However, our laws are contradictory to those basic philosophies of redemption. Laws like the Higher Education Act, which prohibits those that have been convicted of drug crimes from qualifying for financial aid to attend college. Or the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act which deems those who have been convicted of, once again a drug or violent felony ineligible for subsidized housing programs. Housing and higher education-two things necessary to achieving a crime free and successful future.with this said, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone why life for folks like Lovelle Mixon is so hard after prison and why returning to a life of crime, not only familiar but easy, becomes the destiny for so many leaving prison and re-entering society.
Two programs located in Oakland, One Fam and the Mentoring Center risk receiving less than adequate funding for working with young black and brown men and women re-entering society after incarceration. Both these programs not only provide life skills training, but also help young men and women assess the very decisions they made and make that create less than adequate life outcomes but also result in jail.believing that people can be rehabilitated proves to be beneficial for everyone. these programs reduce recidivism and help create confident people who positively contribute to their communities through community service and other forms of giving back.
Its been interesting and sad to see how the very fact that Lovelle was an ex-offender has deemed him a “devil” by mainstream media and the general public and unworthy of investigating the very factors that created the 26 year old who so desperately did not want to return to the very system that helped create this cop killer. Compared to the news coverage two young white men Eric and Dillon, received,in April 1999, one has to ask if news coverage would look different if Lovelle was white?
After columbine there was a memorial commissioned by the community on the hill across from the school that the massacre happened at.15 crosses were erected,13 for the victims; students who lost their lives and the teacher who died trying to save them and 2 crosses for eric and dillion, the killers. As mad and outraged as many were, people felt sorry for them. People knew something “had to be wrong” with these boys. There was no public outcry or protest for crosses being added for the killers.
As for Mixon, life was not so sweet. And in the end Mixon only had freedom, the ability to roam where he wanted to. He had no job, no home to call his own, and less than a network of support adequate enough to help steer him in the right direction.there were no weeks of planning to kill 4 cops.In those seconds before he shot those cops he knew two things-his freedom, the only thing he had, was going to be taken away and he had a gun. The rest is now history.
Being poor and of color should never mean you have to fight twice as hard to live a decent life but it does. With this recession turning “well to do people” into desperate ass victims of the economy, I want to see what they are going to do when life outcomes for their children start to mirror those of poor people of color. Will there be laws created to deem them deeper into despair? If so, I am sure there will be no shortage of politicians and advocates to save them from becoming the next generations of Eric or Dillon’s. Or even Lovelles.
To find out about One Fam or The Mentoring Center or to make a contribution to these programs go visit:
www.onefam.org
www.thementoringcenter.org
Excellent article!!! :o)
However, this dichotomy can be summed up in the words offered by W.E.B. DuBois where he states:
“Murder may swagger, theft may rule, and prostitution may flourish, and the nation gives but spasmodic, intermittent, and lukewarm attention. But let the murderer be black, or the thief brown, or the violator of womanhood have a drop of Negro blood, and the rightousness of the indignation sweeps the world. Nor would this fact make the indignation less justifiable did not we all know that it was blackness that was being condemned and not the crime.”
Tungz
You really need to work on your writing skills and hire a criminal youth who can proofread your writing.
I don’t understand one iota of your argument and I work in juvenile detention facility!
Hector what didn’t you understand and what juvenile dention facility do you work in?
RE: “The Differences: Being Black or White and a Murderer”
Krea,
So that your commentary may reach a predominantly white readership too, *PLEASE* submit your *EXCELLENT* commentary as soon as possible to the Berkeley Daily Planet:
opinion[at]berkeleydailyplanet.com ,
and to the Mg. Editor, Justin DeFreitas
jdefreitas[at]berkeleydailyplanet.com
P.S.: I just called Krea and, personally, highly recommended that she submit her commentary to the Berkeley Daily Planet, so that it may reach a predominantly white readership too.
Of course it would be different if lovelle is white. Black people kill the most. They represent a tiny fraction of the population but murder and rape the most. Blacks have more problems than any other race. Are they animals? They certainly look different.
“There was no public outcry or protest for crosses being added for the killers.”
Are you smoking crack? The public went nuts over those crosses –
http://acolumbinesite.com/dylan/cross.html
“Greg Zanis, a carpenter from Illinois, crafted all 15 of the tall crosses that were displayed on Rebel Hill, in Clement Park across the street from Columbine High School. The crosses Mr. Zanis made for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were defaced several times while on display at the hillside memorial. The two crosses were eventually removed due to protest from people who felt that it was inappropriate to place a memorial to the two shooters in amongst the victims that they murdered. When the 15 crosses were moved to a park with the intent of making it a permanent memorial, public outcry forced the removal of Dylan and Eric’s crosses once more.”
I remember seeing news footage at the time of a person who went ballistic and destroyed one of those crosses on the late night news.
Is this what passes for journalism these days? We just get to make shit up and not even bother to research it.
Oh, and Lovelle Mixon spent his free time raping 12 year old girls.
Shame on you for defending a serial rapist.