Caged Bird

Caged Bird
"But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams, his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream, his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom." (Maya Angelou)
 
Fair Sentencing Act - FAIR SENTENCING ACT in 2010 under President Barack Obama
In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which reduced the sentencing disparity between offenses for crack and powder cocaine. The scientifically unjustifiable ratio meant that people faced longer sentences for offenses involving crack cocaine than for offenses involving the same amount of powder cocaine two forms of the same drug. Most disturbingly, because the majority of people arrested for crack offenses are African American, the ratio resulted in vast racial disparities in the average length of sentences for comparable offenses.
 This is an issue that was resolved in 2010 but it started in 1910. So that let's you know that the powers that be were either unaware or unconcerned or both.
 
Rev. Albert Cleage, "Prison is not an institution, it's an industry."
 
Tawanda Crowell in February of this year was caught off guard by police  officers coming out of Publix with her children for shoplifting Fried Chicken and Hawaiian Rolls.  They tried to apprehend her and she had no clue why they were arresting her, they then tased her, took her to jail, and charged her with resisting arrest without violence. Low and behold she had the receipt for the chicken and Hawaiian rolls in the bag.
 
When it comes to arrest in this country, when a poor man is arrested he calls his momma, when a middle class man goes to jail he calls his attorney, when a rich man goes to jail he calls the judge, when the elite go to jail he calls the president for a pardon, we have gone from the back off the bus to the front of the line. 
 
The Department of Correction is the new name for Colored Section. We have officers that are supposed to de escalate us and now we have to train black boys and men to de escalate the police. You are innocent until proven guilty is not always a fact. You are guilty until proven innocent when you are identified as Black.
 
On a local level City Council Member Garrett Dennis introduced a new bill for body cam footage.
 
Transparency builds Truth and Truth builds Trust and Trust builds Communities.