For a number of months, I've been hearing the expression 'white privilege'. I've had various descriptions attached to it, and at least grasp what the intended phrase is supposed to mean.
Today, I had the expression 'black privilege' tossed in front of me.
What's it supposed to mean? Well....as it was explained....you have a black dude who has crossed the line and committed a couple of crimes (not misdemeanors). So when he's finally arrested and charged up.....there's enough there for five or six serious charges, and probably twenty years of prison. But when the prosecutor gets done on deals.....it's down to one or two charges and three years of prison time (take off six months of that for good behavior).
The lawyer for the black dude tells him over and over.....he's 'lucky'.
So after 2.5 years, he gets out of prison....discovers he's not hirable material, and drifts back to crime. Three or four years pass, and he's got another couple of crimes under his belt, and now getting police interest for another round of court action.
The prosecutor repeats the 'deal-business' and there's only one or two crimes.....with three years of prison.
The defense lawyer again repeats the phrase....man, you were lucky.
So around age 35....this guy gets out of prison (2nd visit) and discovers it's real hard to get a job, and immediately drifts back into some crime. A year or two later....cops arrive and charge up the guy. Third 'strike'? Well....now there's no talk of a deal. You get the full situation....life in prison because of the third strike business.
2 comments:
I would be a particularly ineffective criminal.
Reason?
Too dumb.
In general....anyone can be a criminal. But like you hint....there's two categories....effective and ineffective. The guy who has been 'criminaling' for 25 years and only spent 18 months in jail....is a successful and effective criminal. The guy (or gal) who is 25 years old and has been detained/arrested five times already and done two to three years of jail by that point...is an ineffective criminal. In the end, the ineffective criminal is a 'ward' of the state for most of their life...relying on the jail system to care for them.
I would add this...if you checked the entire prison population of the US, it'd be rather hard to find rocket scientists or PhD biologists sitting in jail (well, except for the dozen-odd nutcases who did murder).
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