differently.

Sadly, the deaths of 17-year-old Angelo Miller and15-year-old Arthur “Ace Boogie” Buford should have been highly predictable given their histories and the trajectories of their truncated lives. Steele, on the other hand, had a father who worked as a cement finisher and a mother who is a school teacher; stability neither of the other two boys had. When supposedly “good” boys go bad and wind up dead ... now that has to give us pause.

It’s time for drastic action. We in the Black community have been ignoring the obvious for far too long. How many more deaths will it take to spur us into action? Do we continue to wait while the body count continues to rise? The longer we wait the higher it will rise ... that much is for certain.

But the question is, what do we do? What can we do? The crux of the matter is that we attempt to solve long-term problems with short-term solutions ... and always come up short — and then wonder why we fail.

Well, I’m going to put forth (what I hope is) a stop-gap solution that will probably get me run out of town on a rail, but desperate times require desperate measures. In view of the fact that the US Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released a report that stated young Black men are twice as likely to die in the streets as in prison I propose a massive expansion of the Ohio prison system. Yes, I’m dead serious. Lock our lost young men up for their own protection and their own good; they are twice as safe in prison. Otherwise they’re going to keep blowing each other away with an increasing regularity as guns proliferate in Black neighborhoods. We quite literally have to protect them from their own selves ... and from each other. Remember, the leading cause of death among Black men 15 to 34 (those crazy years) is from gunshot wounds.

If it were your son, would you rather he was locked up for three, five or more years... or would you rather he winds up dead in the gutter? Ask Hugh and Bertha Steele, the parents of Aaron, which they would prefer now that their son is dead. I know the choice I — in similar circumstances — would make for mine.

If a young dude has dropped out of high school, is out in the streets on the wild, and is caught dealing drugs or engaging in other criminal behavior, he should be removed from society as swiftly as possible. He is not suddenly going to “see the light” and rectify his behavior. No probation, do not pass go, they only thing that should beat him to prison is the headlights on the bus.

There are, however, some caveats I would suggest before we consider instituting such drastic steps. First and foremost we simply have to put systems in place that will put a stop to our society churning out generation after generation of failures. We have to repair the fabric of the social safety net and institute programs that have a serious chance of working. Go online to Center for American Progress and type the word “poverty” in the search box. You’ll be lead to some well-conceived and workable suggestions.

However, in the short term increased incarceration may be the only answer for what we are presently faced with; many of these young men are too far gone to deal with sans prison. But for increased incarceration to be meaningful and not just punitive, the “rehabilitation” part has to be reemphasized and seriously implemented. Of course some might wonder how are we to “rehabilitate” someone who was never “habilitated” in the first place.

These young men (and increasingly young women) were failed by their caregivers and society the first time around when they didn’t get an education or the requisite skills and values needed to succeed in life. However, prisons in some states are being turned into institutions that correct this failing. Young men are about to come out of an institution in Washington state ready to take their places as productive members of society.

And our society has to remove the barriers that prevent men and women returning from prison from succeeding. Most of the over 300 collateral sanctions on the books in Ohio should be removed or severely modified. Prisons could really be turned into training institutions if we have the political will ... something we have been sorely lacking in this state.

And I personally have no problem with society correcting a failing, even if that means locking a part of a generation up for a period of time ... and making their release conditioned on their acquiring a marketable skill. Truly one man’s prison can be another man’s palace — or university for that matter. I’ve seen it work up close and personal. Restore Pell Grants, provide real training programs, and remove the barriers to employment once they are released, and I’m all for mass, wholesale incarceration of miscreants for their own good. There is a vast difference between punitive and restorative justice.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
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