I keep seeing this CNN article around social media and it spawns A LOT of thoughts.
Gripes, mostly.
I agree with the sentiment; I think the social stigma often unfairly applied to people shouldn’t matter one single bit.
But I’m not naive.
Through my passion projects, volunteering, and doctoral work, I interact with a lot of people who are formerly incarcerated or incarceration-impacted. I would love to believe that a future President being a felon has the power to change public opinion, but his experience is vastly different than real people out in the real world.
On the campaign trail, he was talking about getting “tough on crime,” which does not work at all, and is in no way based on science or data.
In fact, Tough on Crime incentivizes prosecution and throws constitutional rights out the window.
This means one of two things:
- He doesn’t “get it,” and even after his own experience, he was shielded enough that he truly believes what he’s saying.
- He does “get it,” but has no desire to use his power and influence to make the world better and change the tide of public opinion regarding formerly incarcerated individuals.
He will never experience the true consequences of being stuck with the “felon” label.
He has power and money. That’s it.
It’s kind of like Judges who get caught drunk driving and get away with it, or when police and prosecutors use qualified immunity as a means to get away with unsavory activities.
He is NOT going to be treated the way someone who actually served time has, or deal with the REAL impacts of a stigmatizing label such as “felon.”
He’ll never have trouble finding a job. He’ll never struggle to secure safe and affordable housing. He is free from the nastiest of consequences.
He’s never going to serve time.
And that sets him apart from the pack in a few ways.
I don’t think he spent any time in a holding cell where the lights are kept on and depending on the charge (innocent or not) you’re denied a blanket and pillow.
He’ll never realize how backward the system is because he’s the President and won’t have the fire hose experience.
His experience is not at all the norm.
He’s had one probation meeting and it was virtual.
Most probation officers do not care how busy you are and whether or not you have gas money or even reliable transportation, for that matter. It won’t matter if you’re missing a limb and on the edge of death. They are going to make you come in.
He will never, ever have to report to a Probation Office for random testing.
He definitely didn’t experience the humiliation of being sneak-attack arrested in front of friends, neighbors, or coworkers; anything like that.
I doubt anyone did a strip search and asked him to “cough.”
Consider Trump the Crystal Lite of felons.
Read the article here.
