The Department of Justice

Since slavery, African-Americans have known injustice!

We know it, we live it, we feel it and we breathe it.

When it comes to race relations in the United States, the buck stops at The Department of Justice (DOJ).

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is responsible for enforcing the law and defending the interests of the United States; ensuring public safety against foreign and domestic threats; providing Federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; punishing those guilty of unlawful behavior; and ensuring fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.

The last four (4) words are operative, justice for all Americans.  

Thus, The DOJ is not doing its job.

Richard Pryor, once joked, ¨Black man going to the police department looking for justice, you will get just that, ¨ just us¨. In the Black community, the idea of injustice is a staple in our conversation. I love the truism, ¨ a Black man has been confronted by a White police officer, at least one time in his life.

My one time was, as a graduate student,  standing in front of my apartment, four White male and one Black female police officer, rushed me, threw me down to the ground with guns  cocked. When they let me go, they said it was a mistake with a smirk grin. I felt violated. I felt anger. I felt. I felt as I had been raped. But, I had an exam to prepare for, so I moved on and just thought it was part of the struggle.

Millennials are, also, not taking unfair treatment any longer. Thanks to the NRA and the Republican Party, there are just as many guns as there are people in America

A good deal of these guns is in the hands of people who should not have them, and that includes some police officers

Death by gun violence is not accepted. Perhaps, the Founding Fathers did not realize the slippery slope of the Second Amendment.

The Justice System has never been fair to Black America; With differential treatment !

Who ever heard of a lawyer offering an Affluenza Defense for a drunk driver killing four people and injuring seven others? 

He was too rich and uninformed to know better.

His sentence was a lock down expensive drug treatment center.

How could the DOJ let that one get by?  

Many Americans, of all races, were angry about the DOJ permitting it to be used as the defense. Better not had been a Black male!! Had he been, he would be behind 10 brick walls for life or the death penalty.

Blacks have always been angry with the DOJ to see such variation in treatment.

Others are angrier that many police officers are not being convicted for killing innocent Black males.

                                                                                                                      

Justice is a moral virtue and such a simple idea. 

How many times have we heard a four or five year old child tell his parents, ¨that´s not fair¨?

Even young children have an innate feeling for justice!

We can equate justice with fairness 

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle defined ¨justice for us¨ in the Western World.