Still Free

Yeah, Mr. Smiley. Made it through the entire Trump presidency without being enslaved. Imagine that.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Blindsided: The Exoneration of Brian Banks

I remember when this story broke. Two things to say about this:

1) I recall during my time on Twitter the number of educated African-American women who were of the opinion that any time a woman says she has been raped that she is to be believed. If any of them are viewing this then they should now understand why I called them on it. How any African-American woman, fully cognizant of the history of lynching in America could open her mouth and say that a rape claim should be believed simply because it has been made is a betrayal of their own ancestors.

Now should police take a rape claim seriously? Absolutely. But seriously and true are NOT the same thing.

2) What was with the African-American woman lawyer who after receiving the total net worth of Brian Banks' mother, abdicate her responsibility to vigorously defend her client? I know people who work in the justice [sic] system who say that such plea deals are common. Yes Brian faced an uphill battle for a fair trial. As an African-American woman not only should she know this but given her supposedly uniqueinsight she should have been in a position to know how to get around such biases. I wonder if this woman even bothered to reach out to Brian. I wonder if she refunded some of her "earnings" (I use the term loosely given she convinced her innocent client to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit) to Mr. Banks.