Ep. 39: From Cradle to Courtroom - How The Media Stacks the Deck Against “Defendants”
Added 2018-06-06 15:24:06 +0000 UTCThe United States, far and away, has the largest prison population in the world. It also has one of the greatest disparities in their prison population of ethnic minorities in the world. How does a country that prides itself on being a “beacon of freedom” and whose leaders travel the world scolding other countries on “human rights” find itself to be the largest carceral state of the 21st century?
What are the cultural forces that reinforce racist attitudes, deference to the police and prosecutors, and a belief that 7 million people – or, the equivalent population of Washington DC, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, and Rhode Island – all belong in cages or on parole or prohibition.
For this show – recorded live in Brooklyn, NY on May 25, 2018 – we will follow a hypothetical "defendant," the median being an African-American in their early 20's, from birth to the time they sit in front of a judge and, at each point, examine how the media stacks the deck against them. We cover this in five parts, each representing different moments in this chain of events - Birth, Childhood, Adolescence, the Arrest and the Plea – and show how the media conspires to make a not guilty verdict all but impossible.
We are joined by Rachel Foran and Naila Siddiqui of Court Watch NYC.
The live show contained visuals, if you'd like to listen to the show with those visuals you can see this video here.
Court Watch NYC
Court Watch NYC, a New York-based collaborative project with VOCAL-NY, the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, and 5 Boro Defenders, collects real-time data of what is actually happening in courtrooms and captures the narratives not reflected in official accounts. Follow them @CourtWatchNYC.
Guests
Rachel Foran is Managing Director of the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, a non-profit organization that pays bail for New Yorkers that cannot afford it and fights for the elimination of the money bail system. Recently, Rachel helped create the community-driven court monitoring and prosecutor accountability project Court Watch NYC.
Naila Siddiqui is a Public Defender who represents indigent New Yorkers accused of crimes. She is a member of 5 Boro Defenders, a coalition of public defenders in New York City organizing around the systemic injustices of the criminal legal system.
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Show Notes
BIRTH
Janine Jackson | September 1998 | FAIR
The Crack Baby Myth: Now They Tell Us
Janine Jackson | January 30, 2009 | FAIR
Revisiting the ‘Crack Babies’ Epidemic That Was Not
Michael Winerip, Retro Report | May 20, 2013 | The New York Times
Re-Examining ‘Crack Baby’ Myth — Without Taking Responsibility
Janine Jackson | July 2013 | FAIR
The Birth of the Crack Baby and the History that “Myths” Make [PDF]
Jason E. Glenn | October 2006 | University of Texas Medical Branch
The construction of the crack babies phenomenon as a social problem [PDF]
Peter Lyons & Barbara Rittner | 1998 | American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
A big part of the war on drugs is based on a huge myth
German Lopez | July 10, 2015 | Vox
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CHILDHOOD
The Coming of the Super-Predators
John Dilulio | November 27, 1995 | The Weekly Standard
Black Boys Viewed as Older, Less Innocent Than Whites, Research Finds
Philip Atiba Goff, PhD | March 6, 2014 | American Psychological Association
Study: Cops Tend to See Black Kids as Less Innocent Than White Kids
Philip Bump | March 10, 2014 | The Atlantic
Black Boys Are Perceived As Older and Less Innocent Than Their White Peers
Melissa Dahl | December 29, 2015 | The Cut
Teachers' implicit bias against black students starts in preschool, study finds
Yolanda Young | October 4, 2016 | The Guardian
Study: Black girls viewed as ‘less innocent’ than white girls
T. Rees Shapiro | June 27, 2017 | The Washington Post
Adults Think Black Girls Are Older Than They Are—and It Matters
Collier Meyerson | July 6, 2017 | The Nation
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ADOLESCENCE & ADULTHOOD
Loose Cigarettes Today, Civil Unrest Tomorrow
Justin Peters | December 5, 2014 | Slate
Romanticizing ‘Broken Windows’ Policing
Charles Blow | July 4, 2015 | The New York Times
When The Media Treats White Suspects And Killers Better Than Black Victims
Nick Wing | August 14, 2014 | The Huffington Post
How the media smears black victims
Adam Johnson | March 30, 2017 | The Los Angeles Times
Black Man Stabbed to Death by White Supremacist–Then Smeared by Media
Adam Johnson | March 22, 2017 | FAIR
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ARREST
“Do What You Gotta Do”: Cop Shows Bolster Idea That Police Violence Works
Aaron Miguel Cantú | March 16, 2014 | truthout
Chicago PD Loves Brutality, Eschews Originality
Margaret Lyons | January 8, 2014 | Vulture
Criminal Justice Media’s ‘Twisted’ Coverage
Josmar Trujillo | June 19, 2014 | FAIR
Media Convicts Scores of ‘Gang Members’ on NYPD’s Say-So–No Trials Necessary
Adam Johnson | May 2, 2016 | FAIR
With Nighttime Raids, Police Wage War on Black and Brown Families in New York
Ashoko Jegroo | March 31, 2017 | truthout
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PLEA
Brooklyn’s Wrongful Convictions Persist With ‘Gang’ Cases
Josmar Trujillo | July 8, 2017 | The Huffington Post
Reasonable Doubts About the Jury System
Adam Benforado | June 16, 2015 | The Atlantic
Massive Bronx Gang Prosecution Raises Fairness Questions
Simon Davis-Cohen | January 16, 2017 | City Limits
A Year After NYC’s Biggest “Gang Raids,” Families Say It’s Just Stop And Frisk By Another Name
Max Rivlin-Nadler | April 28, 2017 | Village Voice
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References
Three quarters of whites don’t have any non-white friends
Christopher Ingraham | August 25, 2014 | The Washington Post
Address to the Nation on the Campaign Against Drug Abuse
Ronald & Nancy Reagan | September 14, 1986 | American Presidency Project
Crack Babies: The Worst Threat Is Mom Herself
Douglas J. Besharov | August 6, 1989 | The Washington Post
Courtland Milloy | September 17, 1989 | The Washington Post
Crack Mothers, Crack Babies and Hope
Editorial | December 31, 1989 | The New York Times
Childhood's End: What Life Is Like for Crack Babies
Ellen Hopkins | October 18, 1990 | Rolling Stone
The Cost of Not Preventing Crack Babies
Editorial | October 10, 1991 | The New York Times
Schools Trying to Cope With 'Crack Babies'
Priscilla Van Tassel | January 5, 1992 | The New York Times
Susan Okie | January 26, 2009 | The New York Times
'Crack babies' grow up, and do better than expected
Susan Okie | January 27, 2009 | The New York Times
Civil Rights Data Collection, Data Snapshot: School Discipline [PDF]
U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights | March 2014
The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story [PDF]
Malika Saada Saar, et al. | February 2015 | Georgetown University Law Center
Crack and Punishment: Is Race the Issue?
Charisse Jones | October 28, 1995 | The New York Times
George L. Kelling & James Q. Wilson | March 1982 | The Atlantic
Nathan Glazer Changes His Mind, Again
James Traub | June 28, 1998 | The New York Times
More proof NYPD’s beloved “Broken Windows” policy is a racist mess
Elias Isquith | October 29, 2014 | Salon
The Role of Entertainment Media in Perceptions of Police Use of Force [PDF]
Kathleen Donovan & Charles Klahm IV | December 2015 | St. John Fisher College
‘Dragnet’ was straight up LAPD propaganda, on national TV for years
Jacqui Shine | June 20, 2017 | Timeline
The Dragnet Effect: How TV Has Obscured Police Brutality
Conor Friedersdorf | June 12, 2015 | The Atlantic
Laura Hudson | December 30, 2014 | Slate
Police Procedurals: Harmless Entertainment or Propaganda?
Ana Miljak | June 3, 2016 | Public Seminar
Chicago wrestles with legacy of police torture
Lisa Fletcher & Ryan Loughlin | June 17, 2015 | Al Jazeera America
A Digital Archive Documents Two Decades of Torture by Chicago Police
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams | October 26, 2016 | The Atlantic
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Transcript
The transcript for the episode can be found here.
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