PART II - THE SYSTEM AND ITS PLAYERS

Chapters 3-9

No matter how hard some folks try to portray New York City as a liberal utopia, its version of a criminal judicial system stands as a clear refutation of that notion. With all that is known about the racist origins of “law and order” politics, tough-on-crime rhetoric continues to win votes in New York City. The city’s most popular tabloids religiously depict the Black “brutes” terrorizing the local citizenry while unconditionally exalting law enforcement. Anti-Black racial hierarchy is the order of the day in the Big Apple, and everybody—judges, prosecutors, police officers, court officers, and even public defenders and their clients—are socialized to not only accept it but to promote it. Those who resist it within their respective spaces—be they judges, prosecutors, police officers and even public defenders—tend to find themselves on the outside looking in; they are often pariahs amongst their peers.

In this Part, Defenders sound off on the criminal judicial system and the actors within it. They speak about the adversaries of their clients, including judges—yes, judges—prosecutors, police officers, and to a slightly lesser extent court officers and clerks. Oftentimes in the courtroom, it is the public defender and his/her client against the world. However, Defenders don’t let their colleagues off the hook either; many attorneys, especially white attorneys, do the profession of public defense a major disservice because of racist attitudes they have and because of a lack of understanding of the Black experience. Throughout this Part, Defenders humanize the one set of actors that the rest of the system, including some of their colleagues, view as less-than: their clients. Defenders touch on historical and contemporary events, and they reflect on the interplay between judicial actors and dynamics such as race, class, and gender.