Why You Should Care
Our criminal laws, while facially
neutral, are enforced in a manner that is massively and
pervasively biased. The injustices of the criminal
justice system threaten to render irrelevant fifty years
of hard-fought civil rights progress.
The system by which lawbreakers are
apprehended and punished is one of the pillars of any
democracy. But for that system to remain viable, the
public must be confident that at every stage of the
process, from the initial investigation of a crime by
the police officer walking a beat to prosecution and
punishment, individuals in like circumstances are
treated alike, consistent with the Constitution's
guarantees of equal treatment under law.
Today, our criminal justice system
strays far from this ideal. Unequal treatment of
minorities characterizes every stage of the process. Of
particular concern are the following areas:
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