Enlightening documentary examines injustices surrounding misdemeanors – The San Francisco Examiner

From Donna Domino

A Minnesota man was pulled over for expired vehicle registration. Another man was stopped in New York City on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes. A Missouri teenager was interviewed about jaywalking. A Baltimore man was arrested for carrying a knife.

All were black men who died in recent years following confrontations with police over minor crimes known as misdemeanors.

The most notorious incident was George Floyd, who died while being arrested for handing over a fake $ 20 bill in a Minneapolis grocery store. Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis man who kneeled by Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes after being handcuffed and lying face down, was recently convicted of murder.

In a recent virtual event, local and state law enforcement officials discussed a new documentary, titled “Racially Accused: America’s Crimes Problem,” which addresses these cases. Directed by Robert Greenwald and presented by the nonprofit Brave New Films, which is free to watch online, the film explores the devastating effects of the criminal justice system on minority communities.

Many cases of police violence that led to recent racial justice protests began with alleged low-level offense violations such as jaywalking, spitting, passing on fake bills, selling loose cigarettes, and a broken taillight.

Approximately 13 million Americans, mostly colored people, are charged annually with “idiot” offenses. They make up 80% of the country’s criminal cases, as the film showed.

“Offenses are the insidious first step in the racialization of crimes, petty crimes that can turn into police violence and death for blacks and browns,” said Paul Delano Butler, Georgetown University law professor who wrote “Chokehold,” in the film.

The police often treat petty, harmless behavior as a crime, noted Irene Joe, a law professor at the University of California at Davis. “Misdemeanors for trivial or fabricated things can have dire consequences for people, turning into years of incarceration or affecting a person’s ability to get hired,” she said.

Offenses are also a great source of income. The prison fees bring the city and county treasuries an estimated $ 80 billion annually. Traffic violations alone earn more than $ 6 billion a year. People are often caught between paying fines and being able to drive to work, and many cities rely on fines to keep their budgets, the film showed. The bail industry alone generates $ 2 billion in profits annually.

People have lost homes and jobs due to offenses related to suspended car licenses, and thousands jailed for offenses during the pandemic have died of COVID, the film reads.

Lisa James, who became a criminal justice activist after she was jailed for desperately feeding her children in a supermarket, said the offense derailed her life. “At the time I remembered, I thought, ‘I don’t know what they’re going to do, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but my kids are hungry. ‘And I just started feeding them stuff as we were walking through the store. “She was arrested by an undercover police officer.

“I remember coming home from prison thinking I could start my life over,” James recalled. “I didn’t know – I was so naive – that society had put in place a system that was absolutely against me and that made it from one level to the next in my life. I began to see the truth about how the system was designed to keep me from moving forward, to keep me from having my kids, to keep me from getting a job, to keep me from doing anything productive to do. “

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the film showed how the judicial system can have catastrophic and long-term effects. “Most families and most parents are so concerned because these supposedly minor crimes become major events that can escalate in seconds and change your life forever,” she said.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said misdemeanors could result in someone committing future crimes they would otherwise never have committed. “It introduces people to the criminal justice system in ways that can dramatically affect their life courses,” he said. “Millions of Americans experience this every year. This affects their ability to find work, secure shelter or avoid deportation. “

Boudin pointed to the broad power of the police force to arrest and arrest people for low-level crimes through near-uncontrolled discretion that is not fairly enforced. “It can lead to jail terms that turn a person’s life upside down and cause them to lose homes or custody of their children, often in ways that never make the news the way the devastating results of Daunte Wright did and George Floyd, often in ways that it is more damaging, more subtle ways that continue a system of oppression against the poorest in the country. “

Offenses are mainly enforced against color communities, Boudin said. “These are communities that are already struggling with limited access to education, housing, health care and employment, and access to government services,” he said. “So many misdemeanor crimes are related to poverty. Wealthy people can buy their way out of prison no matter how strong the evidence, while others languish behind bars simply because of their poverty. “

Watch “Racially Accused: America’s Crimes Problem” Visit https://misdemeanorfilm.org/.

Criminal Justice Films and Television

If you find our journalism valuable and relevant, please consider joining our Examiner membership program.
Learn more at www.sfexaminer.com/join/