Detroit Free Press. Feb. 7, 2021.
Editorial: Racism in the criminal justice system requires our attention
Accusing anyone of racism is a sure way to elicit a defensive response. Suggest that institutional racism is rampant, and most white Americans will react with the same reflexive denial, insisting they neither practice nor condone it.
But institutional racism isn’t an attitude, or a policy; it’s an outcome. To diminish it and ultimately eradicate it, we first have to measure it.
So we’re asking leaders in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to undertake an extraordinary effort: Gather the data necessary to document, and quantify, the racial inequities that infect each county’s criminal justice system, following the example of civic leaders in Washtenaw County.
The dedicated and methodical group of grassroots activists known as Citizens for Racial Equality in Washtenaw, or CREW, had no idea what they’d discover when they undertook to analyze 3,600 felony charges brought in Michigan’s sixth-largest county between 2013 and 2019. The racial disparities they documented in the prosecution and sentencing of criminal defendants astonished them, and their discoveries have challenged Washtenaw’s top law enforcement officials to reexamine the procedures, protocols and culture undergirding every facet of that county’s criminal justice system.
There is little reason to believe that Michigan’s three largest counties have avoided or overcome the inequities laid bare in Washtenaw. To the contrary, anecdotal evidence suggests that significant racial disparities may be even more pervasive in those jurisdictions. So Wayne, Oakland and Macomb must waste no time in replicating the work pioneered by CREW.
We do not underestimate the magnitude of the work we’re urging. It’s a massive undertaking.
But it’s also an opportunity to take stock of who we are, and what has been done in our names.
And to change it.
Attitudes and outcomes
The difference between racism and institutional racism is often misunderstood. Evidence of racial inequity can elicit that reflexive denial; white people deny, with sincerity, that they or the institutions they serve harbor any conscious racial animus.
But a racialized system - one that is stacked on race-based assumptions about intent, character and worth, about who deserves another chance and who requires stern punishment - requires no personal, active racial bias on the part of any actor (though such bias certainly exists) to deliver racially disparate outcomes. Bias is built into the system. It is the system.
Despite a sustained season of protest fueled by the stories of casual brutality, fatal indifference or misuse of authority captured on video for all to inspect, too many of us still believe that justice is blind, an impartial arbiter in a system that works.
Data tells a different story.
Over the last year, the citizens behind CREW - Alma Wheeler Smith, Linda Rexer, the Rev. Jerry Hatter, Dan Korobkin, Desiraé Simmons and the Rev. Joe Summers - quantified the racial inequities many community members suspected had infected the criminal justice system in their county, working with researchers to analyze capital and non-capital felonies in 11 case categories.
The end result, the CREW Report (Citizens for Racial Equity in Washtenaw) documented damning racial disparities that demand closer scrutiny: Compared with whites suspected of engaging in similar criminal acts, people of color were charged more often, faced a greater number of charges, were convicted more frequently and sentenced more harshly.
The CREW Report provides a baseline of data that informs what reforms must happen next.
That 22% more people of color were charged with some crimes should prompt any fair-minded Washtenaw resident to demand an accounting from the prosecutors responsible. But it defies understanding that in one category - the completely discretionary charge of using a firearm during the commission of an underlying felony, more than 12 times as many people of color were charged.
And yet this is how it works, in Washtenaw County, and in jurisdictions around the nation. Day after day, judges in the county’s courts saw a parade of Black and brown defendants wildly disproportionate to their representation in the county’s population, and never asked why.
The ask
It’s groundbreaking work, a foundation on which data-driven changes in criminal justice training and procedure can rise, and a model for all of Michigan’s counties.
But let’s start here.
We’re asking leaders in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to embrace this work, find community organizations and data analysts to partner with.
Smith, Ferguson and their colleagues say that CREW’s autonomy has been crucial to its mission. That’s why we’re encouraging elected officials to find credible community partners, then allow them the independence to do the work.
The CREW team worked with a highly regarded statistician experienced in criminal justice issues to develop methodology that can be adopted by any city or county. Members assured us that their doors are open to community members or elected officials who hope to duplicate the effort. We urge the counties that make up metro Detroit to adopt the CREW methodology; understanding county-level data is crucial, but so are common standards that allow counties to compare outcomes and replicate best practices.
For newly elected county prosecutors in Macomb and Oakland (and Oakland’s still-new county executive), this is an opportunity to cast off the blinders of previous regimes and establish a new, healthier culture of public safety. For Wayne County’s veteran leaders, it’s a chance to build on the work each has done and set a new standard of social justice worthy of Michigan’s most racially diverse county.
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Detroit News. Feb. 6, 2021.
Editorial: Don’t chill speech in reforming elections
On the heels of a contentious election, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson isn’t wasting time in calling for sweeping changes to Michigan elections. She says she wants to work with the Legislature, and that’s where the discussions should take place.
The package she proposes is a mix of good and bad ideas. But one thing Benson should ditch is a measure to silence those who question the integrity of future elections - a dangerous role for the government to assume.
The focus must be on the transparency and accuracy of our elections, so that voters trust the process. Many Michiganians don’t have faith in the November election.
It will take a bipartisan approach to soothe concerns.
“We all have a stake in well-run elections,” Benson said in a recent interview with our editorial board, noting the 2020 election “revealed a great deal” about what needs attention ahead of 2022.
Benson, a Democrat, says her proposals are “nonpartisan,” but the GOP-led Legislature has already pushed back against some of her ideas.
House Elections Chairwoman Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township, called the proposals “emotionally charged.”
“Our focus must be on improving transparency, protecting election integrity and restoring the public’s trust - not on constitutionally questionable proposals that advance the secretary of state’s own political agenda,” Bollin said in a statement.
If Benson’s aim is truly nonpartisan, we would caution her to avoid several extremely partisan fights. Along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, she is seeking the disbarment of four attorneys who sued over Michigan’s election results. The law allows for election challenges, and the courts are the right venue to resolve these questions. Punishing those who use the courts for the purposes the law intends feels overly punitive - and could serve to quell legitimate future election challenges.
Along those lines, Benson is also trying to crack down on free speech by targeting election misinformation.
“We do want to make it a felony offense to intentionally disseminate false information about an election that leads to the deterrence or misleading of voters,” she says.
The problems with that are obvious. Again, it could serve to deter the raising of legitimate concerns about the integrity of elections. And determining the intent of someone who does repeat misinformation is a very subjective process.
Despite their differences, we think Benson and lawmakers should be able to find areas for compromise.
One of Benson’s primary goals is sending absentee ballot applications to all voters -even if they haven’t requested them. If this sounds familiar, it’s because the secretary of state did this unilaterally last year, upsetting Republican lawmakers, who felt she was in effect rewriting election law.
Although the courts upheld Benson’s right to send out the applications, the issue would be better worked out in the Legislature, and it would offer more stability for local clerks, who are usually tasked with the job.
Benson also wants clerks to have two additional weeks to process absentee ballots, now that no-reason absentee voting is guaranteed by the state constitution. This is something GOP leaders have indicated they are willing to discuss. In addition, Benson supports allowing ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted.
Another idea is to make Election Day a state holiday. With mail-in voting now so much easier, it seems unnecessary to create yet another holiday.
Benson contends it would encourage more citizens to volunteer as poll workers. Yet she proved last year that by working with businesses and other organizations to drum up support, the polls were adequately staffed. It’s doubtful that simply giving people a paid holiday would translate into more enthusiastic volunteers.
Other ideas include a risk-limiting audit prior to state certification of elections to determine the accuracy of vote-counting machines. That’s a good idea lawmakers should embrace, as it may help ease concerns in future elections.
Similarly, Benson and Bollin have said they want to update the voter rolls. There seems to be more work to do here. Benson recently announced 177,000 voter registrations “slated for cancellation because the state has reason to believe the voter has moved away from the registration address.”
Reforms should be aimed at assuring the integrity of elections, and restoring voter confidence. That can be done without trampling on free speech or insulating election results from legitimate challenges.
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Traverse City Record-Eagle. Feb. 5, 2021.
Editorial: Winter storm reminds us where we are
We’ve had fun. We sledded when we would’ve been chipping ice. We skied when we would’ve shoveled. We turned our faces to the sun multiple days in a row.
The cynics among us said we’d have to pay the winter piper at some point.
But we partied on in our 30-degree bliss.
Now the mild-winter party’s over, according to our prognosticators. At least for a little bit.
We’ll face down single digits, combined with wintry blows this weekend. We’ll get a decent snow dump. We’ll get all the things our winters are usually filled with, that procrastinated in getting here this year.
We thought it might be helpful to remind ourselves how to “northern Michigan,” as we’re out of practice.
Don’t travel if you don’t have to. Visibility will be down and roads slick.
Stay inside, warm and cozy. If you venture out, dress in smart layers, and keep your hat and gloves on.
If you work outside, don’t push yourself too hard. Take breaks.
Know that pale fingers, toes and spots on the face, and numbness are signs of frostbite. Shivering, drowsiness and memory loss are associated with hypothermia. Wet clothes can speed this condition along. So can wind chill, as the wind wicks away warmth from our body.
Make sure heaters are in good condition, ventilating properly and that you have operating smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Check on isolated neighbors, family and friends.
We could keep going, but it’s all coming back now. Knowing how to northern Michigan is a bit like riding a bike. We may wobble a bit in the next few days, but we’ll weather the storm.
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