Latest news with #racialdisparities
Washington Post
06-08-2025
- Washington Post
Appeals court overturns ruling that Richmond police targeted Black drivers
A federal appeals court panel has ruled that police officers in Richmond did not show a pattern of disproportionately targeting Black drivers for traffic stops, overturning a lower-court decision from last year that took local law enforcement to task for alleged racial disparities in policing. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit unanimously found that the officers stopped Keith Moore, the defendant in the case, in 2020 because he was driving a vehicle with a fake temporary license tag, not because he was Black.
New York Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Governors, Use Your Clemency Powers
President Trump is making shameless use of his constitutional clemency power, rewarding insurrectionists, cronies, campaign contributors and sundry others. But this is not the only problem. Mr. Trump's acts of commission are paralleled by American governors' acts of omission. Even though they control the bulk of the country's prison population and typically have the power to grant clemency, many governors have consistently failed to exercise the power of forgiveness, to all of our detriment. Clemency, specifically the power to commute a person's sentence, is a readily available mechanism to rectify the hyper-punitive sentences regularly meted out in state courts during the past several decades that contributed to the crisis of mass incarceration. The power in many state constitutions to grant clemency is one way to address the vast racial disparities that exist in state prisons — disparities that increase among people serving the longest sentences, which have their roots in the racist trope of the so-called super predator. Close to 90 percent of the two million people behind bars in the nation are held in state facilities, making the collective inaction by governors around clemency inexcusable. In New York, where there are almost 33,000 people in state prisons, a backlog of almost 1,100 pending clemency applications sits awaiting action. A state government website focused on clemency states that applicants must 'demonstrate that they have made exceptional strides in self-development and improvement.' Surely there are many people among the 1,100 who meet, and even surpass, that threshold — people who have acknowledged responsibility for the harm they caused, have done all they can to atone and have amassed vast evidence of transformation. In the past year, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, granted a sentence commutation to just one person. Across the Hudson in New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy, also a Democrat, created a clemency advisory board last year — and later granted several commutations — after failing to grant even a single clemency application in his first seven years in office. Clemency, the power to grant a pardon and essentially erase a person's conviction, or to grant a commutation and reduce his or her sentence, has deep roots in the American legal system. The term 'clemency' shares its origins with the name Clementia, the Roman goddess of mercy, forgiveness and leniency. The king of Wessex (in what is now southern England) had similar powers to those now held by the American president and state governors as far back as the seventh century, when those powers were referred to as the 'prerogative of mercy.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- The Guardian
Black children arrested in London ‘15% more likely to be criminalised' than white children
Black children detained by police are 15% more likely to be 'criminalised', that is charged and put into the criminal justice system, than white children detained for similar types of offences, a study has found. The report by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), which tackles youth violence, found that black children were 14.8% less likely to be offered diversion, which can include mentoring or counselling, that usually results in them avoiding getting a criminal record at an early age. The authors of the study say they have taken into account the seriousness and prior offending record, and are thus comparing like with like. The racial gap pointed to 'systemic inequities', the report said. The study examined almost 265,000 records of children aged 10 to 17 who were arrested by the Metropolitan police in London, or where a decision was made to take further action after a stop and search. It is believed to be the largest study of its type and the data covers from 2015 to 2022. The study also said children arrested in outer London, which tended to be whiter, were more likely to avoid being criminalised than those in inner London: 'Outer London boroughs, particularly Bromley (diversion rate 66%), Bexley (65%) and Kingston upon Thames (65%), have the highest diversion rates. Inner London boroughs, such as Haringey (43%), Lambeth (42%) and Hackney (41%), show the lowest.' Previous studies have found racial disparities at different levels of the criminal justice system. Some say that is the result of institutional racism, which the Met has been found guilty of by the Macpherson report into the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation in 1999, and by Louise Casey's report into the force in 2023. There is some anecdotal evidence that as black young people mistrust police more, they are less likely to admit their guilt, which is a prerequisite for being accepted for some diversion schemes. The report said: 'Two compounding disparities emerge for Black CYP [children and young people]: i) they faced disproportionately higher rates of police contact than CYP from other ethnic groups, and ii) once involved with the police, they received comparatively fewer diverted outcomes than their peers. 'Even after controlling for factors such as type of offence and prior arrests, Black CYP were less likely to be diverted than White CYP, with a gap of 8.88%pts. These findings are based on historical data (2015–22), which points to systemic inequities requiring attention.' The report said that for knife crime, white children were less likely to be charged than black children. Black children arrested by the Met police were offered diversion in 17.2% of cases, while for white children that figure was 35%. This statistic did not include an adjustment for the seriousness of the alleged offending or prior arrest record. Ciaran Thapar of the YEF said: 'This important research suggests that a black child in Lambeth who is arrested for the same crime as a white child in Kingston upon Thames can expect to have a very different experience of policing and chance of being diverted from court. 'This is a worrying inconsistency … It potentially means that arrested black children are becoming disproportionately and unnecessarily criminalised by the justice system early on in their lives.' The report said diversion appeared to reduce the rate of reoffending. It allows people at the start of their lives to avoid a criminal conviction that could blight their futures. Thapar said: 'The findings also suggest that diversion can be a highly effective way of preventing reoffending and violence. There are many organisations across London working to divert children in their communities, before they become criminalised. We should be pushing the Met towards a better, more equitable use of diversion and sustainably funding initiatives who can help them to facilitate it.' The Met did not respond to a request for comment on the study based on the force's own data.
CBC
17-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
Indigenous, Black patients wait longer for care in Winnipeg ERs: report
Patients who identify as Indigenous, African or Black are generally spending longer in Winnipeg emergency department waiting rooms than white people, according to a new report examining how different racial groups experience patient care. The data also found Indigenous patients present with similar triage scores as white patients, which counters "the common stereotype of Indigenous people using the emergency departments inappropriately," says the report prepared by Dr. Marcia Anderson, who lead the race, ethnicity and Indigenous identity data project team on behalf of Manitoba Shared Health. It also found patients who are African and/or Black wait the longest to be seen, on average, even though they're most likely to present with a serious medical issue. The report, released Tuesday, recommends all emergency department staff "be prioritized for participation" in Indigenous cultural safety and anti-racism training, along with anti-Black racism. "Emergency departments are very stressful environments to work in, and the health system is facing challenges in many areas," Anderson said in the report. "Unfortunately, in a system under stress, it is often those who are the most marginalized and who have the fewest resources to draw on facing the most severe impacts." In 2023, the province's health-care system began asking patients to self-declare their racial or ethnic background as part of the hospital admission process, making Manitoba the first Canadian jurisdiction to do so. The report also found white people are more likely to be assigned a high acuity score, which may result in those patients being prioritized for care quicker.
Mail & Guardian
03-06-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
BEE is essential for economic growth
Analyses of racialised disparities in both labour and product markets illustrate the need for strengthened economic redress. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G The debate about racialised socio-economic redress is at the centre of South African public policy debates. It has even permeated trade relations with the United States, which ironically has its own version of economic redress for minority groups in certain states. Yet US President Donald Trump is challenging redress policies in a country that has systemic racialised class and gender socio-economic inequalities. His views are echoed in Professor William Gumede's intervention in this debate. His article, which appeared in the There is general consensus in society that the current black economic empowerment model has largely failed to produce the intended socio-economic outcomes. But this does not mean the constitutional and policy imperatives underpinning redress should be abandoned. Several researched analyses of racialised disparities in both labour and product markets illustrate the need for strengthened economic redress. Gumede's extreme position overlooks this empirical evidence and draws on the following flawed arguments. First, he uses the term 'political capitalists' to describe individuals or enterprises that obtain state contracts or private equity in firms without any knowledge of business operations. These political capitalists are described as inherently parasitic by Gumede and he further suggests that they all have connections to the ANC-led political alliance. This generalisation is problematic because it assumes that only black-owned businesses obtain state contracts and established white corporations do not rely on state procurement. Policy and basic market intelligence reports refute this claim and illustrate how large corporations equally benefit from government contracts. Additionally, the term 'political capitalists' is conceptually and theoretically flawed because it creates a superficial divide between political and economic actors in a society. Political economy studies highlight that business and state relations are inherently connected in economic history. In simple terms: there is no Chinese wall between political and economic developments in a society. The second problem with Gumede's view is that he says BEE is primarily responsible for structural issues such as deindustrialisation, poverty, inequality and unemployment. This proposition is not backed up by evidence and he does not explain how he arrived at this conclusion. Research literature on economic trends challenge Gumede's position. Deindustrialisation in South Africa has been caused by structural changes in the economy, especially since the early 1990s. Trade and financial liberalisation exposed our domestic manufacturers to competition in key sectors such as textiles. In addition, the country's financial sector has prioritised short-term investment returns and implemented investment risk strategies that make it difficult for enterprises interested in long-term economic activity associated with sustaining South Africa's industrial base. Furthermore, there are several studies on the causes of poverty and inequality. This research explores multidimensional causes and does not cite economic redress policy as an impediment for addressing systemic socio-economic exclusion. In other words: there is no factual basis for Gumede's proposition on the causal link between BEE and the economic structural fault lines cited above. Another flaw in Gumede's article is the erroneous and sweeping generalisation about corruption. He attributes corrupt or patronage-based networks in the economy to the creation of BEE. This narrow approach is not based on a holistic understanding of corruption in the economy. The Zondo Commission Report and other authoritative market behaviour investigative accounts elucidate illegal economic activities that go beyond the scope of BEE policy implementation. For example, practices such as price collusion, tax evasion and dividing product markets. Actually, some of the established multinationals that Gumede and others laud were cited as facilitators of corrupt dealings in these reports. Corruption is a significant impediment for inclusive growth in South Africa. But it is incorrect to suggest that it is solely caused by BEE. Economic rents such as incentives, subsidies and preferential procurement policy instruments are used across the world successfully. These measures are not abnormal or inherently corrupt if used for developmental purposes. Dr Khwezi Mabasa is a part-time sociology lecturer at the University of Pretoria and Economic and Social Policy lead at Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung South Africa.
