Don’t defund the police, but Missouri has work ahead to fix our broken justice system

Our nation has gradually descended into chaos the past few weeks as a result of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. This atrocity has caused me to deeply reflect on my personal life as a father, and also on my professional life as a Missouri state representative and former prosecuting attorney. Criminal justice reform is something I have long worked on since I was a public defender years ago.

It has been my passion to serve Missourians and uplift those who are struggling. The Black community in Missouri, and across America, is hurting. It is time that elected officials and others in positions of privilege like me stand up and support and amplify Black voices. Contrary to what many say, those things can still occur while we remain respectful to our friends in law enforcement.

Although I grew up the son of a single mother in a one-bedroom house, I did not have to struggle with discrimination and police brutality like many of my Black friends. The system has never been stacked against me.

Policy changes must occur. There is no other option. However, the recent push to defund police departments is not the direction I believe we should take.

We need to legalize marijuana, increase revenue collected by the state and invest in community-based policing while ending the prohibition policies that have disproportionately impacted African Americans. We must take a look at our prosecutorial system and identify specific ways it continues to victimize Black Missourians through subtle and overt racism. Law enforcement, prosecutors and judges need diversity training immediately to begin combating systemic racism.

I have been a prosecutor and public defender, so my experience has shown me firsthand the ways Black people are put at a disadvantage. My time as a public defender opened my eyes to the good lawyers who are underpaid and overworked, while handling a level of caseloads that makes being an effective advocate for the Black community especially challenging. There, I was able to establish relationships with judges and prosecutors, and I worked long hours to get clients the best outcome.

I worked with many good attorneys who truly wanted to make a difference, but not all jurisdictions and districts are created equal. The resources are different from county to county, and the programs are not always adequately funded. As a prosecuting attorney, my job was to fight for justice on behalf of the state in the same system that disproportionately incarcerates Black people. I made deals at times and sought reconciliation and restitution when possible.

There were certainly cases where deals were not an option — crimes so horrific that the only acceptable outcome was an unagreed-upon prison sentence. But there were also instances where I subconsciously helped perpetuate a systemically racist system. I saw people struggling with addiction who would end up in a vicious cycle within the criminal justice system. They would test positive for drugs, violate the terms of their probation, go to jail, be forced to participate in a cash bond debtors prison situation, only to find out when they leave the jail that they have been fired from their job. They had no income or means of rehabilitation.

This is a common sequence of events that occurs regularly within the criminal justice system. It is time that people of privilege take a stand to ensure that equity and creating a safe environment are central to the criminal justice system — and that there is no place for the unfair treatment of Black people that has gone on too long. This work must be done.

This story was originally published July 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Don’t defund the police, but Missouri has work ahead to fix our broken justice system."