Imani Henry writes about how the racist court system 4 black lesbians to jail for simply defending themselves. I include an excerpt:
On June 14, four African-American women—Venice Brown (19), Terrain Dandridge (20), Patreese Johnson (20) and Renata Hill (24)—received sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 11 years in prison. None of them had previous criminal records. Two of them are parents of small children.
Their crime? Defending themselves from a physical attack by a man who held them down and choked them, ripped hair from their scalps, spat on them, and threatened to sexually assault them—all because they are lesbians.
The mere fact that any victim of a bigoted attack would be arrested, jailed and then convicted for self-defense is an outrage. But the length of prison time given further demonstrates the highly political nature of this case and just how racist, misogynistic, anti-gay, anti-youth and anti-worker the so-called U.S. justice system truly is.
I want to point out that the women used non-lethal self-defense, and that an all-white jury convicted them.
This story shocks me and disgust me so much that I want to keep my comments simple. I want everyone to have the right to self-defense, and of course that right extends to women, black people, and homosexuals.
Unfortunately, the current racist, prejudice, and classist government sends innocent black people, innocent gay people, and innocent poor people to jail, instead of stopping victimizers, such as rapists, murders, and thieves.
What do you think?
