Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal Trial and Sentencing: Racism?

This is not racism.

These teachers were offered pretrial deals and post-conviction deals. I've *never* heard of a post-conviction deal. The ones doing hard time rejected the post-conviction deals.

I do think the racketeering charge was too much. As far as I know, racketeering as a charge has only been used to address organized crime (e.g. mafia activity, drug gangs) and not teachers participating in a very different kind of organized crime.

Everyone who went to trial went because they felt the racketeering charge wouldn't stick. After going to traffic court in 3 different states, I've learned that the letter of the law is the letter of the law - if you've broken the law, being a good person, being "not as bad a criminal" when compared to others or having somewhat pure intentions wont make you any less guilty.

Going to trial when caught with a smoking gun is essentially trowing yourself on the mercy of the court - and at two different junctures, the court offered all of these teachers mercy. Just because they were black does not make this whole situation racism. Let us not play the race card with haste lest it be robbed of its meaning.

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