A Declaration of Equal Treatment and Equal Protection for All People
A true Declaration of Independence should offer equal protection for ALL PEOPLE.
Every citizen, regardless of Religion, Gender Identification Or Race, should receive equal treatment under the law. Yet that isn’t the case today.
For instance, Brock Turner, a white student from Stanford University, raped a girl who was unconscious behind a dumpster. He was released from jail after only serving three months.
Two things to consider:
Where was the equal protection for the poor, innocent rape victim? Who is going to comfort her? How is she going to move forward in her life knowing her rapist is back on the streets after just receiving a slap on the wrist?
And there is this: Why was Corey Batey, a black student at Vanderbilt University, who committed the same crime as Turner, handed a 15-year sentence? Where is the equal treatment under the law in this hypocrisy? Why is there such a double standard based on a person’s race?
We in the United States are supposed to be as unbiased as we are firm in our morality. I am a proud black young lady, and I will demand respect as a human being — and that means, among other things, both equal protection and equal treatment. In addition, I do not want my children to grow up and have to look over their shoulders all the time, fearful that they will be victims of unequal protection and unequal treatment.
We the people must insist on Equal Treatment when sentencing people to prison for the same crime. How is it that black males are the highest proportion of the prison population, yet whites commit the most crimes? (This according to the F.B.I crime table of 2015). And we must insist on being Equal Protection, no matter how rich, or poor, or our color or gender.
We need to remove all biased people from all sources of power within the justice system. Anybody convicted of crime should be prosecuted and go to prison — but should serve the same time for the same crime.
America needs a cleansing of all hatred, evil and hypocrisy. That can only happen when justice is blind and there is equal protection and treatment.
— Waynett Wallace, Constitution High School, Philadelphia
