Why Persecute the Poor for Being Poor?

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/19-3

I love to cook and was delighted when a friend requested a pan of my favourite dish. In search of my "secret ingredient", I rode to the grocery store in the air-conditioned comfort of my car, focused on my task, with not a thought that it is a luxury to have several grocery stories in my vicinity, a working vehicle that can take me to those stores, and the disposable income to spend on life's basic needs and a few wants. Like most middle-class Americans, a trip to the grocery story is an errand one takes for granted. However, it is a story, like that of Raquel Nelson, which humbles me and deeply troubles my soul, reminding me that poverty in the United States means a special brand of persecution. Instead of waging a war on poverty, we are waging a war on poor people.

Nelson was convicted of vehicular homicide in her own child's death, although she does not own a car. Her conviction carries more time in jail than the person who actually hit and killed her four-year-old son. Nelson, who had taken two buses to Wal-Mart to shop for groceries, attempted to cross the street with her three children at the bus stop, located on the opposite side of a highway from her home. The bus stop is on a busy Atlanta road, a five-lane highway with no marked crossings, and the housing complex where she lived required crossing this dangerous intersection.

The driver of the vehicle, who admitted to being under the influence of alcohol and pain medication, and who is partially blind in one eye, pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run charge. He has already served his six-month sentence, despite this being his third hit-and-run conviction. The mother, Nelson, whose son was killed at the tender age of four, has been convicted of vehicular homicide for "crossing the street other than at a crosswalk" and "reckless conduct", a crime for which there is a three-year prison sentence.

I keep trying to understand this conviction and the crime that the jury believes she committed. How is one guilty of vehicular manslaughter without a vehicle? Why does the grieving victim face a stiffer penalty than the convicted driver? Why are there no safe crossings in front of a residential complex? Why were the complaints about traffic from other tenants of these apartments ignored? Why not lower the speed limit in this residential neighbourhood? Why design a city and a transportation system hostile to those who need it the most? Why persecute the poor for simply being poor?

More at the link --

[varelse]

1. The judge may have asked the same question

"At the final sentencing hearing, the judge gave Nelson probation and the option of a new trial. She will not have to serve the jail time that the guilty verdict of vehicular manslaughter usually warrants"

[dkf]

2. This is ridiculous.

It also has little to do with being poor, it could happen to anyone if stupid laws are used in such ways.

[RandomKoolzip]

3. Your dismissal of poverty is duly noted.

This one. Sheesh.

[RedRocco]

4. oh, so economic staus has nothing to do with whether

you will be prosecuted for a particular infraction? that a white mother from a more affluent area would have been charged with this if it had happened there?

[dkf]

11. Nobody should be put in jail for that.

It's plain idiocy.

[Dragonfli]

15. It is just plain idiocy, I am glad you see that. /nt

[Dragonfli]

5. It has alot to do with being poor, the law is very different for the poor both in how one is charged

and how one is sentenced.
I grew up quite poor and found it was illegal to just exist, charges being made up and rationalized later (with only Public Defenders practically no ability to defend).

After several years learning the trades, when I was lower middle class the law became far less about charges for non-existent crimes and more about what they were doing in "that" neighborhood. my former home.

I do not expect you to believe me, only the poor know what is done to them as they are quite invisible to most. It is true nonetheless and getting worse.

I'm speaking as a man who at the age of 16 was arrested for being poor and playing handball against the wall of a high school in a slightly less poor neighborhood.
The charge for this horrible offense was attempted burglary, I was convicted of a felony and served 5 years probation. My whole future was screwed up by this
The kids I was playing with were all picked up by parents and charged with nothing.

It is not the stupid laws so much as the way they are creatively applied to the poor to get "the filthy element" off the streets.

I am now poor again and unable to work due to my lymphoma, I imagine I will be committing a very serious crime soon called being poor and living in the street, there are numerous charges that can be used to convict me for that, perhaps attempted burglary of whatever building I happen to be sleeping near.

[zalinda]

6. Boy, do I understand.

We lost in the birth lottery, and we are penalized for it.

I wish you luck, I wish I could do more.

zalinda

[RedRocco]

8. I know exactly where you are coming from Dragonfli

one of the favorites they use around here is "being in a known drug area". kind of hard to avoid it when you live there.

[dkf]

12. That makes no sense though. What is the purpose?

Is it to make work for our justice system?

[Dragonfli]

14. I have no Idea, but usually the poor never get a trial, provided council just plea bargains

From several blown up charges to one or two lesser blown up charges, doesn't cost them much that way and the deals usually suck for the defense (it is nothing like what normal people ie non-poor deal with especially if one has done nothing) it looks good for the D.A., the cops who get the collar and the politicians running on "tough on crime".

It appears to me they just like locking up the poor, lots of money to be made in the prison industry, also the poor are considered "ickey" and many want them just to disappear.

In all truth I have no Idea why they do what they do, perhaps you should ask people that do it, not those that have it done to them.

[Luminous Animal]

17. It is the poor who have to take mass transportation to buy groceries.

It is the poor, who have little say in government, who end up living dangerously as a result of stupid designs by well compensated city planners.

[fascisthunter]

18. please become poor

then speak... thanks. Sometimes having too much money clouds your judgment.

[rustydog]

7. The rich fight back, they have a voice

[demosincebirth]

9. "With liberty and Justice for all," if you are wealthy.

[bvar22]

10. Its their OWN fault!

If they weren't so lazy and stupid,
they would be Wall Street Bankers!!!



Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?

You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Little Star]

16. She should have never been living in a section of town that

has no crosswalk at a bus stop! These damn poor people better move to a more upscale place where crosswalks in reasonable places always are.


This whole case from beginning to end has something to do with her being poor! What a world!

[awoke_in_2003]

13. because they cannot afford...

to defend themselves properly.

[Edweird]

19. Why? Because they are easy targets that have little or no effective recourse.