Executioners & crooks
Democrats & Republicans in Election 2000
By Monica
Moorehead
Here we go again. Another presidential election campaign in
full swing. Another unhealthy dose of campaign promises being
made to the masses of people only to be broken later on.
Another batch of straight white males. They either come from
super-rich families, like Al Gore and George W. Bush with their
rich connections. Or they're like Bill Bradley, candidates who
have to depend on so-called liberal types within the U.S.
ruling class for financial backing.
And as if this were not bad enough, the big-business media
are having a field day giving front-page coverage to the
positions of the Democratic and Republican front runners--on
issues like raising taxes, limiting abortion and balancing the
federal budget, along with all the mud slinging.
The capitalist politicians are quick to highlight their
unconditional support on one issue in particular. Republican or
Democrat, they all want more "law and order."
When Hillary Rodham Clinton on Feb. 6 announced her New York
senatorial candidacy against her right-wing, pro-cop rival, New
York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, she made it crystal clear that her
platform includes supporting capital punishment and putting
more cops on the streets.
Law and order is a code name for repression, not of the rich
and the affluent but of the poor and most oppressed. And racist
repression is quietly expanding and deepening at an alarming
rate.
Omitted from the front-page coverage were three recent
reports issued the same week.
2 million under lock and key
A Justice Policy Institute report confirmed that by
mid-February 2 million people will be incarcerated in U.S.
jails and prisons. These are staggering numbers.
With only 5 percent of the world's population, the United
States accounts for 25 percent of the world's prison
population.
The JPI report is entitled "The Punishing Decade: Prison and
Jail Estimates of the Millennium." It includes the latest
numbers and trends from the U.S. Justice Department.
The JPI report illustrates how the U.S. prison population
accelerated at a faster rate during the 1990s than during any
other previous decade. During the 1990s the inmate population
increased by 61 percent.
Consider these numbers: At the beginning of the 1990s, there
were over 1.1 million people imprisoned. On Dec. 31, 1999,
there were over 1.9 million imprisoned. At this rate, at the
end of the year 2000, there will be 2.07 million people behind
bars.
Looking now at subgroups, a federal study done by the
General Accounting Office reports that there were twice as many
women incarcerated during the 1990s as before. This indicates
even faster growth than for the male prison population.
Most of these women are serving time for what are called
nonviolent drug crimes. These women suffer a higher rate of HIV
infection and mental illness than the imprisoned men.
Eighty-four percent of female federal inmates and 60 percent
of female state inmates are mothers.
Because of systematic racism, Black women are eight times
more likely to be incarcerated than white women. Latinas have a
higher rate of incarceration as well, compared to the overall
population.
And more and more women prisoners are courageously coming
forward to report that they are victims of sexual abuse and
rape at the hands of male guards.
'The Color of Justice'
The third study was called "The Color of Justice." This is
the first study that has statistically substantiated what many
already knew. Within the California juvenile system youths of
color are twice as likely as white youths to be tried as
adults.
California has one of the biggest prison systems in the
world. It is bigger than some countries' systems. It is also
notorious for its law that sentences those convicted three
times of a felony to an automatic life sentence with no hope of
parole--the "three-strikes-and-out" law.
Study co-author Dan Macallister wrote: "Discrimination
against kids of color accumulates at every stage of the justice
system and skyrockets when juveniles are tried as adults.
California has a double standard: throw kids of color behind
bars, but rehabilitate white kids who commit comparable
crimes."
Los Angeles county produces 40 percent of the juvenile-court
cases that make it to the adult courts. The study showed that
of the 24,000 young people arrested there in 1996, 56 percent
were Latino, 25 percent were Black, 12 percent white and 6
percent Asian.
Of the 561 cases that made it to adult court, 59 percent
were Latino, 30 percent Black, 6 percent Asian and 5 percent
white. Compared to whites, Black youths were 18.4 times more
likely to be convicted, Latino youths were 7.3 times more
likely, and Asian youths were 4.5 times more likely to be
jailed.
The study showed that in Texas, home to death-penalty
candidate George W. Bush, Black and Latino youths make up just
one-half of the state's youth population but they make up 80
percent of imprisoned youths--and 100 percent of juveniles
housed in adult jails.
These statistics are no accident. They point to the growing
preponderance of the prison-industrial complex in society.
An estimated $39 billion was spent in 1999 to sustain prison
and jails. That number is expected to jump to $41 billion by
the end of 2000.
The incarceration of youths of color, coupled with police
murders and brutality and the racist use of the death penalty,
is nothing short of genocide. This should be one of the major
political issues during the 2000 elections.
In fact, Bush should not be running for president--rather,
he should be put on trial before the masses for sanctioning
state murders in Texas, which are crimes against humanity.
The young people of this country have a right to a decent
education and job opportunities like what the youths of Cuba
have won through the socialist revolution. It is way overdue to
bring this heinous scandal out in the open through debates,
mass meetings and demonstrations.
Monica Moorehead is the 2000
Workers World Party presidential
candidate. Gloria La Riva is her
vice-presidential running mate.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
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