Professor at the Washington College of Law, Angela Davis, talks “policing the black man” in a lecture last Friday at the auditorium in the Stellenbosch University library.
Professor Davis, who delivered a thought-provoking lecture on the racial disparities in America’s criminal justice system said, “My focus is specifically on black men because their experience is unique. They are disproportionally arrested. Black men are 2.5 times more likely to be arrested and 49% of black men will have been arrested by the age of 23”.
Professor Angela Davis is an author, professor of law at Washington college of law and is an expert in criminal law and prosecution. SOURCE: @angelajdavis on twitter.com
Reading an excerpt from her book “Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution and Imprisonment” Davis said, “Although black men have been the victims of violence at the hand of the state since the time of slavery, technology and social media now permit us to literally bear witness to many of these killings”. Professor Davis attributed racial profiling as one of the major factors in the killing of black men at the hands of police officers.
The book which formed the basis of the talk is an anthology of essays written by Professor Davis and other respected criminal justice experts and legal scholars. PHOTO: thebatonfoundation.org
After the lecture, there was a thirty-minute question and answer slot allocated to the audience. One audience member (who did not give her name) said, “In South Africa the difficulty comes with the fact that we have taken Apartheid legislation and just changed its dates. When it comes to the justice system, it is still extremely racially divided”.
Another audience member, a professor of criminal law at Stellenbosch University said, “The laws are perfectly fine, it is the enforcement of these laws that is the problem”.
When asked about the racial disparity of law enforcement agencies in America, Professor Davis said, “We have black police chiefs in the United States, some of the police officers who were charged with these killings are African American. Police officers have a culture where they support each other. It is not simply an issue of race. It is the commitment to social justice”.
Professor Angela Davis delivering her thought-provoking lecture on black men in the American Justice system. PHOTO: Judy Philander.