Hello my readers, It is my joy to welcome you to my blog! I look forward to spending this time with you while we create a deeper understanding of the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.
In this first section, many heart tugging stories told by the author and speaker of the novel, take you through the journey he experienced as he worked personally with other African American men and women on death row. While doing so, Stevenson highlights major problems within our criminal justice system. While the government has worked to change these inhumane acts committed against those that have not been proven guilty, wrongful acts are still committed today in and out of the court room.
Stevenson's personal story on page 39 takes the reader back to a time when he felt personally wronged by the United States Law Enforcement. To summarize, he was sitting in his car listening to music in front of his apartment while looking at a few of the cases that he would be representing. While enjoying the music, he noticed two SWAT cars, otherwise known as Special Weapons and Tactics cars, shinning a bright light on him as he sang along to the music. Stevenson soon felt uncomfortable and decided that his best option was to simply get out of his car and walk into his OWN apartment where he would be safe. Yet, while trying to do so, he was cut off with one of the policemen walking at him, one drawing his weapon and shouting, "Move and I'll blow your head off," accompanied with "Put your hands up." After being detained, Stevenson described one of the officers as "now leaning inside my car going through my papers. I know that he had no probable cause to enter my vehicle and that he was conducting an illegal search" (41). After illegally searching his car and finding nothing to push the case further, the policemen were described as disappointed. Without an apology for the wrongful accusations and illegal search of his vehicle, the policemen gave up and drove off. Flabbergasted with the insensitivity from these policemen, Stevenson decided to write a complaint letter in hopes of an apology from the policemen and a change in how those with power treat others when not being supervised. Yet, the only thing he received was a letter from the head of the Atlanta Police Department giving the excuse that "the police officers had done nothing wrong and that police work is very difficult" (43). Along with this, a very prolonged meeting with the deputy chief whom showed little remorse, and no signs of wanting change.
While this story was carefully placed so the reader is able to connect to Stevenson emotionally, he was also able to use this emotion to help make the point that there is injustice within the judicial system. While today, more police officers and those apart of the criminal justice system have been held more accountable for their actions, some still continue to exploit their power knowing they will not be seeing repercussions.
The injustice within the United States Supreme Court System was exposed in recent events that
involved the death of 15 year old Mexican boy, Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca, when he was shot in the head twice, by border patrol agent Jesus Mesa Jr (HERNANDEZ ET AL. v. MESA).
The government favored Mesas story that showed Hernández practicing illegal acts of crossing the border of the United States from Mexico. As for the families and parents of those that were with Hernández, insist that they were simply "playing a game with his friends that involved running back and forth across the culvert separating El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico" (HERNANDEZ ET AL. v. MESA).
On February 25 of 2020, The Supreme Court of The United States "concluded that Agent Mesa had not violated Customs and Border Patrol policy or training, and declined to bring charges against him. The United States also denied Mexico’s request for Agent Mesa to be extradited to face criminal charges in Mexico" ((HERNANDEZ ET AL. v. MESA). Doing so sparked an international outrage, and resulted in petitioners to sue the U.S District Court for violation of Hernández's fourth and fifth amendment rights.
This motion was denied.
How could the government uphold equality, while supporting reckless and disgusting behavior such as this? How could the government with such great power, not hold their own law enforcement accountable?
Politics.
Racial bias.
Ineffective leadership.
WORKS CITED
"HERNANDEZ ET AL. v. MESA." SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 25 Feb. 2020, www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1678_m6io.pdf. Accessed 3 Mar. 2020.
Hi Meg,
ReplyDeleteI like how you focus on Stevenson's personal story about his encounter with injustice in the US Law Enforcement and connect it to similar current events today. While most of Stevenson's stories focused on people on death row, it was important that he included his own story to show that the problem isn't only affecting people with supposed criminal backgrounds but that it can happen to anyone. Stevenson is a lawyer, yet because of his skin his neighbors and the police decided that he was not someone they could trust so they unlawfully searched his car and treated him like a criminal because they could. I remember in the book that Stevenson was told that he should write a complaint letter and in that complaint letter he should mention that he was a lawyer. In the end, he decided to leave that part out. Why do you think he felt like he should leave that part out? Do you think that he should have mentioned that he was a lawyer, and if he did do you think that it would have changed the response that he got back?
Yes!! I did wonder why he would chose to not include the fact that he is a lawyer because I would think that would make them more inclined to think before conducting the illegal search of his car. Yet, the fact that the policemen were already being aggressive might make him think twice before mentioning the fact that he was a black man fighting for the rights of other black's on death row. He might be worried that he would be targeted by the policemen now that they know where he lives and what he does.
DeleteI loved this post! Not only did you give some insight on the topic of the book, as well as an excerpt, you were able to connect it to current-day events smoothly and effectively. Your writing style was effective as well, with your conversational tone in the beginning flowing nicely into the informative part of your post. I'm quite interesting in hearing more about the book, and I wonder what other stories he included that we can all relate to? Also I wonder if there are any excerpts later on that you can relate to personally, not just as a member of society hearing about these police brutality stories. I would also love to hear more in upcoming blog posts about the title, and how the title is reflected in Stevenson's writing. Great job!
ReplyDeleteGood discussion of how Stevenson includes his own experience into the book. How do you see the story you've shared about Hernandez relate to the specifics of Stevenson's case? Providing more specifics about the recent news story would be helpful.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post! Your writing style (especially diction) was very good and you incorporated both summary and analysis into this blog post. I like how you specifically focused on one story and went into detail about that as opposed to trying to spread yourself too thin.
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