Jordan Kushner wrote: > I am quite surprised to reading such narrow intolerance on > this list. Where is the social need to severely punish people > with minor traffic offenses? The fact is that anyone who goes > to court downtown to address several such tickets is usually be > given the option of doing work instead of paying fines. Perhaps > the participants in the African American Men's Project > sponsored events had to do a little less time. So what?! > What is wrong with making life a little easier for a group that > is much more harshly targetted by the criminal "justice" system? > Minnesota and Hennepin County have among the highest racially > disproporionate rates of African Americas in the system. The > court system should be doing a lot more to compensate for > institutional racial bias.
Back when I was a poor starving student who regularly received traffic citations, I believed that traffic fines should have been assigned on a sliding scale based on income. I based this belief on the fact that well-to-do people with Cadillacs and Mercedes could blow off a $100 fine, but a $100 was equivalent to a month's rent to me. This program appears to be a sliding fee scale in a different direction. > The list seems to be experience the classic white resentment > for any affirmative attempts to undo racism. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure Mr. Kushner knows the law on this topic better than I, but the basis for affirmative action 40 years ago was to account for past discrimination. Now the Supreme Court tells us that we'll need another 25 years, if not longer, to account for current discrimination. I agreed 40 years ago, but I don't see the same overt racial discrimination that I did then. What I see is residual cultural inequalities. I suppose that from his vantage point in Golden Valley that Mr. Kushner would disagree. :-) Michael Atherton Prospect Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
