Print PDF

† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Kay Whitlock, co-author of Queer (In)Justice, is contributing editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

Off Track, The Myth of American Justice
by nancy a heitzeg

He could have said it anywhere, in Ferguson or Florida, in Los Angeles or the Bronx, in any Southern town from Emmett Till up till now. The song remains the same. But how many times has he said this to a room, during a moment, at what appears to be a turning point? Shouting in the wilderness is one thing. What must it be like to shout where everyone can hear you, to room after room full of people, to have everyone  nod their heads and the newspapers back you and millions rally to your cause and still nothing changes? How many times can you repeat the truth? ~ Emmett Rensin, After the Train Leaves Town: A Report from Ferguson

The swirl of headlines and response is dizzying. Drip, drip, drip.

Justice for Mike Brown, for Ezell Ford, for Eric Garner, John Crawford, Rekia Boyd, Marissa Alexander, Jordan Davis (again) !  More. Fire Ray Rice, fire Adrian Peterson, fire Roger Goodell, Don Lemon too! More. Arrest Darren Wilson! Convict Michael Dunn! More.  One by one by one.

Send $$$, send water, send gas masks. More. #Hashtag it. Facebook it. Petition it.  Mobilize. March. Send Selfies with Signs.  More. Then Do It Again. Click, click, click.

The need to react to immediate injustice is understandable. So too, the desire to have systems that supposedly dispense ” justice” to do so equally, and to hold all perpetrators – be they police or pro athletes – accountable. It is easy to understand the lull of specific debates and focused actions. But as both a participant in and scholar/observer of social movements – particularly those directed towards the criminal “justice” system, i have many questions.

These have come to the fore again in the midst of the seeming national escalation of police violence, the wave of family violence cases involving NFL players, and finally, in a local event that revealing in microcosm a political landscape always marred by personal agendas and political in-fighting, non-profits protecting their money, a projecting power structure that appeals to fear, and  a media eager to report the small details, the specific skirmish, but in total avoidance of the systemic and structural issues which ultimately provide the frame.

Is this case by case approach enough? Can it be sustained? Are there more tools — questions to be asked, cautions to be raised about their most effective use? Are these the right questions to ask or demands to make ? What are the possibilities for proactive engagement rather than the endless hydraulic of reaction and retrenchment? Can we define the terms of debate on our own new terrain? Can we go bigger?

Personal or Political?

She’s used her connections to raise a lot of money and done good work with the relief effort. “But I see her putting up these pictures on Instagram,” he says, “That’re like, ‘Here we are protesting in Ferguson,’ but I look at the picture and I’m like, ‘That’s just you and like 10 guys havin’ a party on the block.’ You know, she did good down there, but she’s also getting into being a celebrity and all that. Being part of the scene.” ~ After the Train Leaves Town: A Report from Ferguson

Yes the personal is political,  but where is the line? When do the political issues get lost to a cult of personality? One of the dilemmas of the culture of selfies is the tendency then to make every story about, yes Yourself, inserting your face into every issue. Famous for 15 minutes. Social media is often a useful tool for disseminating information quickly, fund-raising, and sometimes. mass mobilization. But Facebook and Twitter also offer the allure of ego and the illusion of friendly performative spaces. These are seductive tools (of the surveillance state too ) and can easily fan self-aggrandizement, encourage the notion that prolific Tweeters are “public intellectuals”, or worse still, enable dangerous decision-making and too much information shared. Take a deep breathe before hitting post. Best of all, Log Off. Beyond this, it is easy too to imagine that on-line spaces substitute for on the ground action. A Hash Tag is not a Movement.

The Devil that is the Details (Or Down in the Weeds)

It is easy enough to recite a litany of names, from Michael Brown back through the many unjustly killed by racial violence over centuries of American history. It is easy enough to know how many have been killed even in the month since Ferguson, how many will die in the years to come. How many will have protests and rallies and demands for change, and how many won’t even make the headlines? ~ After the Train Leaves Town: A Report from Ferguson

The continual focus on a series of never-ending cases of abuse contributes to an over-attention to details that make it seem as if this time we could “win”. If we only dug up more “evidence”,  got it on tape, employed some new strategy or….Honestly, it will have no effect on the outcome if, for example, Darren Wilson shot Mike Brown from 5 feet or 35 feet or 100 feet or from the Moon. Sorry it doesn’t  matter — truth and evidence and facts will not prevail in s system that is gerry-rigged from the start to protect and serve only some.. The fixation on details consume vast amounts of time and energy, create the illusion that the “system” can work or will be magically be be fair — This. One. Time. It fans false hopes, produces despair when they are not met, and diverts attention away from foundational systemic flaws.

Distract, Divide, and Conquer

“Part of the problem is people jumping for hot spot to hot spot,” he explains, “Florida, LA, Ferguson. What we gotta do is take that energy, take what we learn during these big events, and take it back to somewhere like Chicago, where this kind of thing happens so much it doesn’t get any kind of attention… Too many people only care when it’s big in the news.” ~  After the Train Leaves Town: A Report from Ferguson

 The focus on specific cases  with calls for Justice that rely on a resolution from our system of policing/punishment — now that is a drill that political figures, legal personnel and the media know well. It is their Game, by their Rules, and they will always Win it. It relies on fear-mongering and pure projection: victims are demonized as offenders/provocateurs, peaceful protestors deemed “rioters” even as they are being assaulted with tear gas and military grade weaponry, talking heads debate the merits, non-profits imagine new fund-raising schemes and offer to “study” the problem although we have known the answers for decades, politicians/business leader promise “reforms” which merely mask long simmering structural problems. Commissions are formed; community meetings are held. Exhaustion ensues and in-fighting erupts amongst the movement as factions are imagined or created across generational, race and gender lines, and between “liberal” and radical contingents.  A new case/cause emerges to capture our now waning attention. And Life Goes On – Same as it Ever Was.

Demanding “Justice” from Unjust Systems

It is easy enough to recite a litany of names, from Michael Brown back through the many unjustly killed by racial violence over centuries of American history. It is easy enough to know how many have been killed even in the month since Ferguson, how many will die in the years to come. How many will have protests and rallies and demands for change, and how many won’t even make the headlines? ~ After the Train Leaves Town: A Report from Ferguson

 At the center, the case by case by case approach asks for ‘justice” from inherently unjust systems.  It suggests that a few ‘bad apples” are the problem and that the arrest of Darren Wilson or the firing of Roger Goodell or the call for some new reforms will be sufficient to produce “justice”.  The case by case approach asks the very criminal legal system  – one rooted in white supremacy. capitalism and patriarchal reliance on policing and punishment — to find solutions for the very problems which, in fact, it is designed to create and replicate.

Even in the rare event that Darren Wilson is arrested or Roger Goodell fired, the systems that employed them remain untouched, and  a revolving door will replace them with those prepared to fulfill the same role. And the system that reproduces domestic violence and the murder of the Mike Browns remain.  Unscathed.

 Coda

On the table is a program from the funeral….the cover does not have the quality of a political production: the clouds and gate are pixilated, found images; the placement of the photo slightly off. Jesse Jackson and Spike Lee were in attendance, yet the program looks like something a younger sibling might pull together in haste and grief. A stylish program would be for Michael Brown the event; a service for Ferguson the idea, not the town. This program is for the funeral of Lesley McSpadden’s son. He is dead. He died before Ferguson existed for history. He will remain dead no matter what good comes of what happens here. ~ After the Train Leaves Town: A Report from Ferguson

 What would justice for Mike Brown or Adrian Peterson’s son or for anyone of us really look like? Can we see the connections, commit to always making them transparent in every specific case we take on? What does accountability look like? And accountable to whom? Can we take claim to the terrain of a justice past policing and prisons?  Can we ask the larger questions of transformative justice? Of systemic solutions? Of Abolition?

More power to those already who ask these questions every day. Let us join them.

(30)