American Justice

8 responses to “American Justice”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Mar 5, 2012 at 6:38 pm

   The speakers don’t usually bring cameras on stage…
   And from the TED Blog:

   "In 1972, there were 300,000 people incarcerated. Today, there are 2.3 million. That’s the highest rate in the world. Mass incarceration is at an extraordinary level: 50-60% of young men of color are in jail, prison, or on parole. And that is fundamentally changing how we live.

   Our justice system is distorted around race and also around poverty. It’s a system that “treats you much better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.”

   Alabama permanently disenfranchises convicted felons. As a result, 34% of African American men in Alabama have permanently lost the right to vote.

   The United States is the only country that will sentence 13-year-old children to life imprisonment, to die in prison. And yet we largely don’t talk about it.

   For every nine people on death row executed, there is one found to be innocent and released. That is a statistic that would never be allowed in any other industry: Imagine if one out of every nine planes crashed?

   Imagine if in Germany today there was a death row, and that Jewish people were systematically more likely to be convicted. And yet here in this country, in the states of the Old South, a defendant is 11 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white, and 22 times more likely if the defendant is black."

   Then with TED Curator Chris Anderson:And after the longest standing ovation in TED history, the jury was all smiles

   

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2. 

   MitchellShapiroPhotography

   Mar 5, 2012 at 9:08 pm

   Hi Steve- Thanks for sharing this moment (and so many others!) It’s backstories like this that make the difference between watching a TED talk online and attending one. I’m going to have to start doing less of the former and more of the latter.

   Cheers!

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3. 

   scleroplex

   Mar 5, 2012 at 10:18 pm

   nice!

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4. 

   solerena

   Mar 6, 2012 at 4:02 am

   this is great… only if you look at the same problem globally… gosh… the gap is even greater between one force is pushing up and another is pushing down… Moscow today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwmnbCxxUbQ&feature=youtu.be

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5. 

   profsr_jones

   Mar 6, 2012 at 10:23 pm

   Just happened to watch this while developing film yesterday then saw your photo. Truly a great presentation and an awesome man (identity). Growing up in NC I saw injustice first hand and experienced some of it. (Identity reference: young white hippy punk.) As the presentation came to an end I kept wondering, "So where’s the plan… This guy can’t change it all himself, so where’s the plan?"

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6. 

   solerena

   Mar 7, 2012 at 5:00 am

   i also have remembered a part of the recent russian movie "Idiot" by Dostoevsky… the part where Prince Myshkin speaks about death row executions and how terrible it is and what a person feels in the last moments of his life and how he counted every minute and thought that would he have not just 5 minutes and how much life he lived in this 5 last minutes… amazing monologue… and here is another quote:

   "What, did they hang the fellow?"

   "No, they cut off people’s heads in France."

   "What did the fellow do?–yell?"

   "Oh no–it’s the work of an instant. They put a man inside a frame and a sort of broad knife falls by machinery -they call the thing a guillotine-it falls with fearful force and weight-the head springs off so quickly that you can’t wink your eye in between. But all the preparations are so dreadful. When they announce the sentence, you know, and prepare the criminal and tie his hands, and cart him off to the scaffold–that’s the fearful part of the business. The people all crowd round–even women- though they don’t at all approve of women looking on."

   "No, it’s not a thing for women."

   "Of course not–of course not!–bah! The criminal was a fine intelligent fearless man; Le Gros was his name; and I may tell you–believe it or not, as you like–that when that man stepped upon the scaffold he cried, he did indeed,–he was as white as a bit of paper. Isn’t it a dreadful idea that he should have cried –cried! Whoever heard of a grown man crying from fear–not a child, but a man who never had cried before–a grown man of forty-five years. Imagine what must have been going on in that man’s mind at such a moment; what dreadful convulsions his whole spirit must have endured; it is an outrage on the soul that’s what it is. Because it is said ‘thou shalt not kill,’ is he to be killed because he murdered some one else? No, it is not right, it’s an impossible theory. I assure you, I saw the sight a month ago and it’s dancing before my eyes to this moment. I dream of it, often."

   The prince had grown animated as he spoke, and a tinge of colour suffused his pale face, though his way of talking was as quiet as ever. The servant followed his words with sympathetic interest. Clearly he was not at all anxious to bring the conversation to an end. Who knows? Perhaps he too was a man of imagination and with some capacity for thought.

   "Well, at all events it is a good thing that there’s no pain when the poor fellow’s head flies off," he remarked.

   "Do you know, though," cried the prince warmly, "you made that remark now, and everyone says the same thing, and the machine is designed with the purpose of avoiding pain, this guillotine I mean; but a thought came into my head then: what if it be a bad plan after all? You may laugh at my idea, perhaps–but I could not help its occurring to me all the same. Now with the rack and tortures and so on–you suffer terrible pain of course; but then your torture is bodily pain only (although no doubt you have plenty of that) until you die. But here I should imagine the most terrible part of the whole punishment is, not the bodily pain at all–but the certain knowledge that in an hour,–then in ten minutes, then in half a minute, then now–this very instant–your soul must quit your body and that you will no longer be a man– and that this is certain, certain! That’s the point–the certainty of it. Just that instant when you place your head on the block and hear the iron grate over your head–then–that quarter of a second is the most awful of all.

   "This is not my own fantastical opinion–many people have thought the same; but I feel it so deeply that I’ll tell you what I think. I believe that to execute a man for murder is to punish him immeasurably more dreadfully than is equivalent to his crime. A murder by sentence is far more dreadful than a murder committed by a criminal. The man who is attacked by robbers at night, in a dark wood, or anywhere, undoubtedly hopes and hopes that he may yet escape until the very moment of his death. There are plenty of instances of a man running away, or imploring for mercy–at all events hoping on in some degree–even after his throat was cut. But in the case of an execution, that last hope–having which it is so immeasurably less dreadful to die,–is taken away from the wretch and certainty substituted in its place! There is his sentence, and with it that terrible certainty that he cannot possibly escape death–which, I consider, must be the most dreadful anguish in the world. You may place a soldier before a cannon’s mouth in battle, and fire upon him–and he will still hope. But read to that same soldier his death-sentence, and he will either go mad or burst into tears. Who dares to say that any man can suffer this without going mad? No, no! it is an abuse, a shame, it is unnecessary–why should such a thing exist? Doubtless there may be men who have been sentenced, who have suffered this mental anguish for a while and then have been reprieved; perhaps such men may have been able to relate their feelings afterwards. Our Lord Christ spoke of this anguish and dread. No! no! no! No man should be treated so, no man, no man!"

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7. 

   normanb27

   Dec 17, 2014 at 8:54 pm

   Hi Steve – I am featuring this image on my website here: http://www.goodspeakconsulting.com/who-you-are/. I have added the photo credit at the bottom of the page as there is currently no way to add it just below the header image on Squarespace. I will update this as soon as it is available. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you! – Norman

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8. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 19, 2020 at 4:12 pm

   still topical today…

   For Juneteenth, a reminder of the long history of today’s concerns: a photo i took at the Obama DNC

   Reply