The Washington Post's Radley Balko vs. the Manhattan Institute's Rafael Mangual on whether "there is overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system is racist." ---- Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?sub_... Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason ----- "There is overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system is racist." That was the resolution of an online Soho Forum debate held on Wednesday, June 24, 2020. It featured The Washington Post's Radley Balko and the Manhattan Institute's Rafael Mangual. The debate was moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein. Arguing that America's criminal justice system is, in fact, racist was Radley Balko, an opinion writer for The Washington Post. A former editor at Reason, Balko is also the author of Rise of the Warrior Cop and co-author of The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist. Defending America's criminal justice against the charge of racism was Rafael Mangual, the deputy director of legal policy at the Manhattan Insitute, who is also a contributing editor for City Journal. Mangual's writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, the New York Post, the Boston Herald, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Soho Forum, sponsored by the Reason Foundation, is a monthly debate series at the SubCulture Theater in Manhattan's East Village. Update: Voting on this debate ended on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, at noon EST. Radley Balko won by convincing 21.62 percent of the audience to change their minds. Rafael Mangual convinced 10.81 percent. Produced by John Osterhoudt.
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Such a good debate, but only 8K views. While, CNN with 2 idiots yelling at each other for 5 mins, providing no data gets millions of views.
It seems to me that Radley's argument focused mainly on race while Rafael's argument brought more information that suggests that it's way more than just race at play. Did anyone else come to this conclusion as well, or is it just me?
Reduce the number of laws police officers are obliged to enforce (e.g., victimless crime statutes), and the number of conflicts between police and citizens of all races will likely decrease.
I'm so goddamn sick of the word racism I literally don't even care anymore.
So many people act as though there was not a crime problem in the inner cities before the '94 crime bill. If that's the case, from where did the political will derive that led to the bill, in the first place?
The word "Racism" & "Racist" hold no meaning anymore.
Cops in unions are more aggressive. They’re protected. There are ALSO studies that show that. Unions are most prevalent in large urban cities, which also tend to have higher populations of nonwhites. Correlation DOES NOT equal causation.
Weirdly I don't think they actually controdicted each other, at least not directly. They are mostly talking about different situations and different specifics.
RE: 2:30, I'm lilly-white and I've been pulled over more than 30 times in my lifetime. I've been cited unfairly for speeding, I've been pulled over and issued citations for doing just 6 miles over the speed limit, I once had a cop ask me to step out of the car, push me against the hood, and cuff me for complaining about him shining a light in my eyes (he was testing me for drunk driving... I hadn't had a drop). I don't think blacks are lying by saying that they're treated harshly by police... but we also know that black Americans do offend more frequently and I realize it sucks to be a law-abiding black man who gets lumped in with bad actors... but I think if we're to have "honest" conversations about race... that we can simply overlook the enormous imbalance in rates of offense. Also, we'd do well to stop assuming that white Americans never get treated unfairly by police.
The worst part about these types of things is that no matter whether somebody gets their argument objectively invalidated and destroyed they will go on believing the same thing, writing books about it, and spreading the misinformation with an uninformed community patting their backs and lining their pockets. At least those who watch can be influenced.
The evidence of sexism against men is far far greater than racial differences.
I guess Obama was oppressed with no equal opportunity, so was General Colin Powell , William H. Hastie, Thurgood Marshall, Wade H. McCree, Spottswood W. Robinson III, A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., Damon Keith, Theodore McMillian, Amalya Lyle Kearse, Joseph W. Hatchett, J. Jerome Farris, Nathaniel R. Jones, Cecil F. Poole, Harry T. Edwards, Lawrence W. Pierce, Clarence Thomas, Timothy K. Lewis, Judith W. Rogers, Carl E. Stewart, Theodore McKee, R. Guy Cole Jr., Eric L. Clay, Charles R. Wilson, Ann Claire Williams, Johnnie B. Rawlinson, Roger Gregory, Barrington D. Parker Jr., Lavenski Smith, Allyson Kay Duncan, Janice Rogers Brown, Jerome Holmes, Andre M. Davis, Joseph A. Greenaway Jr., O. Rogeriee Thompson, James A. Wynn Jr., Raymond Lohier, James E. Graves Jr., Bernice B. Donald, Paul J. Watford, and Robert L. Wilkins.....the last 39 names are or were black Federal Judges. So my answer to the headline question posed is a resounding NO.
Spend one day in a criminal defense office and see what goes on for yourself.
Im A Swede, and new to beeing a Police officer. It has been A three year Process all in all, with training and on the job education etc. During that process I had an extra job working at A prison. Its not like in the US, much more humane and orderly. Mostly... Well. Anyway, the majority of the prisoners in Sweden are from forigen countris or their parents are. Its stunning! They make up about 20% pf ppl or so in total, Yet they make out of 60% of the prison population. Any American familiar with that number/situation?
A no point did Balko give an example of HOW the system was inherently racist. That is, what law, procedure, idea, or structure creates these disparate outcomes. Neither did he describe a system that would resist such outcomes. I was disappointed that the ideas were never discussed, and the questions were never asked.
Great debate! Thanks! WP guy started strong but melted down under the other guy's arguments. Rafael was amazing. A fantastic debater.
This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with class
Rafael seemed more knowledgeable about the subject matter and was able to refute all the points put forward by his opponent referring to vast amounts of relevant evidence. Radley kept repeating his points, even those which had been proven false. I understand that admitting you are wrong takes great intellectual courage, but not doing it damages your reputation even more.
If we judged systems strictly by the disparity of their outcomes, we could conclude that the justice system is plagued with "systemic misandry" since most arrests and convictions overwhelmingly occur with men over women (plus men are sentenced to 60% longer punishments than women for similar crimes). But we all know that would be fallacious and we all know there is a lot more to it (like men commit far more crimes, so more men in prisons means the justice system is doing it's job). So why are we dropping our logic and jumping on the "systemic racism" bandwagon when it's whole case rests entirely on disparity of outcomes? EDIT: Yes, I know that family courts are grossly unfair toward fathers; that police are more likely to shoot and/or beat up male suspects (cuz they're more likely to fight/hurt/kill the cops); and I'm aware that men have a harder time making a case for DV toward abusive female spouses --- nevertheless, the narrative of "systemic misandry" will never be taken seriously, esp. nowhere near as serious society treats "systemic racism" despite the narrative using the same faulty "disparity of outcome" logic + including all those real problems in the justice system I already mentioned.
Not racist it’s more classist there is some racial profiling in police but not in criminal justice .