1. This is absolutely irrelevant to the homicide. But a quick thread on why it is particularly evil.
2. Our system of justice, and any legitimate one, should mete out consequences according to the crime one commits. Our systems are supposed to be set up like that. All too often, though, they are not.
3. Instead of punishing people for their crime, we punish them for their record. We imagine that “criminality” is somehow synonymous with blameworthiness. And so our system punishes character, not behaviors.
4. This is fundamentally wrong. But, worse, it is also part of the way that Black folks catch the worst breaks. For those who (implicitly or explicitly) see Blackness as a marker of criminality, Race is a proxy for character.
5. So, despite the fact that it’s not legally relevant. Despite the fact that the consequence for smoking weed should never be death. Some will consider the above evidence that Jean was not “blameless.”
6. And that will be evidence that he had a hand in his own death. That he deserved it in some way.
7. As this case continues to unfold in public, please remember: crimes should have legal consequences. Character should not. There is a deep racial history and present to punishing character, and it is too often used to rationalize the death of Black people.
8. But most of all, it is dangerous to all of us. If we are seduced by the idea that the junkie deserves murder, but the sober person doesn’t, we shrink the circle of humanity we use to judge moral behavior—and we build a tolerance for dehumanization.
