We are the 90%

We are the 90%

By: Llenda Jackson-Leslie

We’ve all heard of the 99%. Most of us are in the 99%-- in New York there’s also the 90% that’s the percentage of New Yorkers who are stopped for no good reason whatsoever and are innocent of any crime or suspected criminal act or behavior.

What’s even more astonishing of the 3 million New Yorkers who have been stopped, questioned or searched between 2004 and 2010--- 90 % of them--- were you guessed it Black and Latino. The New York ACLU did an exhaustive report—using the figures from NYPD records. Yes, the police department admits that 90% of the people they stop are completely innocent. So why hasn’t NYPD cleaned up its act. Maybe the Justice Department needs to step in. Read the report here.

The prison industrial complex is also one of the key issues undermining the stability of communities of color, and we are more likely to be focused on Attica or San Quentin than Wall Street, unless the linkages are made. Occupiers must pay attention to occupants.  

What about the 13%

That’s the percentage of African American men who are permanently barred from voting by felony disenfranchisement

Nationally, an estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of laws that prohibit voting by people with felony convictions. Felony disenfranchisement is an obstacle to participation in democratic life which is exacerbated by racial disparities in the criminal justice system, resulting in an estimated 13% of Black men unable to vote.  Sadly, in the all-out assault on voting rights by right wing extremists financed by the Koch brothers, several states have rolled back paths to enfranchisement for former prisoners.

Sotomayer dissents from SC refusal to hear death penalty appeal

The Supreme Court refused to hear controversial death penalty case—from our nation’s leading executioner-Texas. That’s the case where death row prisoner Duane Buck appealed his sentence arguing his right to a fair trial was violated when an expert witness testified that African Americans pose a greater risk of "future dangerousness." In Texas, a jury must find that a defendant poses a continuing threat to society in order to recommend a death sentence. Justice Kagan joined the dissent. Read Sotomayer’s dissent here here.