racial bias in law enforcement Quotes

I think the biggest problem in our country is mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex. From the Rockefeller drug laws to stand your ground to stop and frisk, all these are pointing people, especially and disproportionately black and brown people, towards the criminal-justice system. It's depleting whole generations of people.

I think that the over-incarceration of black and brown folk is one of the great crimes of American society.

I got pulled over when I was behind the wheel of a Porsche in Philly once for what we call DWB - Driving While Black.

African-American men are more likely to be killed in police incidents, stopped and searched, and sentenced to longer prison terms than white men convicted of similar crimes. Behind these statistics are heart-wrenching stories of lives cut short and families ripped apart.

Most Americans violate drug laws in their lifetime, but the enemy in this war has been racially defined. Not by accident, the drug war has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies have consistently shown - for decades - the people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites.

The mass criminalization of white men would disturb us to the core.

Take crack cocaine. Particularly in the early days of the policy, ninety percent of the people being arrested were black, even though they didn't use the drug at higher rates and even though their numbers in the general population are so low. How could that be? The thing is, you place all your resources in communities of color. And if you do that, you're going to arrest black people.

The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.