Young black man jailed since April for alleged $5 theft found dead in cell

Prison medics prescribed the meds.

If he's already gone, then getting the doctor or whoever administered it to the victim in the first place would've been a far stronger gesture in credibility and for him to accept treatment.

 

The fundamental question is this - who thinks if he was white he would not have been in jail in the first place for this crime of stealing 5 dollars worth of junk food?

I think he wouldn't be in jail.

The numbers are clear - blacks get worse punishments than whites for the same crime where their sole difference is the color of their skin. This can no be disputed because it is born out in stats.

Blacks are sentenced longer, and searched at a traffic stop more frequently. To deny that there is a racial dimension (racism) at play here in the criminal justice system is to argue against statistics.

 

good point

 

He was a repeat offender, having served two jail sentences already. Anyone with that record is going to jail.

 

Well you wouldn't think that if you were thinking, at least you tried.

 

Not for $5 worth of crap from a convenience store.

 

Yes they would, especially if they had the mental illness to go with it.

 

No, not necessarily and there have been examples of people with multiple more serious offenses pointed out on these boards.

 

If he was from a rich family, or was personally wealthy, then he'd have a pretty good chance of not being in jail.....but it's not a race issue, no matter how much some wish it were.

An average Joe with serious, diagnosed mental illness with a history of larceny arrests would be arrested for larceny and they'd probably spend time in jail over it, especially if there were complications due to mental illness. They'd also more than likely be just as dead if they refused to eat for long enough.


I hate that I have to spell things like this out for people.

 

So it's not a race issue when you give blacks more jail time because it's that they are poor, but it is a race issue when they commit crimes at a higher rate and not because they are poor?

You are the one who needs to do some thinking buddy.

 

Neither are race issues.....Let's not start down the strawman path.

Let's not lose focus of what this case is about, it's about a mentally unstable habitual criminal, and you are upset that he had to spend time in jail. Or maybe you are upset that he hurt himself in jail...or both. I'm not really sure what you are upset about honestly because a lot of your statements have nothing at all to do with this incident

 

Yes this dichotomy continues to be an issue. When people point out the different treatment blacks receive within the legal system and at the hands of law enforcement officers the rate that blacks commit crimes get brought up and it's because of race.

Yet, when pointing out that difference and how it adversely affects blacks, then and only then is it not because of race but because of poverty.

Some people need to look at the excuses they are making and the blame they are laying.

 

Again, I'm not talking about the thread. I'm talking about your comment that lives have different values. You know you said that. And that disagrees with the Declaration of Independence.

Go ahead and back off you statement...that's fine. But man up and say it.

Otherwise, your statement that lives have different values is pretty much historically grounding in monarchies, dictatorships and communist belief systems.

Sorry you are too shallow to see how your comments are completely anti-American from the core of our existence.

you are so cute how you bounce around your arguments with no ability to stay on track with your initial statements that lives only matter on a scale of value that you define.

But go ahead and avoid your comment and argue with others

 

Forcing people to weed through irrelevant nonsense doesn't hide the fact that you have no point quite as well as you might think it does.

 

Theft is theft.

 

And it's even worse when you've already been imprisoned on 2 other occasions for theft convictions.

 

Tragic story but this is not true. He refused meds and food, he didn't die directly because of the $5 theft and jail.

 

It's very similar to when people were initially blaming the cop for arresting that crazy woman who killed herself in jail. "She shouldn't die because of a traffic ticket"

This is just the next version of that. Someone hurts themselves in jail, people blame others.

 

You're making too much sense. Stop it.

 

Your lack of empathy towards the plight of other fellow human beings is disturbing. What the hell is wrong with you?