Obama thinks criminal background checks are racist

[MagickMan]

It's only your fault if the criminal justice system is biased against black people. If not, then this act of remedial injustice (which is apparently just a suggestion?) is appalling.

The justice system isn't biased against blacks, blacks in this country are more inclined to commit certain types of crimes. :\

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c_I841J6_M

 

[berzerker60]

Again, are you implying that our police force itself is racist? Here and there, sure, but you are incredibly out of touch with current society if you seriously think that the vast majority of cops AND judges are just "out to get" "black" people.

You don't have to intend to be racist in order to do racist things. No, the police force probably aren't out to "get blacks" or something Klan-like. Yes, the justice system as a whole punishes minorities much more harshly for the same crimes. I could guess at causes, but it's not terribly relevant. It an institutionally racist system if there is a statistically significant difference in how different races are treated after accounting for seriousness of crime, locality, wealth level, and other variables, which studies have done.

If I were to guess, it would be a mix of lots of little factors, from police departments trying to close cases by grabbing up the person they think will get convicted, to prosecutors trying to up their conviction/released stats by playing to juror sympathies/prejudices, to the occasional old-school prejudiced judge, to portrayals of black kids in pop culture influencing jurors, to who knows what. But my guess could be completely wrong and it doesn't matter if minorities aren't getting a fair shake in our justice system, which they're not.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

You don't have to intend to be racist in order to do racist things. No, the police force probably aren't out to "get blacks" or something Klan-like. Yes, the justice system as a whole punishes minorities much more harshly for the same crimes. I could guess at causes, but it's not terribly relevant. It an institutionally racist system if there is a statistically significant difference in how different races are treated after accounting for seriousness of crime, locality, wealth level, and other variables, which studies have done.

If I were to guess, it would be a mix of lots of little factors, from police departments trying to close cases by grabbing up the person they think will get convicted, to prosecutors trying to up their conviction/released stats by playing to juror sympathies/prejudices, to the occasional old-school prejudiced judge, to portrayals of black kids in pop culture influencing jurors, to who knows what. But my guess could be completely wrong and it doesn't matter if minorities aren't getting a fair shake in our justice system, which they're not.

ROFL.... Look... Mainstream society looks at people who constantly scream about the RACIST JUSTICE SYSTEM as basically a fringe element.

The only way you can see it this way is if you ONLY look at the skin shades of people arrested and ignore literally every other factor. If you acknowledge the situational differences and other details of these cases it becomes blatantly apparent that the police aren't just going around rounding up innocent cherub burnt orange and darker skinned stoners.



This fringe element is no different than the diehard TM supporters who refuse to step back and look at actual logical facts, and instead pick and choose minute insignificant details to base their opinion on.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

And, FYI, our justice system is inherently not fair.


Not to the burnt oranges, medium whites, whatever color. It's irrelevant.

This notion that there is some extreme widespread racism from police all the way to judges and juries is ridiculous, and not at all accurate.


But... of course.... Rather than try to fix the justice system, rather than uniting as "people" to fix these problems... It's easier to instead stand on the sidelines of "your people" and scream RACIST as loud as you can.

It's so sad to me that the people screaming and shrieking about "equality" are the ones who are actually dividing us as a society.

 

[berzerker60]

What do you mean fix the justice system? I thought it was all in our heads, we crazy fringe with our actual studies and data that's so inferior to your gut instinct and handwaving?

 

[justoh]

The justice system isn't biased against blacks, blacks in this country are more inclined to commit certain types of crimes. :\

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c_I841J6_M

I was looking for that just yesterday. Tragic.

 

[bshole]

This notion that there is some extreme widespread racism from police all the way to judges and juries is ridiculous, and not at all accurate.

It would be nice if you would provide a single scrap of independent evidence to back this up. Anything at all would be appreciated. Throw us a bone here....

 

[werepossum]

You want to hire a finance professional who has a felony for embezzlement?

You want to hire a security guard who has been convicted of stealing employer's inventory after-hours?

You want to hire a day care worker that is a convicted pedophile?

You're a trucking company, you want a hire a driver that has been convicted of felony (somebody died) DUI?

People don't out of prison because they aren't a threat (sometimes probation boards do make that judgement call though). Many get out because their sentences are up or overcrowding etc.

No, no one is truly treated equally. People are not equal. Maybe we should make a law that a person can't list their education on the job app, won't be fair to those who didn't go to college or have an irrelevant degree.

Yeah, if you did the crime it's on your record. It's part of who you are much like prior experience or your education is. The only real difference I see if that one is 'positive' the other is 'negative'.

Fern

Well said. No doubt there are lawyers salivating over the thought of background checks being banned or seriously cut back.

How much of disparity is due to the difference in having a paid defense lawyer and having a public defender? Maybe in the inner city Judges tend to be harsher than Judges in the suburbs.

I'd say it's the largest single determinant in whether one gets a record and how harsh is that record. I know a lawyer who was pleading his client to his eleventh or so first time DUI. If you can't afford a good lawyer and are dependent on a public defender, you're looking at a year in prison, minimum, for second offense DUI. Same with other things; if one has a very good attorney and the money to get into a rehabilitation program, one will probably have a possession arrest expunged; if one has no money and shit representation, one will probably have a record for the same offence. To the degree that blacks are on average poorer, blacks will be disproportionately sentenced on average.

So poorer people deserve less justice and people in inner cities deserve harsher sentences?

Whatever the reason since these people are more likely then others to have that record means it is less likely they can get a job and that part of the cycle continues.

I agree (as noted above) that poor people are more likely to get sentences for the same crime, but if one does the crime, one is part of perpetuating the cycle, not a victim of the cycle.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

It would be nice if you would provide a single scrap of independent evidence to back this up. Anything at all would be appreciated. Throw us a bone here....

You want a specific study that states there is NOT widespread racism from street cops all the way to judges and juries?? LOL


Even if someone would fund to publish that (which would never happen, there's no money or political motivation in showing lack of racism) you would still denounce it as biased research.

 

[bshole]

All the cops I ever met were racists. I live in a neighborhood of cops and they HATE black people with a passion and are not in the least bit shy about expressing their hatred.

"I have a question/comment that has confounded me for years," Mac's post began. "I know dozens of cops. Some are plainly not good guys. Most are family men that generally live as decent human beings. ALL are racists, or at least speak using racial slurs (is there a difference?)" he wrote.
"The universal comment for refuting their own racist usage is, of course, the 'you have no idea' defense," Mac continued. "Actually, I do have an idea. I know these officers are subjected to awful, hateful conditions [in the] course of performing their jobs. It's not as if I've never been to the hood (though a lot of people probably never have.)"

"What I struggle with... Are the guys I know who are generally decent really not decent, or is that just the vernacular of being on the job?"
It's a troubling question. From personal experience, some of my best sources for reporting about injustice have been white cops. One is William Pedersen, who investigated violent crimes under the command of Jon Burge, currently incarcerated for perjury and obstruction of justice in Chicago's notorious police torture scandal. The torture victims were black; the torturers were white.

I asked Pedersen, now a private investigator who worked for me on the case of Stanley Wrice (a black youth tortured by two of Burge's officers), about "the vernacular of being on the job." Pedersen said it was unusual for fellow officers to use the n-word, and when it happened, it typically resulted from job-related stress. "Too many times we'd see blacks do the most inhumane things to other blacks," he told me. "When a black child was beaten to a pulp by her parents, it was hard for cops not to call them names" -- what Mac called the "you have no idea 'defense.'"
Pedersen renounces police brutality and racism, saying the vast majority of officers he worked with were "good guys."

So perhaps the question "Are White Cops Racist?" has nuanced answers. At one level, some cops use racially loaded language when reacting on duty to intensely emotional situations. That is unacceptable, but spontaneous and not necessarily betraying racist beliefs. I would call this "blue racism."

At a deeper level, some white cops toss around racial slurs when they're simply hanging out, revealing a disturbing culture of racism. Deeper still is the use of physical force, including torture, to act out fundamentally racist attitudes.
But at the core -- the level Mac struggles most with -- is whether racist police officers can be "decent" human beings.

In reflecting on this issue, I was reminded of an incident I observed in court last month. The occasion was a hearing in the case of Howard Morgan, the black motorist who was shot 28 times by four white officers and survived, only to be convicted of attempted murder of the officers. The case has generated heated racial animosity, as I have reported.

Rev. Jesse Jackson testified at the hearing on behalf of Morgan. After Rev. Jackson left the witness stand, he strode directly to two white uniformed officers sitting opposite Morgan's supporters. The men exchanged firm handshakes. I would like to think this gesture reflected a human bond that transcends skin color. It stems from a tradition that embraces the innermost decency of every person while rejecting the indecency of racist expressions.

Mac is not so sure. "If the decent ones really aren't decent... if [racist] language translates to racial oppression... then this city, these communities, are totally screwed for a long time coming," he concluded bluntly.

Is Mac right? And what about racism by minority cops, who now comprise 46 percent of the force? Has racism by cops touched your life? Most important, as Mac asked later in an email: "How does this situation get better?"
The only incorrect answer is silence.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

All the cops I ever met were racists. I live in a neighborhood of cops and they HATE black people with a passion and are not in the least bit shy about expressing their hatred.

I am probably one of our staunchest 'cop criticizers'.. I find that the vast majority of the time their behaviour is deplorable in regards to our rights.


That being said, I think that the notion that LEOs are "out to get" dark people is ridiculous. Just like every other problem in society, a small percentage are racist - both light AND dark colored cops....

But the the very few who have some racist tendencies are not what's causing darker kids to be arrested at a higher percentage than other skin shades. That's a huge copout, and indication of a refusal to step back and look at the problem with open eyes.

 

[Geosurface]

The justice system isn't biased against blacks, blacks in this country are more inclined to commit certain types of crimes. :\

Yep.

Bleeding hearts love to just glance at the issue and say "hey! that ain't right! blacks are getting harsher sentences and they're comprising a hugely outsized portion of the prison population! TEH SYSTEM MUST BE RACIST!!!!"

Meanwhile, the actual reality of what's going on is that the demographic disparities in not only who's committing what crimes, but with what background details (previous offenses) and aggravating circumstances (quantity of drug, use of a gun in a crime, brutality of crime, innocence of victim or lack thereof... etc) are what ACTUALLY account for this disparities.

Btw I'm not dismissing the idea that racism within the system could be having some impact, but I think it's about 5% of the impact people make it out to be.

 

[Darkman]

“Laughable” – That’s The Word A Federal Judge Used To Smackdown The First EEOC Lawsuit Based On Criminal Background Checks….

Posted on August 17, 2013 by sundance

Before getting to the actual outcome of the EEOC lawsuit and the Federal Judge’s ruling we must review the BACKSTORY:

In September of 2012 Newark New Jersey, passed Ordinance 12-1630, “which limits employers’ ability to conduct criminal background checks.” The ordinance went into effect November 18, 2012 and “prevents employers with five or more employees who do business, employ persons or take applications for employment in the City of Newark, from asking applicants about their criminal history.” We wrote about it HERE.

In February of 2013, at the request of the White House, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) each determined that employers who use background checks as one of the determinants of whether to hire a prospective employee may be engaging in prohibited discrimination.

These federal agencies claim the use of criminal background checks can lead to a disparate impact on minority job applicants. Continue reading →

Read more: http://theconservativetreehouse.com...-lawsuit-based-on-criminal-background-checks/

 

[GoPackGo]

Perhaps President Obama needs to re-read the following, or maybe read it for the first time. A man who is supposed to be the very definition of this text does not get it:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.


It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

 

[rudder]

I think charging white people an extra 10% so we can get browner in a tanning booth is racist.

 

[Zorkorist]

Perhaps President Obama needs to re-read the following, or maybe read it for the first time. A man who is supposed to be the very definition of this text does not get it:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.


It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Fantastic.

I too have the dream.

-John

 

[compuwiz1]

Perhaps President Obama needs to re-read the following, or maybe read it for the first time. A man who is supposed to be the very definition of this text does not get it:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.


It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Nice, but it's time to move along. His "Negros" he was preaching about still commit about 400% more crimes than any other ethnicity. Fact! Go check it for yourself. Nothing holding black people down but themselves. Fact!

 

[IGBT]

liberals think everything is racist.

 

[ericlp]

I think the system sucks and needs to change... If you got a non-violent felony... Did your time, paid your court fees the thing should disappear from your record in 5-10 years.

That's my feelings. I don't think people that got a felony for selling weed or whatnot should be held against them for the rest of their lives. But I guess it's just me.

If you killed someone or robbed a bank... Than yeah, you should have that over you for long time. Maybe not FOREVER but say 20 - 30 years. I think if you receive a criminal charge they should be sentenced for X amount of time. Also goes for your criminal background should also be set for X amount of years depending on your crime. But Joe blow that got 4-5 DUI's shouldn't have a Felony on the books for the rest of his life. I guess it's just my opinion.

 

[GoPackGo]

Nice, but it's time to move along. His "Negros" he was preaching about still commit about 400% more crimes than any other ethnicity. Fact! Go check it for yourself. Nothing holding black people down but themselves. Fact!

But judge them based on their actions...not the color of their skin.

 

[Paul98]

If you have two groups of people, one is being policed much more than the other. The one that is policed more will have more criminals. It doesn't really matter the rate at which people are breaking the law. The on being policed less could be breaking the law at a higher rate than the other, yet will have fewer criminals.

Same goes for how law enforcement treats different groups.

 

[OGOC]

Why does he support background checks on buying guns then????

Because Obama is racist against black people.

Ok I'll stop the back ground checks when the stop having quotas

:biggrin:

 

[OCGuy]

YEa this is never going to happen.