Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Monday 19 noveMber 2018

New black officers, court officials rethinking U.S. policing

By JAY REEVES elected the community’s County’s new sheriff ran chances for criminal de-
Associated Press first black district attorney and won on an alternative fendants to avoid convic-
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Pettway sees himself as message. tions through pre-trial pro-
— Veteran Alabama law part of a new wave of of- He favors decriminalizing grams and increased use
enforcement officer Mark ficers and court officials marijuana, opposes arm- of taxpayer-funded law-
Pettway grew up in a black tasked with enforcing laws ing school employees, sup- yers to protect the rights of
neighborhood called “Dy- and rebuilding community ports additional jailhouse the accused.
namite Hill” because the Ku trust fractured by police education programs to re- Chief Judge Tiffany C. Sell-
Klux Klan bombed so many shootings, mass incarcera- duce recidivism and plans ers of South Fulton’s munici-
houses there in the 1950s tion, and uneven enforce- for deputies to go out and pal court said officials also
and ‘60s. ment that critics call racist. talk to people more often, explain court procedures in
Now, after becoming the In a state where conser- rather than just patrolling. detail to defendants, many
first black person elect- vative politicians typically “Going forward we need to of whom haven’t been
ed sheriff in Birmingham preach about getting think about being smarter in court before and are
- on the same day voters tough on crime, Jefferson and not being harder,” said scared.
This photo provided by the “Black and brown people
Mark Pettway campaign often feel disenfranchised
shows Sheriff-elect Mark from the system, and I want
Pettway, of Jefferson County, them to understand what is
Ala.
Associated Press going on,” Sellers said.
“At the end of the day they
the Democrat Pettway, 54. may not like what I did with
While the nation’s law en- their case, but at least they
forcement officers are still know I explained things to
mostly white men, and them.”
groups including the Amer- Midterms voters in five
ican Civil Liberties Union North Carolina counties
and Black Lives Matter call elected black Democratic
for sweeping changes in sheriffs for the first time, in-
the criminal justice system, cluding Gerald Baker in
minorities appear to be Wake County. He defeat-
making gains nationwide. ed a longtime Republican
In Pettway’s case, strong incumbent by campaign-
turnout by African-Ameri- ing on ending the county’s
can voters, combined with participation in a Trump
national concern over po- administration program to
lice shootings of unarmed detain people suspected
people of color, helped of being in the country il-
him defeat longtime Sheriff legally and advocating for
Mike Hale, a white Republi- greater police account-
can, said professor Angela ability.
K. Lewis, interim chair of po- The message resonated in
litical science at the Univer- a county where a deputy
sity of Alabama at Birming- and two highway troopers
ham. were charged in the beat-
Winners in other cities at- ing of a black man earlier
tributed their success to this year. Kyron Hinton suf-
similar factors. fered injuries including a
Houston voters elected 17 broken nose, multiple dog
black women as judges in bites and a fractured eye
the midterms. socket.
Even before the election, “If we make a mistake out
nearly the entire criminal here in the actions that
justice system in the Geor- we take then we should
gia city of South Fulton, take responsibility for those
near Atlanta was run by things,” Baker said in an in-
black women, including terview after the election.
the chief judge, prosecu- Yet despite gains by people
tor, chief clerk and public of color, officials like Baker
defender. still represent a minority in
They’re offering more U.S. law enforcement.q