Robbin Shipp - Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System

Copyright 2014 by Robbin Shipp and Nick Chiles

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shipp, Robbin, author.

Justice while black : helping African-American families navigate and survive the criminal justice system / Robbin Shipp, Nick Chiles.

pages cm

Summary: Advice for African-American families about dealing with specific legal circumstances such as avoiding arrest, being in custody, going through a trial, the and parole process--Provided by publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-57284-741-5 (ebook)

1. African Americans--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States. 2. African Americans--Civil rights. 3. Criminal justice, Administration of--United States. 4. Discrimination in criminal justice administration--United States. 5. Discrimination in law enforcement--United States. 6. Race discrimination--Law and legislation--United States. I. Chiles, Nick, author. II. Title.

KF4757.S55 2014

345.73008996073--dc23

2014027950

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is not intended to be a substitute for obtaining competent legal advice. Federal, state, and local laws will apply to any particular business or personal issue and readers should consult with their lawyers and not rely on the information in this book. The examples are provided for illustrative purposes only and no one can promise a similar outcome to any problem similar to those described in this book.

Bolden is an imprint of Agate Publishing. Agate books are available in bulk at discount prices. For more information, go to agatepublishing.com.

To my parents, Robert and Carrie Shipp, without whom I would not be, I love you both dearly. To my daughter, Alex, of whom I am very proud. And to all of the young men in my life who inspired me to want to write this. I hope your future is made brighter by this books existence.

ROBBIN

To my son Mazi, my daughters Mari and Lila, my nephews Miles and Cole, and all the talented and capable young men and women Ive encountered on my journeys over the years, every day when I awake I recommit myself to fighting for a world that looks at you and sees sweetness and joy.

NICK

Table of Contents

THIS BOOK IS the culmination of my lifes work as a criminal defense attorney in the state of Georgia. During my more than eighteen-year career, I have been privileged to represent many young, African-American men charged with crimes against the citizens of the state. Often, I would enter their lives while they were enduring tremendous stress and anguish, yet almost to a one, these young men were respectful, engaging, and at times humorous when discussing the circumstances that put them behind bars.

Three years in the making, this book is intended as a guide to help anyone ensnared in the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, in this nation, that typically means African-American males.

After we shelved the original outline for two years, this book was reborn after the verdict in the Trayvon Martin murder trial. Not since my fathers death have I cried as much as I did when the Zimmerman verdict was read. I cried because, as Fannie Lou Hamer said, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I cried over this nations propensity to be okay with the mass incarceration and death of hundreds of thousands of African-American men.

Do African-American men commit crimes? Yes, they do. But white men do as well. Its the disproportion in punishment that takes your breath away. Of the 2.3 million Americans in prison, more than 840,000 are black males. More than a third, in a country where only about 12 percent of the population is African American. Of the 200,000 females in prison, 65,000 are black females. Something is wrong here.

When it comes to murder, we dont see white men and women being gunned down under the guise of standing your ground. That distinction seems reserved for African Americans.

Black males and police forces have been warring combatants since this nations founding, when wealthy planters hired slave patrols to capture escaped slaves and to keep the white community safe from dangerous brown bodies.

The tactics have been modernized, but the impact is still devastatingwe are witnessing an epic criminalization of the African-American community at levels never before seen in the history of global civilizations. Lawyer and author Michelle Alexander calls it a new Jim Crow, which is creating a new caste system that is destroying the fabric of the African-American community.

But its one thing to bemoan the numbers, another thing entirely to do something about them. So we wrote this book in hopes of providing education and guidance for African-American men, and their families, to avoid the greedy jaws of the prison-industrial complex. Should they find themselves caught in its jaws, we try to offer ways they can minimize its negative impact on their lives.

This book isnt intended as a substitution for effective counsel, or as a magic spell to get you out of legal trouble. But hopefully the lessons, stories, and advice on these pages will give you a clear idea of how to minimize your difficulties and distress at each step in the legal process.

Stay safe.

Robbin Shipp, Esq.

IN ARIZONA, its Hispanics.

In the South, its African Americans.

In California, its Hispanics and African Americans.

In New York City, its everybody with brown skinArabs, African Americans, Hispanics.

Targets. All.

Victims.

For no reason other than the color of their skin. The texture of their hair. The language they speak. The country where they were born.

We have become a nation where many police forces have resorted to quick and easy racial identifiers to determine who is suspect, who is criminal, who should be locked up. In recent years this practice has come to be known as racial profiling, but for groups like African Americans it has long been a dispiriting, inescapable part of our existence. For African Americans, it can be called, simply, life.

Though the US Constitution and US courts prohibit racial profiling, the practice is still prevalent across the nation. Stopping it appears to be as tricky as removing hate from the human heart. Hardly a week goes by without another alarming media report chronicling another outrageous case of a racist cop, an overly aggressive retail store clerk, or an out-of-control school security officer singling out a person of color for some outrageously heinous act. These stories race across the Internet as fleet as a BeyoncJay Z rumor, spreading outrage and consternation in their wake.

Freedom from official tyranny, from an overzealous state, is one of those rights that most Americans take for granted. We step out of our front doors expecting a form of invisibility from law enforcement