The next new step of the ever-unfolding liberal project: arrests of minority youth must be reduced so as to equal those of white youth.

In an earlier entry today I said that the assurance of equality of results for blacks is a sacred principle in America 2.0, which has now explicitly replaced America 1.0, the American constitutional republic. And “results” means every possible material outcome in life, including, as we see in an article from the Seattle Times, the frequency with which blacks are charged with crimes as compared with the frequency with which whites are charged with crimes. If blacks are arrested and indicted more often, it’s not because blacks commit more crime, it’s because of racist police practices which must be corrected. In order to achieve equality in the racial frequency of arrests, either vast numbers of black criminals must be let off, or vast numbers or innocent whites must be arrested, or both.

Here’s the article, which was sent by Wayne Lutton:

Minority youth are arrested and in the Washington state court system more often than their white counterparts, a recent study commissioned by the state Supreme Court shows. But researchers said that counties aren’t keeping complete data on ethnicity and that the gap between minority and white youth is larger.

Between 2007 and 2011, African-American youth were nearly 250 percent more likely to be referred to juvenile court for prosecution than their white counterparts. They are followed by Native-American youth, who are 80 percent more likely to be referred. Overall, minority youth are 22 percent more likely to be referred.

To determine the ratio, researchers calculated the number of minority youth in a particular aspect of juvenile law and the overall population of each county.

In arrests, minority youth were nearly 85 percent more likely to be arrested than white youth statewide, the study found. But researchers said that number is likely much higher because counties count Latinos as white in their record keeping. Latino is an ethnicity, not a race.

Sarah Veele, one of the researchers from the Washington State Center for Court Research, said there isn’t a federal or state requirement for local agencies to track ethnicity in their juvenile-arrest data, so Latinos are put in the “white” category.

Researchers looked at eight categories, ranging from arrests to diversion-program enrollments.

Still, about 40 percent of all cases were missing data on whether the youth was Latino and 5 percent of cases had no indicator of race or ethnicity.

“Increasing the quality of data collected by courts is key to fully understanding how and where racial and ethnic inequality arises,” Chief Justice Barbara Madsen said.

Once minority and white youth get to sentencing, the disparities begin to even out, Veele said, because judges usually follow sentencing guidelines.

“What we’re seeing is that the disparities are occurring earlier, such as arrests, referrals to juvenile court, and as you get deeper the outcomes are relatively comparable,” Veele said.

Veele said this particular study lacks other data points, including severity of charges and crimes as well as criminal history of the youth.

She is hoping this study prompts consideration of more complete record keeping among local agencies. The researchers released county-by-county data to inform local authorities of what they have and don’t have in their records.

To Enrique Gonzalez of the Seattle-based El Centro de la Raza, the findings echo something that he sees in his job. As a juvenile-justice advocate, he works with dozens of teens from Seattle, including many who have had brushes with the law. For him, by the time youth come in contact with police, it’s already late in the problem.

“The problem really starts early,” Gonzalez said. We need to look at “the link between juvenile justice, kids incarcerated and the achievement gap in schools. Most of the kids who end up in the juvenile system have some sort of contact with school discipline beforehand.”

Gonzalez said there is a bit of irony in the system, in that some programs for troubled youth don’t kick in unless a judge sentences them.

Veele said counties including Benton, Franklin, Spokane, Pierce and King have taken remedial steps, but many counties don’t have the resources.

Private organizations such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation have provided money for studies and initiatives focused on alternatives to detention. The state also has chipped in.

Pierce County is one of the counties that has worked with the foundations. After examining its own data in 2003 and seeing disparities among African-American youth, the county began seeking remedies, including axing pricey one-on-one therapy programs that weren’t yielding results.

Now, Pierce County provides in-person visits to remind youth of court dates and transportation to court hearings if needed. They have also hired an African-American therapist who works with African-American youth exclusively.

“We don’t want kids languishing in our system, hanging in limbo waiting for sentencing,” said Shelly Maluo, Pierce County’s juvenile-court administrator. “The more they are in limbo, the greater the chance they reoffend or not show up to court.”

In Pierce County, African-American youth are 2½times more likely to be arrested.

Maluo acknowledges that more can be done to close the gaps.

But to Gonzalez, the data backs up what he hears from kids.

“They don’t feel they’re trusted or respected by law enforcement,” Gonzalez said. “An officer is more likely to arrest a student of color rather than ask questions and talk things out.”

A message to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, which provided the data on arrests, was not returned.

- end of initial entry -

Dan H. writes:

Many times I find myself of two minds about some subject, though typically one is primary and the other secondary. This is one of those times. My primary thought is that equalizing arrest rates is pathetic and frightening but unfortunately not surprising. It is a logical extension of the liberal idea that you have discussed often enough, and there is no reason for me to add anything to that.

On the other hand, it is more than a little tiring, and more than a little disgusting, to have liberals unleash ideas into society while removing themselves from the consequences. I am not for giving liberals a taste of their own medicine. I am for giving them the whole dose, indeed the whole course of treatment, long-term and with full side effects.

Seattle is a very liberal city. Unlike many other cities, those liberals live right in the city itself rather than only in the secure suburbs (although there may be many liberals there, as well, I do not know). The population of blacks in Seattle is small enough that it is still easy to be a liberal in the city. Yet, and here is the rub, the population of blacks is large enough to create a lot of misery if the existing checks on their behavior, i.e. police action and arrest, is removed. Blacks themselves will get the message soon enough that the hands of the police are tied even more than usual and will alter their behavior in exactly the manner we would expect. When that happens, who pays the price but those liberals in the city itself who would rather be subject to the bone-breaking wheel of torture than face the realities of race?

Of course, if the policy of arrest equalization is implemented state wide, there is the issue of citizens in other, less liberal or even conservative areas, being hit harder. But I would imagine (and do not know if this is correct) that since blacks tend to live in cities and Washington is basically a one-city state, most blacks are already in Seattle. This could be the start of some much needed negative feedback finding its mark.

Alex B. writes:

“Increasing the quality of data collected by courts is key to fully understanding how and where racial and ethnic inequality arises,” Chief Justice Barbara Madsen said.

“Inequality” is now officially a synonym for “discrimination.”

Note also that it was the state Supreme Court that commissioned the study. Liberal judges merely legislating from the bench on cases that came before them is the old, reactive way. The new, proactive way is to commission a study that some leftist group will use as the basis for a lawsuit. Quite possibly as a pre-arranged deal with the leftist group.

Once minority and white youth get to sentencing, the disparities begin to even out, Veele said, because judges usually follow sentencing guidelines.

“What we’re seeing is that the disparities are occurring earlier, such as arrests, referrals to juvenile court, and as you get deeper the outcomes are relatively comparable,” Veele said.

That disparities begin to even out at sentencing “because judges usually follow sentencing guidelines” seems like a claim that most minority youths are arrested without a valid cause, i.e. because the cops are racist. Since this is nonsense, the real reason is that either vast numbers of black criminals are let off at sentencing, or whites are sentenced disproportionally and unjustly, or both.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 21, 2013 12:36 PM | Send