Prison Issues.
CURTURAL CONFLICT & CRIME
by John V. Apollo,a.k.a. "Hawaiian John," C60209 P.O.
Box 5002 A-4-110-U, Calipatria, CA 92233-5002
U. S. criminal justice is a one-sided system oppressing this
country's Third-/Fourth-World minorities as well as the poor. Since the
beginning, the criminal justice system has been controlled by the white
ruling class. At no time has it been truly fair in dealing with those men
and women, boys and girls, of color, standing before the white judge, D.A.,
and jury.
First it was the Native American who stood before the bench. Then the Mexican
American, then the Black African (slave), who was brought here against his
will, then the Chinese, the Malolo (Filippino), the Borique (Puerto Rican),
the Japanese, the Korean, the Hawaiian, the Samoan, the Vietnamese, and
now the Central and South American who stand before the bench of justice
to be tried and found guilty, not by a jury of their peers, but usually
by a jury that is mostly white, as are the Judge and D.A.
The criminal justice system is also one-sided and blind when it comes to
class in this society. If you are white but poor, you are also likely to
go to jail without bail and end up being found guilty as charged and sentenced
big-time to prison, as compared to a white defendant who is from the middle-class
who will most likely be released on his own (class status) or make bail,
and when he finally goes to trial, be given a suspended sentence and a few
years' probation. If he does go to prison, it will in no way compare to
the sentence given a poor or lower working-class person. You will almost
never see one of the U.S. ruling class (the super rich) go to prison, much
less spend one day in jail, no matter what the crime. Add to that the sexist
mentality of this criminal justice system. Women and girls who stand before
the bench are subject to worse treatment than their male counterparts, and
if they are poor besides and minority, they are in deep trouble.
The majority of state prisoners, both male and female, on the East Coast
are African American/Puerto Rican; on the West Coast, African American/Chicano,;
in the South, African American/Latino/poor white; in the Northern states,
Native American/poor whites; in Alaska, Eskimo/Native American/poor white;
and in Hawaii, Native Islanders/Asians/poor whites.
In the federal prisons, the majority of prisoners are Latino/African American/Native-American/Island/Asian/poor
white. Why? Because of the racist policies of this criminal justice system.
On talk-shows, on radio, in the newspapers and magazines, in schools, at
national police conventions, at church meetings, at political conventions,
you hear about the inner cities' crime wave, the drug problem, the alcohol
problem, the youth gang problem, and the children-having-children problem,
the AIDS problem, the one-parent-family problem, but it all boils down to
problems attributed to people of color living in the inner cities and on
reservations and in rural shanty towns, as well as those coming across the
USA border and those coming across the sea (boat people). These are the
people bringing these problems.
Sociologists, psychologists, and criminologists are trying to find solutions.
The right wing says send them back to where they came from, build a cactus
curtain all along the Mexican/USA border, close off inner city neighborhoods
and set up curfews, lock them up and impose mandatory sentences. The liberals
say provide better living conditions (low-income housing), more jobs, better
schools, alternatives to being sent to reform schools and prisons (more
rehab centers for drug addicts/alcoholics/unwed mothers/those wanting out
of gang life, etc. ). But no one seems to know why all these problems started
in the first place. The source is plain and simple-outright racism toward
people of color. Let's check it out.
To begin with, the Native Peoples and their reservations are Number 1 in
poverty and Number 1 in alcoholics, and there are more of them, percentage-wise,
in federal and state prisons and youth institutions for crimes related to
alcohol than any other minority or race in this country. Why? Can you name
the Native American who invented whiskey/scotch/gin/vodka/wine?
Then there's the Latino (Chicano/Puerto Rican/Cuban/Central & South American),
Spanish-speaking people who are the second poorest in this country. They
also, along with the African American, who are next in line when it comes
to poverty, the majority of prisoners in both state and federal youth and
prison populations, percentage-wise. And the majority of their crimes are
drug-related. Why? Can you name the Chicano/Puerto Rican/Cuban/Central or
South American/African American who invented heroin, cocaine? What about
crack? Can you name the person of color who invented PCP (angel dust), STP
(speed), LSD (acid)?
And let's not forget the newest arrivals involved in crimes under the influence
of alcohol and drugs and ending up in correctional systems, the FOBs (boat
peoples, as we are called), the Hawaiian/Samoan/Malolo/Chomarro South Pacific
Islanders/Southeast Asians from Vietnam, Laos, etc. In the islands of Hawaii
they now have the latest drug that will be coming to the mainland: "ice"
(meth that you can smoke!). Can you name me the Islander/Asian who invented
this drug?
If no Native-American invented alcohol, and no Latino invented heroin/cocaine,
and no Island/Asian invented "ice," and no Third/Fourth World
minorities invented PCP, STP, LSD, and all the other drugs that are in minority
communities, then how did they get there in the first place to be used and
abused by minorities?
If these drugs were not brought into these communities in the first place,
there would not be a "cultural conflict " and crime as we now
have it in this country, and correctional facilities would not be filled
up with the majority of prisoners coming from Third/Fourth World communities.
The prison and youth facilities would not be overcrowded, and crime and
youth gang activities would be very low in the inner cities and we should
not have an AIDS crisis there.
Why do we have cultural conflict and crime? Because of the racist-genocidal
policies of those in power.