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A Liberal Lawyer Sounds Off
nunn
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,018 ******
Some of what this public defender has to say runs counter to what I believe, or what I want to believe. I present it as written, without further comment. Mr. Smith's opinions and words are his.
I don't like the words "never" and "always" when applied to people and their behavior, since any statement using one or both of those words can be proven wrong by one exception.
I do agree with the part about "no fathers" being a problem, and this has been a problem in the black community for generations, but it is and has been becoming an ever-increasing problem with whites as well.
nunn
Link to page: http://allenbwest.com/2014/12/quite-possibly-racist-article-will-ever-read/
Still liberal after all these years.
I am a public defender in a large southern metropolitan area. Fewer than ten percent of the people in the area I serve are black but over 90 per cent of my clients are black. The remaining ten percent are mainly Hispanics but there are a few whites.
I have no explanation for why this is, but crime has racial patterns. Hispanics usually commit two kinds of crime: sexual assault on children and driving under the influence. Blacks commit many violent crimes but very few sex crimes. The handful of whites I see commit all kinds of crimes. In my many years as a public defender I have represented only three Asians, and one was half black.
As a young lawyer, I believed the official story that blacks are law abiding, intelligent, family-oriented people, but are so poor they must turn to crime to survive. Actual black behavior was a shock to me.
The media invariably sugarcoat black behavior. Even the news reports of the very crimes I dealt with in court were slanted. Television news intentionally leaves out unflattering facts about the accused, and sometimes omits names that are obviously black. All this rocked my liberal, tolerant beliefs, but it took me years to set aside my illusions and accept the reality of what I see every day. I have now served thousands of blacks and their families, protecting their rights and defending them in court. What follow are my observations.
Although blacks are only a small percentage of our community, the courthouse is filled with them: the halls and gallery benches are overflowing with black defendants, families, and crime victims. Most whites with business in court arrive quietly, dress appropriately, and keep their heads down. They get in and get out-if they can-as fast as they can. For blacks, the courthouse is like a carnival. They all seem to know each other: hundreds and hundreds each day, gossiping, laughing loudly, waving, and crowding the halls.
When I am appointed to represent a client I introduce myself and explain that I am his lawyer. I explain the court process and my role in it, and I ask the client some basic questions about himself. At this stage, I can tell with great accuracy how people will react. Hispanics are extremely polite and deferential. An Hispanic will never call me by my first name and will answer my questions directly and with appropriate respect for my position. Whites are similarly respectful.
A black man will never call me Mr. Smith; I am always "Mike." It is not unusual for a 19-year-old black to refer to me as "dog." A black may mumble complaints about everything I say, and roll his eyes when I politely interrupt so I can continue with my explanation. Also, everything I say to blacks must be at about the third-grade level. If I slip and use adult language, they get angry because they think I am flaunting my superiority.
At the early stages of a case, I explain the process to my clients. I often do not yet have the information in the police reports. Blacks are unable to understand that I do not yet have answers to all of their questions, but that I will by a certain date. They live in the here and the now and are unable to wait for anything. Usually, by the second meeting with the client I have most of the police reports and understand their case.
Unlike people of other races, blacks never see their lawyer as someone who is there to help them. I am a part of the system against which they are waging war. They often explode with anger at me and are quick to blame me for anything that goes wrong in their case.
Black men often try to trip me up and challenge my knowledge of the law or the facts of the case. I appreciate sincere questions about the elements of the offense or the sentencing guidelines, but blacks ask questions to test me. Unfortunately, they are almost always wrong in their reading, or understanding, of the law, and this can cause friction. I may repeatedly explain the law, and provide copies of the statute showing, for example, why my client must serve six years if convicted, but he continues to believe that a hand-written note from his "cellie" is controlling law.
The risks of trial
The Constitution allows a defendant to make three crucial decisions in his case. He decides whether to plea guilty or not guilty. He decides whether to have a bench trial or a jury trial. He decides whether he will testify or whether he will remain silent. A client who insists on testifying is almost always making a terrible mistake, but I cannot stop him.
Most blacks are unable to speak English well. They cannot conjugate verbs. They have a poor grasp of verb tenses. They have a limited vocabulary. They cannot speak without swearing. They often become hostile on the stand. Many, when they testify, show a complete lack of empathy and are unable to conceal a morality based on the satisfaction of immediate, base needs. This is a disaster, especially in a jury trial. Most jurors are white, and are appalled by the demeanor of uneducated, criminal blacks.
Prosecutors are delighted when a black defendant takes the stand. It is like shooting fish in a barrel. However, the defense usually gets to cross-examine the black victim, who is likely to make just as bad an impression on the stand as the defendant. This is an invaluable gift to the defense, because jurors may not convict a defendant-even if they think he is guilty-if they dislike the victim even more than they dislike the defendant.
Most criminal cases do not go to trial. Often the evidence against the accused is overwhelming, and the chances of conviction are high. The defendant is better off with a plea bargain: pleading guilty to a lesser charge and getting a lighter sentence.
The decision to plea to a lesser charge turns on the strength of the evidence. When blacks ask the ultimate question-"Will we win at trial?"-I tell them I cannot know, but I then describe the strengths and weaknesses of our case. The weaknesses are usually obvious: There are five eyewitnesses against you. Or, you made a confession to both the detective and your grandmother. They found you in possession of a pink cell phone with a case that has rhinestones spelling the name of the victim of the robbery. There is a video of the murderer wearing the same shirt you were wearing when you were arrested, which has the words "In Da Houz" on the back, not to mention you have the same "RIP Pookie 7/4/12" tattoo on your neck as the man in the video. Etc.
If you tell a black man that the evidence is very harmful to his case, he will blame you. "You ain't workin' fo' me." "It like you workin' with da State." Every public defender hears this. The more you try to explain the evidence to a black man, the angrier he gets. It is my firm belief many black are unable to discuss the evidence against them rationally because they cannot view things from the perspective of others. They simply cannot understand how the facts in the case will appear to a jury.
This inability to see things from someone else's perspective helps explain why there are so many black criminals. They do not understand the pain they are inflicting on others. One of my robbery clients is a good example. He and two co-defendants walked into a small store run by two young women. All three men were wearing masks. They drew handguns and ordered the women into a back room. One man beat a girl with his gun. The second man stood over the second girl while the third man emptied the cash register. All of this was on video.
My client was the one who beat the girl. When he asked me, "What are our chances at trial?" I said, "Not so good." He immediately got angry, raised his voice, and accused me of working with the prosecution. I asked him how he thought a jury would react to the video. "They don't care," he said. I told him the jury would probably feel deeply sympathetic towards these two women and would be angry at him because of how he treated them. I asked him whether he felt bad for the women he had beaten and terrorized. He told me what I suspected-what too many blacks say about the suffering of others: "What do I care? She ain't me. She ain't kin. Don't even know her."
No fathers
As a public defender, I have learned many things about people. One is that defendants do not have fathers. If a black even knows the name of his father, he knows of him only as a shadowy person with whom he has absolutely no ties. When a client is sentenced, I often beg for mercy on the grounds that the defendant did not have a father and never had a chance in life. I have often tracked down the man's father-in jail-and have brought him to the sentencing hearing to testify that he never knew his son and never lifted a finger to help him. Often, this is the first time my client has ever met his father. These meetings are utterly unemotional.
Many black defendants don't even have mothers who care about them. Many are raised by grandmothers after the state removes the children from an incompetent teenaged mother. Many of these mothers and grandmothers are mentally unstable, and are completely disconnected from the realities they face in court and in life. A 47-year-old grandmother will deny that her grandson has gang ties even though his forehead is tattooed with a gang sign or slogan. When I point this out in as kind and understanding way as I can, she screams at me. When black women start screaming, they invoke the name of Jesus and shout swear words in the same breath.
Black women have great faith in God, but they have a twisted understanding of His role. They do not pray for strength or courage. They pray for results: the satisfaction of immediate needs. One of my clients was a black woman who prayed in a circle with her accomplices for God's protection from the police before they would set out to commit a robbery.
The mothers and grandmothers pray in the hallways-not for justice, but for acquittal. When I explain that the evidence that their beloved child murdered the shop keeper is overwhelming, and that he should accept the very fair plea bargain I have negotiated, they will tell me that he is going to trial and will "ride with the Lord." They tell me they speak to God every day and He assures them that the young man will be acquitted.
The mothers and grandmothers do not seem to be able to imagine and understand the consequences of going to trial and losing. Some-and this is a shocking reality it took me a long time to grasp-don't really care what happens to the client, but want to make it look as though they care. This means pounding their chests in righteous indignation, and insisting on going to trial despite terrible evidence. They refuse to listen to the one person-me-who has the knowledge to make the best recommendation. These people soon lose interest in the case, and stop showing up after about the third or fourth court date. It is then easier for me to convince the client to act in his own best interests and accept a plea agreement.
Part of the problem is that underclass black women begin having babies at age 15. They continue to have babies, with different black men, until they have had five or six. These women do not go to school. They do not work. They are not ashamed to live on public money. They plan their entire lives around the expectation that they will always get free money and never have to work. I do not see this among whites, Hispanics, or any other people.
The black men who become my clients also do not work. They get social security disability payments for a mental defect or for a vague and invisible physical ailment. They do not pay for anything: not for housing (Grandma lives on welfare and he lives with her), not for food (Grandma and the baby-momma share with him), and not for child support. When I learn that my 19-year-old defendant does not work or go to school, I ask, "What do you do all day?" He smiles. "You know, just chill." These men live in a culture with no expectations, no demands, and no shame.
If you tell a black to dress properly for trial, and don't give specific instructions, he will arrive in wildly inappropriate clothes. I represented a woman who was on trial for drugs; she wore a baseball cap with a marijuana leaf embroidered on it. I represented a man who wore a shirt that read "rules are for suckers" to his probation hearing. Our office provides suits, shirts, ties, and dresses for clients to wear for jury trials. Often, it takes a whole team of lawyers to persuade a black to wear a shirt and tie instead of gang colors.
From time to time the media report that although blacks are 12 percent of the population they are 40 percent of the prison population. This is supposed to be an outrage that results from unfair treatment by the criminal justice system. What the media only hint at is another staggering reality: recidivism. Black men are arrested and convicted over and over. It is typical for a black man to have five felony convictions before the age of 30. This kind of record is rare among whites and Hispanics, and probably even rarer among Asians.
At one time our office was looking for a motto that defined our philosophy. Someone joked that it should be: "Doesn't everyone deserve an eleventh chance?"
I am a liberal. I believe that those of us who are able to produce abundance have a moral duty to provide basic food, shelter, and medical care for those who cannot care for themselves. I believe we have this duty even to those who can care for themselves but don't. This world view requires compassion and a willingness to act on it.
My experience has taught me that we live in a nation in which a jury is more likely to convict a black defendant who has committed a crime against a white. Even the dullest of blacks know this. There would be a lot more black-on-white crime if this were not the case.
However, my experience has also taught me that blacks are different by almost any measure to all other people. They cannot reason as well. They cannot communicate as well. They cannot control their impulses as well. They are a threat to all who cross their paths, black and non-black alike.
I do not know the solution to this problem. I do know that it is wrong to deceive the public. Whatever solutions we seek should be based on the truth rather than what we would prefer was the truth. As for myself, I will continue do my duty to protect the rights of all who need me.
I don't like the words "never" and "always" when applied to people and their behavior, since any statement using one or both of those words can be proven wrong by one exception.
I do agree with the part about "no fathers" being a problem, and this has been a problem in the black community for generations, but it is and has been becoming an ever-increasing problem with whites as well.
nunn
Link to page: http://allenbwest.com/2014/12/quite-possibly-racist-article-will-ever-read/
Still liberal after all these years.
I am a public defender in a large southern metropolitan area. Fewer than ten percent of the people in the area I serve are black but over 90 per cent of my clients are black. The remaining ten percent are mainly Hispanics but there are a few whites.
I have no explanation for why this is, but crime has racial patterns. Hispanics usually commit two kinds of crime: sexual assault on children and driving under the influence. Blacks commit many violent crimes but very few sex crimes. The handful of whites I see commit all kinds of crimes. In my many years as a public defender I have represented only three Asians, and one was half black.
As a young lawyer, I believed the official story that blacks are law abiding, intelligent, family-oriented people, but are so poor they must turn to crime to survive. Actual black behavior was a shock to me.
The media invariably sugarcoat black behavior. Even the news reports of the very crimes I dealt with in court were slanted. Television news intentionally leaves out unflattering facts about the accused, and sometimes omits names that are obviously black. All this rocked my liberal, tolerant beliefs, but it took me years to set aside my illusions and accept the reality of what I see every day. I have now served thousands of blacks and their families, protecting their rights and defending them in court. What follow are my observations.
Although blacks are only a small percentage of our community, the courthouse is filled with them: the halls and gallery benches are overflowing with black defendants, families, and crime victims. Most whites with business in court arrive quietly, dress appropriately, and keep their heads down. They get in and get out-if they can-as fast as they can. For blacks, the courthouse is like a carnival. They all seem to know each other: hundreds and hundreds each day, gossiping, laughing loudly, waving, and crowding the halls.
When I am appointed to represent a client I introduce myself and explain that I am his lawyer. I explain the court process and my role in it, and I ask the client some basic questions about himself. At this stage, I can tell with great accuracy how people will react. Hispanics are extremely polite and deferential. An Hispanic will never call me by my first name and will answer my questions directly and with appropriate respect for my position. Whites are similarly respectful.
A black man will never call me Mr. Smith; I am always "Mike." It is not unusual for a 19-year-old black to refer to me as "dog." A black may mumble complaints about everything I say, and roll his eyes when I politely interrupt so I can continue with my explanation. Also, everything I say to blacks must be at about the third-grade level. If I slip and use adult language, they get angry because they think I am flaunting my superiority.
At the early stages of a case, I explain the process to my clients. I often do not yet have the information in the police reports. Blacks are unable to understand that I do not yet have answers to all of their questions, but that I will by a certain date. They live in the here and the now and are unable to wait for anything. Usually, by the second meeting with the client I have most of the police reports and understand their case.
Unlike people of other races, blacks never see their lawyer as someone who is there to help them. I am a part of the system against which they are waging war. They often explode with anger at me and are quick to blame me for anything that goes wrong in their case.
Black men often try to trip me up and challenge my knowledge of the law or the facts of the case. I appreciate sincere questions about the elements of the offense or the sentencing guidelines, but blacks ask questions to test me. Unfortunately, they are almost always wrong in their reading, or understanding, of the law, and this can cause friction. I may repeatedly explain the law, and provide copies of the statute showing, for example, why my client must serve six years if convicted, but he continues to believe that a hand-written note from his "cellie" is controlling law.
The risks of trial
The Constitution allows a defendant to make three crucial decisions in his case. He decides whether to plea guilty or not guilty. He decides whether to have a bench trial or a jury trial. He decides whether he will testify or whether he will remain silent. A client who insists on testifying is almost always making a terrible mistake, but I cannot stop him.
Most blacks are unable to speak English well. They cannot conjugate verbs. They have a poor grasp of verb tenses. They have a limited vocabulary. They cannot speak without swearing. They often become hostile on the stand. Many, when they testify, show a complete lack of empathy and are unable to conceal a morality based on the satisfaction of immediate, base needs. This is a disaster, especially in a jury trial. Most jurors are white, and are appalled by the demeanor of uneducated, criminal blacks.
Prosecutors are delighted when a black defendant takes the stand. It is like shooting fish in a barrel. However, the defense usually gets to cross-examine the black victim, who is likely to make just as bad an impression on the stand as the defendant. This is an invaluable gift to the defense, because jurors may not convict a defendant-even if they think he is guilty-if they dislike the victim even more than they dislike the defendant.
Most criminal cases do not go to trial. Often the evidence against the accused is overwhelming, and the chances of conviction are high. The defendant is better off with a plea bargain: pleading guilty to a lesser charge and getting a lighter sentence.
The decision to plea to a lesser charge turns on the strength of the evidence. When blacks ask the ultimate question-"Will we win at trial?"-I tell them I cannot know, but I then describe the strengths and weaknesses of our case. The weaknesses are usually obvious: There are five eyewitnesses against you. Or, you made a confession to both the detective and your grandmother. They found you in possession of a pink cell phone with a case that has rhinestones spelling the name of the victim of the robbery. There is a video of the murderer wearing the same shirt you were wearing when you were arrested, which has the words "In Da Houz" on the back, not to mention you have the same "RIP Pookie 7/4/12" tattoo on your neck as the man in the video. Etc.
If you tell a black man that the evidence is very harmful to his case, he will blame you. "You ain't workin' fo' me." "It like you workin' with da State." Every public defender hears this. The more you try to explain the evidence to a black man, the angrier he gets. It is my firm belief many black are unable to discuss the evidence against them rationally because they cannot view things from the perspective of others. They simply cannot understand how the facts in the case will appear to a jury.
This inability to see things from someone else's perspective helps explain why there are so many black criminals. They do not understand the pain they are inflicting on others. One of my robbery clients is a good example. He and two co-defendants walked into a small store run by two young women. All three men were wearing masks. They drew handguns and ordered the women into a back room. One man beat a girl with his gun. The second man stood over the second girl while the third man emptied the cash register. All of this was on video.
My client was the one who beat the girl. When he asked me, "What are our chances at trial?" I said, "Not so good." He immediately got angry, raised his voice, and accused me of working with the prosecution. I asked him how he thought a jury would react to the video. "They don't care," he said. I told him the jury would probably feel deeply sympathetic towards these two women and would be angry at him because of how he treated them. I asked him whether he felt bad for the women he had beaten and terrorized. He told me what I suspected-what too many blacks say about the suffering of others: "What do I care? She ain't me. She ain't kin. Don't even know her."
No fathers
As a public defender, I have learned many things about people. One is that defendants do not have fathers. If a black even knows the name of his father, he knows of him only as a shadowy person with whom he has absolutely no ties. When a client is sentenced, I often beg for mercy on the grounds that the defendant did not have a father and never had a chance in life. I have often tracked down the man's father-in jail-and have brought him to the sentencing hearing to testify that he never knew his son and never lifted a finger to help him. Often, this is the first time my client has ever met his father. These meetings are utterly unemotional.
Many black defendants don't even have mothers who care about them. Many are raised by grandmothers after the state removes the children from an incompetent teenaged mother. Many of these mothers and grandmothers are mentally unstable, and are completely disconnected from the realities they face in court and in life. A 47-year-old grandmother will deny that her grandson has gang ties even though his forehead is tattooed with a gang sign or slogan. When I point this out in as kind and understanding way as I can, she screams at me. When black women start screaming, they invoke the name of Jesus and shout swear words in the same breath.
Black women have great faith in God, but they have a twisted understanding of His role. They do not pray for strength or courage. They pray for results: the satisfaction of immediate needs. One of my clients was a black woman who prayed in a circle with her accomplices for God's protection from the police before they would set out to commit a robbery.
The mothers and grandmothers pray in the hallways-not for justice, but for acquittal. When I explain that the evidence that their beloved child murdered the shop keeper is overwhelming, and that he should accept the very fair plea bargain I have negotiated, they will tell me that he is going to trial and will "ride with the Lord." They tell me they speak to God every day and He assures them that the young man will be acquitted.
The mothers and grandmothers do not seem to be able to imagine and understand the consequences of going to trial and losing. Some-and this is a shocking reality it took me a long time to grasp-don't really care what happens to the client, but want to make it look as though they care. This means pounding their chests in righteous indignation, and insisting on going to trial despite terrible evidence. They refuse to listen to the one person-me-who has the knowledge to make the best recommendation. These people soon lose interest in the case, and stop showing up after about the third or fourth court date. It is then easier for me to convince the client to act in his own best interests and accept a plea agreement.
Part of the problem is that underclass black women begin having babies at age 15. They continue to have babies, with different black men, until they have had five or six. These women do not go to school. They do not work. They are not ashamed to live on public money. They plan their entire lives around the expectation that they will always get free money and never have to work. I do not see this among whites, Hispanics, or any other people.
The black men who become my clients also do not work. They get social security disability payments for a mental defect or for a vague and invisible physical ailment. They do not pay for anything: not for housing (Grandma lives on welfare and he lives with her), not for food (Grandma and the baby-momma share with him), and not for child support. When I learn that my 19-year-old defendant does not work or go to school, I ask, "What do you do all day?" He smiles. "You know, just chill." These men live in a culture with no expectations, no demands, and no shame.
If you tell a black to dress properly for trial, and don't give specific instructions, he will arrive in wildly inappropriate clothes. I represented a woman who was on trial for drugs; she wore a baseball cap with a marijuana leaf embroidered on it. I represented a man who wore a shirt that read "rules are for suckers" to his probation hearing. Our office provides suits, shirts, ties, and dresses for clients to wear for jury trials. Often, it takes a whole team of lawyers to persuade a black to wear a shirt and tie instead of gang colors.
From time to time the media report that although blacks are 12 percent of the population they are 40 percent of the prison population. This is supposed to be an outrage that results from unfair treatment by the criminal justice system. What the media only hint at is another staggering reality: recidivism. Black men are arrested and convicted over and over. It is typical for a black man to have five felony convictions before the age of 30. This kind of record is rare among whites and Hispanics, and probably even rarer among Asians.
At one time our office was looking for a motto that defined our philosophy. Someone joked that it should be: "Doesn't everyone deserve an eleventh chance?"
I am a liberal. I believe that those of us who are able to produce abundance have a moral duty to provide basic food, shelter, and medical care for those who cannot care for themselves. I believe we have this duty even to those who can care for themselves but don't. This world view requires compassion and a willingness to act on it.
My experience has taught me that we live in a nation in which a jury is more likely to convict a black defendant who has committed a crime against a white. Even the dullest of blacks know this. There would be a lot more black-on-white crime if this were not the case.
However, my experience has also taught me that blacks are different by almost any measure to all other people. They cannot reason as well. They cannot communicate as well. They cannot control their impulses as well. They are a threat to all who cross their paths, black and non-black alike.
I do not know the solution to this problem. I do know that it is wrong to deceive the public. Whatever solutions we seek should be based on the truth rather than what we would prefer was the truth. As for myself, I will continue do my duty to protect the rights of all who need me.
Comments
I copied this article because I found it troubling. It is especially troubling that it comes from a self-proclaimed liberal whose job it is to help the very people he is writing about, people about whom he makes sweeping generalizations.
I just came from nearly four decades of working daily, for and among the very people to whom he refers, and yet I don't have such a jaded outlook.
I am far from liberal, but I am not nearly the racist that this attorney appears to be.
Interesting too, is that this article appears on Allen B. West's web page.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope from me, too. The Apostle Paul wrote: "If a man will not work, let him not eat."
Note that he didn't write: "If a man CANNOT work..." It was, "If a man WILL NOT work..."
I agree with Paul, not with Mr. Smith. I have no problem with helping those in genuine need, who are unable to provide basic necessities, but I have a real problem with those who CHOOSE to live off the system and who CHOOSE to be unproductive.
I think the author's views of absolutes are swayed by the clientele he meets. He doesn't meet the black shop keeper, doctor, or pharmacist in his daily work, therefore he doesn't acknowledge their existence.
I would say that his is an accurate portrayal of what goes on in a large Southern Criminal Court system.
Like it or not.
The national liberal media no longer serves man. The national liberal media serves the democrat party and will only report truth if it serves a political purpose.
Part of the problem is that the irresponsible element in Black subculture is given virtual license by the MSM, which actually acts as a mob organizer and promoter, while giving no such effective encouragement to others. A classic example is NBC and Al Sharpton.
I'll comment:
I think the author's views of absolutes are swayed by the clientele he meets. He doesn't meet the black shop keeper, doctor, or pharmacist in his daily work, therefore he doesn't acknowledge their existence.
I would say that his is an accurate portrayal of what goes on in a large Southern ANY Criminal Court system.
That's more accurate. But why do you find it necessary to insinuate this only describes a Southern court?
Besides, we all know any, especially a large southern city, probably contains more Yankees than Southerners anyway.
You describe him as a racist, when he is simply using the ethnic name to identify a culture and its resulting behaviors and attributes. Perhaps he could be more clear about what he thinks drives the behavior, but each of us should also contemplate our own reaction to it in view of our personal circumstances.
In your law enforcement career, you dealt with people for a few minutes, possibly an hour or two. This attorney spends far more time with individuals in situations where events are not so intense, and where the possibility of playing-nice-with-the-police was long gone. Unarguably a far different scenario than your's, and one more likely to reveal the true behavior of the person.
For whatever reason, many will not want to honestly address the message in this essay. You say yourself that some of what is written is counter to what you "want to believe". Personal desire has no place in rational evaluation of observed fact. We can either deal with the reality of what is in front of us, or we can avoid it, and suffer the consequences.
Finally, I will just say that a child's race does not determine the future. The culture that child is raised in most certainly does.
Earliest version of this I found is under the pen name of "Michael Smith", published by American Renaissance (as stated on West's website). See here:
http://www.amren.com/features/2014/05/confessions-of-a-public-defender/
Jared Taylor is a founder of American Renaissance and New Century Foundation. Some reading on him and his works:
http://www.amren.com/about/jared-taylor/
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/jared-taylor
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/american-renaissance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Taylor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Renaissance_%28magazine%29
Jared Taylor being what he is, I'll need a good deal more proof this piece was written by "Michael Smith", or that he is the liberal, white Southern lawyer he claims to be.
So an anonymous piece appears claiming to be written by a liberal white lawyer in the South, making broad negative statements on all black people everywhere. It is presented, originally so far as I can determine, on a White Nationalist (White Supremacist) website that parades itself as a scholarly place examining issues of Race.
So is there truth in it?
Yeah, sure, of course there is. Within some narrow slice of a population, picking an impoverished metro region you will find all that. Turn that spotlight tightly focused on the population going through the criminal court system and you can find virtually only that.
So there's the trouble with Jared Taylor's ideology, (or whichever of his White Supremacist pals wrote that thing), he picked the worst case slice of the population to apply the broadest paint brush. All his claims are absolutes. The entire character of a large population (global in fact, if you read more of his stuff elsewhere) is claimed to be revealed by his personal experiences - all very bad.
Problem is too many of us have worked with or known in some way too many people of all races. People who fit none of Taylor's absolutism. Real life experiences make his claims hogwash.
I have known and worked with laborers and engineers, EMT's and scientists, the well and the poorly educated, American-born and foreign in distant places of the Earth, and everyday in the factory I am employed within. Of many races and yes plenty of them black. What I see is the fullest range of character is real, not the narrow absolutes of racism. From low life animals to the best and brightest most decent human beings you would ever care to meet. I have known this range of character to be true in whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, the works.
The White Supremacist screed uses some real problems, true failings, to amplify its exaggerated ideology. That's dishonest, solves nothing, and only makes matters worse.
quote:"I believe we have this duty even to those who can care for themselves but don't."
Nope.
Nope from me, too. The Apostle Paul wrote: "If a man will not work, let him not eat."
Note that he didn't write: "If a man CANNOT work..." It was, "If a man WILL NOT work..."
I agree with Paul, not with Mr. Smith. I have no problem with helping those in genuine need, who are unable to provide basic necessities, but I have a real problem with those who CHOOSE to live off the system and who CHOOSE to be unproductive.
Agreed. Welfare should be to help those who cannot help themselves. The ill, the injured, the elderly, the abandoned (to some extent) and similar such scenarios.
Refusing to help yourself when able is laziness and theft. An abuse of the common decency and kindness of others.
I don't know the origin of this statement or the writers motivation but I would describe it as racist and of no benefit to anyone. Whether or not this persons anecdotal experience is truthful or not, he applies them to a whole race and that is where he loses any credibility with me.
I disagree, you are branding what is said in blunt terms of his experience as racist. This is exactly why this country will never come to terms with the reality of race in this country because as soon as someone expresses a thoughtful opinion they are demonized with accusations of racism. Frankly I see quite a bit of reality in the writes statements, because I see quite a bit of it myself. Though my experiences and exposure come from a different angle I see that that the writer makes many valid points. I think his most valid point is that many minority youth, specifically black youth live in an entirely different reality away from society and sincerely have no concept that those that will view their behavior as jurors don't live in their reality and have a completely different sent of norms.
It is an over simplification to simple brand him a racist and move on as though there is no value in his observations. If some of his thoughts make you uncomfortable so be it, that is the point to make people uncomfortable so that they talk about the elephant in the room.
With all due respect, Mr. Nunn, I believe that why you and some others here are struggling with what the man has written is that you are viewing it as racial, when what is being described is a culture. As one person said here, this man isn't meeting functional people, he is meeting criminals, who represent a subculture that is a failure and a cancer in society. That so many of those he meets are black is a result of the application of that culture on the people who practice it.
You describe him as a racist, when he is simply using the ethnic name to identify a culture and its resulting behaviors and attributes. Perhaps he could be more clear about what he thinks drives the behavior, but each of us should also contemplate our own reaction to it in view of our personal circumstances.
In your law enforcement career, you dealt with people for a few minutes, possibly an hour or two. This attorney spends far more time with individuals in situations where events are not so intense, and where the possibility of playing-nice-with-the-police was long gone. Unarguably a far different scenario than your's, and one more likely to reveal the true behavior of the person.
For whatever reason, many will not want to honestly address the message in this essay. You say yourself that some of what is written is counter to what you "want to believe". Personal desire has no place in rational evaluation of observed fact. We can either deal with the reality of what is in front of us, or we can avoid it, and suffer the consequences.
Finally, I will just say that a child's race does not determine the future. The culture that child is raised in most certainly does.
Yes culture a child is raised in is very important.
But one needs to examine todays culture or at least the culture portrayed daily and defined as normal now by the likes of liberals in government, liberals in the justice system, liberals controlling government education, and their supporting sycophants in main stream media.
IE: "Heather has Two Mommies", Diversity over assimilation, How about condemnation of family life such as the Waltons/Cleavers, elimination of prayer in school and the word GOD in the Pledge of Allegiance. How about lifetime benefits from lavish entitlement programs encouraging people to avoid employment and destroying work ethics. Latest and most recently the same bunch of leftists encouraging riots in Ferguson and NYC....
At this time, this essay feels more like an exercise in persuasion, more than anything else. Perhaps this was written by a conservative attorney mocking a liberal public defender? I don't know, but I'm not buying it, until there's more proof of the author's authenticity.
quote:Originally posted by skicat
I don't know the origin of this statement or the writers motivation but I would describe it as racist and of no benefit to anyone. Whether or not this persons anecdotal experience is truthful or not, he applies them to a whole race and that is where he loses any credibility with me.
I disagree, you are branding what is said in blunt terms of his experience as racist. This is exactly why this country will never come to terms with the reality of race in this country because as soon as someone expresses a thoughtful opinion they are demonized with accusations of racism. Frankly I see quite a bit of reality in the writes statements, because I see quite a bit of it myself. Though my experiences and exposure come from a different angle I see that that the writer makes many valid points. I think his most valid point is that many minority youth, specifically black youth live in an entirely different reality away from society and sincerely have no concept that those that will view their behavior as jurors don't live in their reality and have a completely different sent of norms.
It is an over simplification to simple brand him a racist and move on as though there is no value in his observations. If some of his thoughts make you uncomfortable so be it, that is the point to make people uncomfortable so that they talk about the elephant in the room.
I don't think you are following my point. If you read what I wrote you will see that I labelled his statement as racist. I did not label him a racist. Two different things.
I do not know the man but I did read his statement.
I consider his statement to be racist because he takes his experience with a subset of the black population and applies it to all blacks. Whether his experience is accurately and truthfully portrayed is irrelevant as soon as he applies it to the larger set of all people who are black. That is by definition racist.
The reason he loses his credibility with me is not because I find his personal experiences distasteful in any way or because I doubt his honesty. He loses credibility with me because he is not smart enough to realize when he is generating racist conclusions. In essence he shot himself in the foot with the way he has presented his life experience.
While it is wrong to label any opinion expressed which may be critical of black culture/behavior as racist, it is equally as objectionable to not recognize actual racist commentary when it appears. We have a duty to be honest in our treatment of this topic if we are to have any hope of improving things.
We laugh and joke around together and enjoy each others company. I was telling him a joke recently when he stopped me part way into the joke. He said you are taking to long, he said remember I'm black. Black men have the attention span of a hyperactive 5 year old. If you can't say it in 15 seconds, don't bother as we wont hear what you are saying.[:D]
I went to court in Montgomery over a bad check someone gave me and saw exactly what he describes.
Montgomery having Maxwell AFB, we get a lot of families moving here from all over the US. They all think the whites are racist rednecks that are the reason blacks can't succeed.
Within 6 months the military families are using the "N word" and counting down the days till they move away from here.
That flies in the face of the statistics that have 75% of black children born out of wedlock, 30%+ of blacks males spending time in prison, and 40% of the prison population being black. Add in the behaviors seen in the flash mobs, hit and run attacks, and whenever some sleazeball can get the community riled up, and you see a very large percentage that follows a culture that does not lead to success.
Trying to appear open minded by minimizing the participation of the black community in negative pathologies isn't going to help. As with all things in life, reality must be dealt with. It won't go away.
Societies thrive when the lower classes emulate the upper classes. They fail, when the upper classes emulate the lower.
I had a black college professor who said slavery destroyed the black family and their sense of unity within the country. They rebel even though there isn't much left to rebel against. He may have had something.
More than 2/3 of black children are now born to unwed mothers. Most will never have a positive male role model. The government has replaced the husband with welfare checks. Far too many black kids grow up unsupervised and without any moral instruction. They fall victim to gangs, drugs and violence.
Many blame America and white people for all their problems. They are right in that whites brought them into bondage. But that ended 150 years ago. At some point the individual has to take responsibility and move beyond the past. Whites don't force blacks to drop out of school and join gangs. Whites don't force blacks into a life of drugs and crime. They make these choices. It's ridiculous to claim that being black means you have no chance to succeed. Too many black people are successful to make such an assertion. The whole country is not stacked against anyone. Certainly individual racism exists and always will. But that can be overcome with effort. Where's the effort?
We can't change the past. All we can do is make a better future. But too many people want it handed to them. I have talked to black teenagers who flat out say they don't want to work for success, they want it right now without any effort on their part. This is the attitude we are dealing with.
Too old to live...too young to die...
That's an interesting view coming from a liberal. Its probably accurate since its an observation based on experience.