By: Karima Kayed of North Bergen, NJ
3rd place in ICNA CSJ-NJ’s BHM Essay Contest 2025
Title: The impact of systemic racism in law enforcement and the judicial system on society
It is a well known fact that there have been countless moments where systemic racism was clear in law enforcement and the judicial system. Innocent people accused of a crime they didn’t commit or got extreme punishments which goes against the eighth amendment. This amendment protects people from excessive bail, fines, and cruel and unusual punishments. Although there are clear laws that don’t allow certain things, people still go against them, even police officers. A huge example of this is the tragic murder of George Floyd. George Perry Floyd Jr was an African-American man who was born in North Carolina. He was an innocent man who was murdered on May 25, 2020 by a white police officer. His famous quote was “I can’t breathe.” His pleas were ignored by the officers murdering him. A report states that African American people in America are three times more likely to be killed by police officers and four point five times more likely to be incarcerated than white people. As if it wasn’t bad enough, along with these innocent individuals being gruesomely murdered, these police officers rarely even get charged and if they do, it’s a much less harsh punishment than they deserve. The same report states that more than one-thousand cases of police officers have murdered people, only one percent of them have been charged. Systemic racism isn’t solely apparent in law enforcement, but also in the judicial system. There are many reasons why the judicial system shows systemic racism and these reasons include: sentencing and charging, unequal supervision, wrongful convictions, death penalty, overall sentencing racism, and much more. Sentencing and charging have also been unfair because they are more harsh for African American people and not for white people. Supervision in the judicial system is unequal because they are more harsh and strict on African Americans than white people. There have been countless wrongful convictions for African Americans. One of these wrongful convictions is Marcellus Williams. He was put on death row for being accused of a murder he did not commit. He was innocent and many people were protesting and signing petitions for his release, but it did nothing. There was physical evidence proving his innocence, but due to the systemic racism in the judicial system, they executed him. This also connects to the unfair and/or unequal death penalty. The judicial system is so much more harsh on African American people than they are with white people. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Isn’t this supposed to be a free country? What happened to all that? We are all equal no matter where you’re from, what color your skin is, what your gender is, how old you are, how you look, how you act, etc. No one should be seen differently or treated differently based on how they look, but instead, how they act and what’s on the inside.