Winning Justice: Taking on Prosecutors

Narrated By Common

Animation – Simon Ampel
Music – Michael Onufrak
Additional Painting – Dan Green, Zartosht Soltani, Vera Orlova
Sfx and Editing – Daniel LeMunyan

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

00:09
prosecutors are public officials who
00:12
charge and prosecute people for crimes
00:14
after the police arrest them they often
00:17
call district attorneys but DA’s you may
00:20
not know who prosecutors are they
00:22
certainly know who you are
00:23
prosecutors build their careers by
00:25
targeting black and brown people and
00:27
driving up mass incarceration yet today
00:30
communities all across the country I
00:33
figured out how to force prosecutors to
00:35
end the racist policies that create mass
00:37
incarceration because of the racial
00:40
justice movement reform minded
00:41
prosecutors in some cities are now
00:44
making real changes but we have to keep
00:46
up the pressure and most of the country
00:48
prosecutors are unchecked and out of
00:50
control
00:56
meet Lisa though falsely accused of
01:00
stealing an expensive watch that she got
01:02
as a gift the police arrested her anyway
01:04
the prosecutor told her that if she
01:06
defended herself in court he’d make sure
01:08
she’d lose and she gets the maximum of
01:10
five to seven years in prison
01:12
she knew her public defender was
01:14
underfunded and overloaded with cases
01:16
and wouldn’t be able to mount a strong
01:18
defense so she was forced to take the
01:20
prosecutors plea bargain of three months
01:23
in jail after being in office for 10
01:25
years this prosecutor has ruined
01:27
thousands of people’s lives just like
01:29
Lisa’s without any oversight now meet
01:32
Michelle a third-year college student on
01:35
the same day of Lisa’s arrest
01:37
Michelle was arrested for aggravated
01:38
assault she spent only six hours in jail
01:41
because the prosecutor decided not to
01:44
bring charges he said she’s one of the
01:46
good ones her future is bright he also
01:48
knew Michelle came from a community
01:50
where he gets a lot of votes when he
01:52
runs for re-election across the country
01:54
prosecutors pursue much higher sentences
01:56
for black people than for white people
01:58
charged with the same offenses they
02:00
often let white people off easy for
02:02
significant crimes while throwing the
02:04
book at black people for pet
02:06
fences prosecutors also use the threat
02:09
of long sentences as a way to coerce
02:11
plea bargains from vulnerable people
02:13
especially black and brown people when
02:15
given the choice of a lesser punishment
02:17
from a flee deal or losing in court
02:19
against the powerful prosecutor and
02:21
spending years in prison most people
02:23
feel they have no choice they take a
02:25
plea deal even when it means getting a
02:27
criminal record that will hurt them in
02:29
life and accepting a punishment that is
02:31
completely unfair in devastating numbers
02:34
prosecutors are taking people away from
02:36
their families jobs and communities
02:39
often ruining their lives and the lives
02:41
of those who need them people who never
02:44
should have faced the exaggerated
02:45
charges as synthesis the prosecutor
02:48
pushed for
02:56
prosecutors think they can get reelected
02:58
just by driving up their conviction
03:00
rates to look tough on crime they go
03:03
after people they think they’re not
03:04
organized and cannot fight back people
03:07
in poor communities often black and
03:09
brown communities and they play
03:11
favorites with everyone else like the
03:13
police prosecutors exploit races media
03:16
representations to trick us into
03:18
thinking that mass incarceration is
03:20
necessary but it has nothing to do with
03:23
making anyone safe meet prosecutor bill
03:25
still he’s making calls to his most
03:28
loyal campaign donors because he has a
03:30
big election coming up he calls himself
03:32
the law and order candidate promising to
03:35
rack up conviction after conviction even
03:38
though crime has been down for a long
03:39
time when his campaign donors ask him
03:42
what he’s doing about crime he proudly
03:44
points to the increasing number of
03:45
people he’s put in jail for getting the
03:48
mention that most of them haven’t even
03:49
been convicted of a crime
03:58
meet James he’s accused of shoplifting
04:00
even though his white friends were also
04:03
accused we’ll let go James has spent the
04:05
last four months in jail including his
04:08
18th birthday why he cannot afford the
04:10
$10,000 bail that the prosecutor
04:13
demanded the judge said if his mother
04:15
pays the local bail bondsman to get him
04:17
out she could get trapped in debt and
04:19
fees that could cost her their home its
04:21
money she’ll never get back so James is
04:24
gonna sit in this box until his child
04:26
trapped in jail even longer than the
04:28
sentence he get for shoplifting most
04:30
people don’t know that money bail is one
04:32
of the biggest drivers of mass
04:34
incarceration pretrial detention people
04:36
trapped in jail while their case goes
04:38
through the system is responsible for
04:40
the entire net growth of the jail
04:42
population over the last 20 years
04:45
prosecutors systematically called for
04:47
high bail amounts that are far out of
04:49
reach for most people so they remain
04:51
trapped in jail prosecutors use money
04:53
bail to build their careers insurance
04:56
corporations used bail money to make
04:58
millions of dollars in profit but all
05:00
money bail does is keep people in jail
05:02
who shouldn’t be there
05:10
meet officer Hawkins this morning during
05:14
roll call
05:14
officer Hawkins was instructed to stop
05:16
and frisks young men in black and brown
05:19
communities officer Hawkins already
05:21
faces one accusation of police brutality
05:23
he should be alright though the police
05:26
and prosecutors work hand-in-hand every
05:28
day to drive up convictions so
05:31
prosecutors always give police the
05:33
benefit of the doubt when accused of
05:35
racial profiling or violence in 2015
05:38
nine hundred and eighty six people were
05:40
shot and killed by police officers not
05:43
one police officer was convicted of
05:45
murder or manslaughter by prosecutors
05:47
one reason police associations are huge
05:50
supporters of prosecutors in their
05:52
election campaign prosecutors should be
06:03
working to end discrimination against
06:05
black and brown people and other groups
06:07
targeted by predatory corporations and
06:09
the police that role should be to make
06:12
all of our lives better and they should
06:13
answer to the communities they serve to
06:16
protect all of our freedoms in the
06:17
Constitution but prosecutors are
06:20
actually taking away our freedoms and
06:21
ruining our lives whenever it benefits
06:24
them they help create mass incarceration
06:26
employers discriminate against people
06:28
who have been in prison ruining their
06:31
ability to earn a living nearly two and
06:33
three families with the loved one in
06:34
jail or prison are unable to meet their
06:37
basic food or housing needs politicians
06:40
take away the right to vote for millions
06:42
of people convicted by prosecutors
06:44
through unjust and racially motivated
06:46
voting laws prosecutors have more
06:48
influence over reducing mass
06:50
incarceration than anyone in the system
06:52
they’re almost all of them work to
06:55
increase it there are nearly 2,400
07:04
prosecutors in the US ninety-six percent
07:07
are white eighty percent are men seventy
07:10
five percent run completely unopposed
07:12
they think they have no one to answer to
07:15
but we can make prosecutors answer to us
07:17
this is you in just the last two years
07:20
people like you have organized to take
07:22
on prosecutors in cities across the
07:24
country and force them to change their
07:26
practices we are starting to win real
07:29
changes changes in the system that will
07:31
affect millions of people’s lives if we
07:34
want to drive mass incarceration and
07:36
police violence down we need to step up
07:38
Color of Change and organizations across
07:41
the country have created a way for us to
07:43
join together and win real change
07:46
prosecutors have the fate of so many
07:48
people in their hands we have the power
07:50
to influence what they do with that
07:52
power so how are we doing it learn how
07:55
to get organized what you can do and how
07:57
to get your friends involved help build
07:59
this movement check out winning justice
08:02
dot or
08:03
[Music]

—

This post was previously published on YouTube.

***

You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:

White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism

Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box

Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race

What We Talk About When We Talk About Men

—

Photo credit: Shutterstock