Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Crime in the Media Fall 2020

After watching “Time: The Kalief Browder Story” it occurred to me that this man had endured a major case of injustice. Here is his story, on May 2^nd, 2010, Kalief and his friend were returning from a party when police stopped Kalief and began to frisk him. Upon the search the police asked an unfamiliar person to Kalief “if he was sure this guy robbed his brother”. Kalief was then taken to the precinct where he was questioned for hours. He was accused of stealing a backpack. Kalief declared his innocence and he was not going to budge one bit until he was released. The judge set a $3,000 bail on Kalief and sent him to Rikers Island where he would spend 3 years and a majority of that in solitary confinement.

During the duration of Kalief’s time spent on Rikers Island he was brutally beaten by fellow inmates and guards. They said he had been going through this kind of torture because he was not “getting with the program”, or in a lack of better words giving up his stuff. Kalief was bullied during his stay, he was moved around multiple times to different housing units. Finally, it came to the point where Kalief was placed in solitary for even more punishment. Over the course of his stay at Rikers, he had undergone many court dates. The problem is nothing was solved from these court appearances. The district attorney offered him a deal and Kalief, confident in his innocence, was not willing to accept it. The prosecution pushed off his case using the terrible excuses like “we are not ready” or “our witness has fled the country”. To make a long story short Kalief was denied his amendment right to a speedy trial. Of course, he was given a defense attorney, but like any public defender he was swamped with other cases. Kalief was stuck, and there was nothing him or his family could do. His family had tried at least as they found the money for the bond. By that point, however, the court said he violated his parole and would not release him. Kalief was being punished because he would not let the prosecution pin this crime on him. This is a classic case demonstrating how unjust our system really is.

We can see that Kalief was an indigent offender judging by the sheer fact that his family could not afford the $900 bond to release him from jail. Kalief is just one of the thousands that go through the exact situation. In the book Not a Crime to be Poor by Peter Edelman (2017)he states that “11.7 million people spend some amount of time in America’s county or city jails. Three fifths of them have not been found guilty of anything” (p. ?.). America has targeted cash bail onto the poor of America, placing them in jail for days, months, even years in Kalief’s case. What is the purpose? Ultimately cash bail is placed on offenders to ensure their return to court. When you pay that amount of money to the court, they usually return that after the trial has taken place. For indigent offenders though this can have a negative impact on them. In the end, this is not the only way that the justice system could ensure someone’s chances of coming back to court.

New York City decided they were going to change after the horrible incident Kalief Browder went through. “Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed in 2015 to spend $18 million to triple the number of defendants under pretrial supervision in the community” (Edelman, 2017, p. ?.). The City has pointed out that there is a better way to ensure someone’s return to court. The inability to pay could leave someone in a very vulnerable situation to admit to guilt for something they didn’t even do. In practice, the use of cash bail is more than just placing money on the person’s ability to return to court, the court use it as leverage. This may not be the instance of all offenders in the United States, but it sure does make one suspect of it when looking at a case like Kalief’s. It is a bullseye placed on the poverty of America, trying to “clean” up our cities to ensure the clean-up of crime. Instead of doing that it is ruining individual and family’s lives. Just because you place a bail on to someone does not mean you are keeping crime off the streets. In the end, it is just making matters worse. Eventually the Criminal Justice System will see the damage it has caused and bring reform to be a priority. They should see the stories like Kalief’s who lost his life due to one small sum of money. This is not to ensure the safety of Americans it’s an unjust attack on the poor, due to a messed-up system.

After watching this documentary on Kalief Browder’s story it has helped clarify the unjust that the poor community in this country has to go through. This documentary proves that the African American and low-income communities are being targeted by the Criminal Justice System. Kalief Browder’s story is a definite must-see moment in our countries history that should never forget. I would recommend this documentary to anyone for the sheer fact that Kalief Browder must be heard until reform takes place. His story is not the first and before reform takes place may very well not be the last. The question is when will we see a change?

-Josh Dauberman

References

Edelman, P. (2019). Not a crime to be poor: the criminalization of poverty in America. The New Pr.

Furst, J. (2017). Time the Kalief Browder story. ROC Nation, The Weinstein Company. https://www.netflix.com/title/80187052