On the latter point, she gamely notes, “I could write this entire chapter in anecdotes, but then you wouldn’t believe me when I say that White kids are treated differently than Black kids for committing the same kinds of crimes all over the country. Henning serves up numerous (and sometimes repetitive) cases from her legal files, documenting this unequal administration of justice with statistics and anecdotes alike. When those children do commit infractions, mostly involving underage drinking or minor acts of vandalism, they are punished far more severely than their White peers. “Black children are accosted all over the nation for the most ordinary adolescent activities,” she writes, whether hanging out in a park or shopping at the mall. As she writes, where one young Black student was accused of bringing a Molotov cocktail to school and went through a hellish legal ordeal, a White student who confessed to the same crime was barely punished. Rarely did any of the cases put before her involve White defendants. “Our nation’s obsession with policing and incarcerating Black America begins with Black children.” So writes Henning, a law professor who served as lead attorney with the District of Columbia public defender’s office, specializing in youth crime. A sobering assessment of the separate and decidedly unequal legal regimes that govern the juvenile justice system.
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