Eric Holder Says The Justice System He Leads Is Broken...

[Tx4obama]

Eric Holder Says The Justice System He Leads Is Broken. Can He Fix It?

WASHINGTON -- The East Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, near LaGuardia Airport, was mostly Italian immigrants after World War II. But in the years that followed, the New York neighborhood slowly gave way to a black majority as one of the first neighborhoods where African-Americans could buy homes.

Eric Himpton Holder, born in 1951, watched the neighborhood change. He went through New York public schools, seeing how more and more East Elmhurst residents were being locked up. Holder thinks he might have been one of them, if he had made a few different choices in those early years.

"Kids who I grew up with, who I played ball with, basketball, baseball, and went to parties with -- for whatever reason -- they ended up in a fundamentally different place than I did," Holder said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "I'm the attorney general of the United States and they are ex-felons. At some point, usually in high school or maybe a little later, they ran afoul of the law and had to serve time."

The path to prison has been worn by millions of black men since the 1960s, when race-baiting political rhetoric turned into tough-on-crime legislation that disproportionately impacted African Americans. With the second term of the Obama administration well underway, the first African-American to hold the job of America's top law enforcement official is planning to do something about it.

-snip-

Full long article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/eric-holder-criminal-justice-reform_n_4158667.html

[PoliticAverse]

1. "Can He Fix It?" - based on the past few years apparently not. n/t

[stillcool]

2. no he can not fix it..

We are not evolving, we are disintegrating. As long as you have states that are eager to abolish basic rights, no one, except the people in those states can do a damn thing.

[enough]

3. And Koch money buying judical elections. (nt)

[seabeckind]

4. I think that's an admirable goal

for someone at the city/state level.

"The path to prison has been worn by millions of black men since the 1960s, when race-baiting political rhetoric turned into tough-on-crime legislation that disproportionately impacted African Americans. With the second term of the Obama administration well underway, the first African-American to hold the job of America's top law enforcement official is planning to do something about it."

Perhaps after he has left office he can do some social work.

Until then he is the top prosecutor for the people of the United States.

I agree it is a terrible thing that we disproportionately penalize the lowest of our people but at the same time I think it is even more terrible that we do not penalize those at the top. They are the ones who have stolen our future.

His job is to stop that.

Not try to provide justice for some poor kid who took the wrong path and did a bad thing.

[seabeckind]

5. As I thought about it...

perhaps the root cause of the injustice is that the poor have no alternatives. They have no path to success. Their success is so much dependent upon opportunity.

That opportunity drives education. It drives innovation. It drives happiness and security.

That also is what those at the top have stolen.

Yes, wonderful to point at an individual who you helped rise up but wouldn't it be better for all of us to save a generation?

[blkmusclmachine]

6. He should know, if anyone...

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Tx4obama.

[Doctor_J]

8. there are lots of rich whites he could have prosecuted over the last five years

His musings are a little disingenuous imo

[Scuba]

9. +1