Pardon Me
By Lucius Gantt – I consider myself to be a nice, peaceful and law-abiding man but I have been incarcerated on more than a few occasions, mostly for being present, but not exactly participating, at civil rights demonstrations and protests.
The last time I was jailed for trying to kill a policeman, or as the charges said, “Felony assault on a law enforcement officer”.
I wasn’t jailed for long even though while in custody, I was handcuffed “torture style” to jail bars in a holding cell where other inmates could have done anything they wanted to me.
After being jailed for nearly four hours, the police chief ordered officers to “unarrest” me. What in the hell is an unarrest?
Anyway, I want to be “pardoned” for wrongful incarceration. If you don’t know, certain charges and arrests can stay on your record even if you’re innocent. An example is an arrest for domestic violence.
President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are both expected to release or reduce sentences for thousands of convicted felons.
Trump said he plans to pardon and release thousands of insurrectionists convicted for crimes committed in a thwarted attempt to overthrow or change the 2020 election that Trump lost.
The local jails and state and federal prisons are inhabited overwhelmingly by Black, and other people of color.
Too many African Americans are placed in jails because they have been wrongfully over-profiled, over-charged, wrongfully prosecuted, and wrongfully sentenced.
Once, there was a young Black lady who had a boyfriend who was cooking up cocaine and selling crack out of her house while she was at work. The lady had no idea what her “Boo” was doing but when she arrived home, she was arrested and jailed because police said drug crimes were committed at her home.
She should be pardoned and released along with other women and men who are in jail because of something their partners did to violate the law.
Pardons can be good if used to free people who were wrongly arrested and convicted in a less-than-perfect judicial system.
The idea and plan to pardon people who try to overturn an election, and damage the federal government buildings that are paid for with the citizens’ tax dollars should be unacceptable and discredited.
I hope Biden and Trump will pardon as many people of color as they plan to pardon white Americans.
I don’t expect to be pardoned for my wrongful arrests. It would be nice but all of my heroes have been to jail from Jesus Christ to Nelson Mandela, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. Rosa Parks, and many, many other men and women of color.a