Officers often get away or let off easily by committing racially motivated behaviors towards minorities. Cleveland, Ohio, has been doing reform for over one hundred years to help overcome systemic racism. In the United States, our justice system is set up to allow racial discrimination. 2. What is the difference between a'smart' and a'smart'? Introduction Jim Crow laws were set in place around the 1890s to segregate and oppress black people. These laws regulated where they could go, how they could travel, and even where they could eat and drink. This was meant to be a “separate but equal” kind of treatment (PBS, 2023). Although Jim Crow laws were abolished in 1964 due to the Civil Rights Act, there is a new form of Jim Crow laws present. These laws may not be set out like the first ones, but they are still there. The War on Drugs started in the 1970s and is backed by the government to stop drug use and dealing. Although that is what people were told it was, it seems to be more targeted at people of specific races (Alexander, 2012). Each year, minorities are put in jail and sentenced unjustly simply due to their …show more content…
For some reason, though, the police choose to go into poor communities of color to fight the “War on Drugs” (Alexander, 2012). The truth of the matter is that whites are more likely to be sent to the emergency room due to drugs than blacks. They are also more likely to have drugs on them (Alexander, 2012). There are rules set by our justice system that there must be clear proof that the stop, offense, or arrest was racially motivated, and there is no clear way to prove that unless the officer says they have racial bias in mind. The courts are therefore allowing cops to be discriminatory towards people of color. Not only are they arresting, convicting, and incarcerating more people of color, but our justice system is more likely to ignore or not investigate crimes that others have committed against this population (Pearce et al., 2020). Depending on a person’s race, the legal system in America determines what kind of treatment and justice an individual gets. Black people are more likely to get harsher or longer punishments for the same crime as white people (Pearce et al., 2020). Police training and mindset can also affect