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Congresswoman Expresses Alarm Over Unfair Targeting Of Minorities
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Cynthia McKinney
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By Neveen Salem,
IOL Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, March 25 (IslamOnline) - Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) Monday expressed alarm over recent statistics released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) showing that Blacks, Latinos, and other minorities continue to be unfairly targeted by America's criminal justice system.
In her statement, McKinney, regarded by the American Muslim/Arab community as a valuable civil rights activist, referred to the February 27 state-by-state HRW study entitled "Race and Incarceration in the United States," which shows that 63% - nearly two-thirds - of America's state prison population is made up of African-Americans and Hispanics, while these two communities constitute only 25% - or one quarter - of the population as a whole.
These figures follow a May 2000 HRW report, "Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs," which first outlined some of these shocking disparities.
The latest report shows that African-Americans are vastly over-represented in the prison population in every single state in the U.S. - in some states 15 times or more. In addition to grossly disproportionate incarceration rates, the report also stresses that blacks are prosecuted in federal courts more frequently than whites for similar crimes and that minorities, particularly youth, are mistreated more frequently than their white counterparts.
"These damning statistics confirm what we've known for a long time - that for Blacks, Latinos, and other minorities in America, 'justice' really does mean 'just us,'" said Congresswoman McKinney.
Congresswoman McKinney also expressed concern over the ongoing detentions, harassment, and raids directed at Arabs and Muslims, including U.S. citizens, and their institutions.
"Just as with our prison population and criminal justice system, the Justice Department's 'interviews' of as many as 8,000 Middle Eastern and South Asian men, its imprisonment of hundreds if not thousands without charge, and the ongoing raids on Muslim homes and institutions demonstrate that racial and religious profiling are becoming the standards of American 'justice.'"
American Muslims' homes and businesses in Virginia and Georgia were raided over a three-day span last week by at least five federal agencies for supposed "links to terrorism". The raids included invasions of schools, religious centers and individual homes in what many civil rights activists see as a blatant violation of rights based on nothing more than ethnicity and religious beliefs.
Congresswoman McKinney added, "First they told us it was a 'war on crime,' then a 'war on drugs,' and now a 'war on terrorism’. But the reality we see coming from the criminal justice system and the Justice Department looks more and more like a war on America's minority and immigrant communities."
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