The Trump indictment and the disparities in criminal justice for people of color
In a system where outcomes are often determined by the ability to pay for top lawyers, Black and brown people and the poor are at a disadvantage. Trump’s prosecution will worsen those inequities.
When Donald Trump was federally indicted on 37 counts related to allegations of willfully mishandling classified information, he entered a not-guilty plea, as was his right. But in my view, Trump has no intention of relying on the same rights that are afforded to every American. He wants a new set of rights for himself.
That’s what tyrants do. They twist and manipulate systems to their own ends, even as they claim that they are working on the people’s behalf. When Trump is done maligning the special prosecutor and the U.S. Justice Department, American jurisprudence, which was already hopelessly tilted toward the interests of the rich, will be a mere shadow of itself.
That should scare every American, but most of all, it should frighten those who are already at the low end of the totem pole. In a justice system where outcomes are often determined by one’s ability to pay for the best lawyers, people of color and the poor are at a disadvantage. Trump’s prosecution — whether or not he is convicted — will not only underline the current inequities. It will make them worse.
The fact that Trump has already been handled with a level of care that is unavailable to even the most well-heeled defendants has widened the disparities in the justice system. I know this because I have never seen a person of color or a person in poverty who was arrested without being made to pose for a mug shot. It simply does not happen.
And yet, in the previous two months, we have seen a former president arraigned twice without ever being photographed, handcuffed, or manhandled. We have seen the justice system create a new category of treatment reserved especially for Donald Trump.
Here is a man who is alleged to have endangered all of us by taking classified documents, refusing to return them, lying about their whereabouts, showing them to unauthorized people, and conspiring to cover up his actions. Yet he is treated with kid gloves.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, a Black woman named Rickia Young, who committed no crime and endangered no one, was dragged from her car and allegedly beaten by police for mistakenly driving through a protest.
The only officer charged in that incident was acquitted, and while the city reached a $2 million settlement with Young, no individual law enforcement officials were ever held liable for their actions. I fear that the lack of accountability will be the only thing Black folks will recognize in the case against the former president.
I hope I’m wrong about this, but as a Black man who has lived in America for more than five decades, I don’t believe Trump will face the kind of consequences that would befall most anyone else. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he will never be subjected to the kind of injustice that is routinely meted out to people of color.
As of 2020, Black adults were incarcerated in state and federal prisons at five times the rate of their white counterparts, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. And while there are those who want to believe that’s a just outcome, even the Department of Justice was examining institutional racism in the criminal justice system as far back as 1977.
He will never be subjected to the kind of injustice that is routinely meted out to people of color.
In fact, the racial disparities in the American justice system are so deeply ingrained that about 60% of the wrongfully convicted people who’ve been released with the help of the Innocence Project over the past 30 years were Black.
With so much evidence of racism in the criminal justice system, it’s interesting to hear a former president claim he is the victim of a double standard. In truth, as a white man of means and position, the only double standard is the one that benefits him.
Not that it matters. By the time Trump and his followers are finished making false comparisons between Trump’s classified documents case and Hillary Clinton’s emails, the waters will be muddied. When Trump claims that President Joe Biden was treated differently over classified documents, millions will believe him.
However, for those who know the system best, there is only one truth to believe. Trump will never face sufficient punishment for his actions. Punishment is not for those with power.