What should social justice look like in an American democracy today? One would at least expect there to be justice for all – no matter what race, religion, gender, age or sexual orientation. However, police brutality and mass incarceration play critical roles in our quest for social justice in America. 

The video footage of a group of white police officers beating an unarmed Rodney King on March 3, 1991, went viral. The world watched horrified as men sworn to protect and serve committed heinous acts that were caught on tape by a concerned plumber named George Holiday. Adding injury to the unwarranted attack, an all-white jury acquitted all the cops of any wrongdoing. This led to an uprising in Los Angeles which engulfed the city in flames and ultimately claimed more than sixty lives.

Three decades later, and after numerous unwarranted and controversial police killings of Blacks,… the violence continues.  Recently, Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, was criminally charged with smothering unarmed African-American George Floyd to death by pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck. …Chauvin nonchalantly snatched Floyd’s life away as he blatantly ignored Floyd’s cries of “I can’t breathe” [and calls] for his deceased mother. This outraged millions of Americans of all races, and the world united like never before. Around the globe people came together to protest the killing. Together they said: this is wrong; this is unacceptable, America! 

….To achieve change, we must honestly recognize that racial profiling and brutality by the police is rooted in institutionalized racism that can be traced to the Atlantic slave trade. Since the end of the slave trade, the violence has continued in the form of kidnapping, rapes, lynching, and other brutal crimes whites have committed against the African family. Many often wonder what have people of color done to deserve such long-term hatred? Is it merely because of the color of their skin? After all, the creator chose to create man with various colors, sizes, and characteristics. The audacity of anyone to question their own maker’s creation should be more than troublesome

…Why does America lock up more of its citizens in prison than any other nation in the world? Have we become an aggressive police nation obsessed with caging our own people? Are we shunning the real rehabilitation that’s needed to reform Americans and help them become productive members of our society? Truth be told, mass incarceration sweeps the nation’s poorest into a cycle of harsh prison sentences, superficial rehabilitation, excessive “catch-22” supervised release, parole and probation terms that lead to more imprisonment….

Mass incarceration in America will end and when Congress re-examines and reduces the federal and state sentencing guidelines, when it ends “ghost” drug conspiracy charges (based on hearsay) and multiple sentencing enhancements for prior convictions, and when it implements a more fair and transparent criminal justice system, where time actually fits the crime. Then, and only then, can social justice truly be effective and shine and sparkle across this nation.