Kalief Browder (1993-2015), an American student, was arrested in 2010 at age 16 for stealing a backpack. He spent three years at Rikers Island, New York’s main prison – without ever having been found guilty. He spent over a thousand days in prison, over 700 in solitary confinement.
In the US Constitution, the Sixth Amendment states:
“the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial”
But in the Bronx, Browder’s part of New York, there are not enough judges or money to carry out the Constitution.
About 96% of those accused of a felony in the Bronx plead guilty in exchange for a shorter sentence. There is no trial. Those who maintain their innocence – and whose families’s cannot afford bail or who are held without bail – are sent to prison where they can wait up to five years.
At the start of 2013, Browder’s case was just one of 952 felony cases in the Bronx that were more than two years old.
His case: The backpack in question had an iPod Touch, a camera, a credit and debit card and $700 in cash. At the time, Browder was on probation (having pleaded guilty to a joy ride in a delivery truck). The police could not prove Browder took the backpack – all they had was an accusation made by Roberto Bautista, who could not even keep his story straight. After three years of court delays, the judge threw out the case because Bautista was in Mexico and could not be reached.
In the meantime, Browder was at Rikers Island with its “deep-seated culture of violence” and, worse, its “culture of excessive solitary confinement”. The part for children has been likened to Lord of the Flies. Browder was beat up by both gangs and guards (some of the video of which has, amazingly, made it onto the Internet). In solitary he was constantly hungry and grew thin – on top of whatever it was doing to his young mind. He asked for psychiatric help, but was refused. He missed the last two years of high school, his prom, his graduation. Once when he talked to his mother on the telephone he could hear the song of an ice cream truck going by her house.
When he got out of prison he got his high school degree and went to Bronx Community College. He took the city to court. He told his story to the New Yorker, which helped to end the use of solitary confinement at Rikers on 16- and 17-year-olds.
But he came out of prison a different person: withdrawn, subject to panic attacks and flashbacks. He was overly afraid of being robbed or beat up in the subway. He no longer liked video games or basketball. He threw out his new television because he thought it was watching him.
It gets worse: During his third year in prison he started trying to kill himself. Even after he got out of prison, he remained suicidal. He was in and out psychiatric hospitals. On Saturday June 6th 2015 he hanged himself.
– Abagond, 2015.
Update (May 25th 2017): The corner of E 181st St and Prospect Ave. in the Bronx has been named “Kalief Browder Way.” News One.
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He was too tragic. May he rest in peace.
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I read about him in my on my Google + In New York this must have been a trending topic because many of the New York moderators on Google+ were posting about him. Tragic through and through.
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^^^on my Google +^^^ typo
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His story was in the main German news paper today. First time I read about him.
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I don’t understand why people don’t see that these are just kids. Maybe doing goofy stuff once in awhile but not criminals. Why can’t they see the humanity of teenagers and kids? Thanks for sharing this.
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” He took the city to court. He told his story to the New Yorker, which helped to end the use of solitary confinement at Rikers on 16- and 17-year-olds.”
There is something so inadequate with this!
The whole legal/enforcement system is racist—and all that was done was to end solitary confinement at Rikers???!!!!
…I suppose it is still better than nothing……
Isn’t one supposed to be innocent until PROVEN guilty?
—if so, the whole bail thing has to be reformed
—alternatives—such as communal arbitration, Church law/courts, etc should be advocated for a lack of “secular” judiciary.
—Minorities should always carry with them emergency numbers of organizations/institutions that can help them in situations of injustice/rights violations
—Minority students should be taught law/civil rights from elementary school as well as how to handle themselves within racist power structures….
—Minority communities, organizations and institutions must create alternatives (of spaces and power) to the systemic and structural problems of racist judicial/enforcement institutions. Changing these institutions will be impossible because the are built on the foundations of racism.
Creating alternatives to the existing institutions where these alternative institutions are built on the idea of human dignity for all —will create spaces for a plurality of systems that can accommodate the needs of many different systems—such competition of systems can allow the best (most beneficial) system to be the most popular thereby bringing more justice to our societies….
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[…] Sourced through Scoop.it from: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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This is so sad. I hope karma is real and the people who caused him to be left in prison so long get Treated ten times worse. Sorry but that is the best I can do with a story so messed up.
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This is such a sad story that it is hard to really say anything. Isn’t Riker for adults only?
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I think it’s funny that President Obama can be the Mexican American president and fight for temporary amnesty for undocumented immigrants, he can be the LGBT president and tweet support to Caitlyn Jenner on twitter, BUT when it comes to America’s disgustingly inefficient and racist criminal justice system, he can’t be the black/African American president. He is all of a sudden EVERYBODY’S president.
Instead of presenting and standing by legislation to combat the discrimination in criminal justice (the very least someone in his incredibly influential position can do for all those saying he is only one person), he’d rather lecture Morehouse graduates on how to be good fathers. Because college students need lessons on how to behave -_-
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This story is about how we live under the rule of lawyers not the rule of law as much as it is about anything else. The prosecutors are lawyers, lawyers with careers to move forward. All they care about is their conviction record and how many felony convictions they can report. The rest of us are cannon fodder to them. Those without muscle behind them, that means money and maybe connections brought to bear who have to be satisfied, get it from the system. Anybody who would not question leaving a teenager or even an older person with a felony record over a backpack or any of many other inherently petty offenses is to me a questionable person. The prosecutors who try these cases and judges who rubber stamp the plea bargain agreements are yet more questionable.
Do people know, the sanctions felons are subject to in the European context originally were meant to apply to aristocrats who had committed serious crimes. Common people who committed crimes had no political and civil rights anyway, so the issue largely was moot as regards to them anyway. Common people who committed crimes simply returned to their trades after serving their sentence. Habitual petty offenders suffered the same penalties habituals suffer today, in and out of custody throughout the course of their lives. For a common man, the major continuing penalty after the sentence was served likely was that they could not be a master in their trade, employ others that is to say. Few became masters anyway. The idea of a masterless man had a legal meaning in earlier European society. A master had to be either an titled aristocrat, a master tradesman or a business owner in any case. In the Elizabethan era, a masterless man was considered a vagrant and could be jailed.
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..Ugh, I am so disgusted and broken-hearted to hear about the demise of this young man Kalief Browder (R.I.P.) and how “the system” disenfranchised him of what could and should have been an otherwise chance for a great future! Reform, reform, Reform needs to happen on every level of authoritative governmental powers that be, is what keeps coming to mind when I hear of unfortunate tragedies such as this..
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Heartbreaking.
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Abagond:
I have a request, if its not already in the works. Knowing you, its probably in the works as we speak but to be sure.
Could you write a snippet about the white Civil rights activist woman, Rachel Dolezal, passing off as black?
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@Sondis: You beat me to it.
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Mary Burrell:
Talk about misappropriation!!
Now white people are claiming to be black, just to get jobs!! damn, we’re f*cked now! I hope she gets throw in federal prison!
Specially if she got scholarships at Howard for passing off as a minority!
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Here abagond, i even got the perfect picture for you to use for your header of the article:.
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@Sondis,
That is a very interesting topic. I also would like to see something on that. Thank you for raising it.
However, I am not sure if she has broken any laws. Racial identity is a personal thing, and people DO switch racial identities throughout their lives. They have always done it and it is perhaps even more common today.
I do know families where siblings identify as different races, even in the cases where both parents identify as black.
I also have read about many cases where white (or other non-black) people are raised in black families. They may identify socially and culturally and ethnically as black. Is there a rule on how they should mark themselves on forms?
In any case, I more or less agree with the take by NAACP regional President Gerald Hankerson.
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jefe:
what was his take? Gerald Hankerson.
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Also, if she falsified her race to get a job at NAACP, that IS illegal.
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Re: Sondis’s statement
^ If that is a legal requirement to get a job there.
As racial and ethnic identity can and does change over time, it may become more and more problematic regarding falsification of racial identity as something that qualifies as a criminal offense. Does the NAACP require some blood quantum or genealogy test to prove that one is “black”?
Recall Walter F. White, Executive Secretary of the NAACP from 1931-1955. He had no problem passing as white, and did not try to disguise his white ancestry. In fact, some of his success as a NAACP leader was related to his ability to pass as white in the midst of Southern white people (and thus get intel on what was going on).
When investigation was made into his genealogy, it was determined that 5 of his 32 great great great-grandparents were of African descent or origin.
I guess the difference is that White never tried to misrepresent himself to the NAACP, and is descendant of slaves. What Dolezal did was dress up as a transracial person, similar to what a transsexual cross dresser does.
I do expect that the issue of “falsification of race” will start to grow in the USA, esp. in a world where the one drop rule is losing meaning and enforcement.
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@ sondis @ Mary @ jefe
I was working on just such a post. It is now up:
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When I heard of Khalief Browder’ s tragic life and death, I must admit that I broke down. This is so so sad. I am very sorry for his mother and his family and all who are affected by his death.
As I go on my own daily life and contemplate his short life, i am inspired by his resilience and his courage.
I am lucky to have have found a very good therapist to help treating me for complex post traumatic stress disorder and post traumatic stress disorder (in part, as a result of Apartheid).
I cannot imagine the extreme pain that this young man had to endure.
To all the people who are complicit in this travesty of justice and absolute evil: his incarceration, solitary confinement , death, not enough words of condemnation and outrage. They have to live with themselves.
I am so so sorry, Khalief. Rest in Peace.
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This tragic story of this young man’s life is being told in BET and SPIKE television this week. We are all basking in the success of the breakout film Get Out but the real horror is this young black man’s life. Jay-Z produced this documentary called Time about the horror this young brother suffered as a victim of the criminal justice system and the tragic toll it took on his mental health. His poor mother suffered as well and died just recently, I feel it was from a broken heart grieving for her child. Kalief was so broken he ended up taking his own life. RIP to Kalief and his mother.
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@Mary Burrell
Thanks for providing updated information. It really hurts to read his story and the pain felt by his survivors.
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Kaleif Browder’s family was not allowed to post bail so he spent three years in Rikers Island for allegedly stealing a backpack. Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17 year old with killing two people in Wisconsin get a huge go fund me. There are two Americas.
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Correction, Browder’s family was not allowed to post bail because of lack of funds. Rittenhouse the white boy had a freaking Go Fund Me Page. This is so infuriating.
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