American Violet

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Recommended: Racial discrimination in the US justice system

American Violet is an American film that depicts the institutionalized racism African Americans face at the hands of the judicial system. Based on a true story, this movie was set during the election of 2000 and after the election. A young single mother of four, Dee Roberts, is wrongful accused of selling drugs in Melody, Texas. The powerful district attorney in Melody authorizes a police raid of Dee’s project apartments due to a single informant information. While drugs were never found in her apartment, she is taken into custody and charged with the crime of selling during in a school zone. Dee Roberts has no prior convictions and/or arrests. Also drugs were not found on her when she was arrested. Once Dee Roberts is able see an attorney, …show more content…

Dee refuses to take the plea deal. She is later approached by an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney and former police officer who would like to challenge the district attorney and change the criminal justice system. After much hesitation, Dee agrees to sue the district attorney and try and clear her name. There were many obstacles Dee faced in the process of her suing the district attorney. For example, she had a custody hearing between her and the father of her children which was overseen by the very same district attorney she is suing. Much investigation goes into making the case against the district attorney. The single informant that was used to begin the raid at Dee’s project apartments, was given a chance to testify. It was later discovered that the informant was coerced into saying that he bought drugs from Dee Roberts so the charges he was facing would …show more content…

The phrase, “war on drugs” was first used by Former President Nixon. The polices created tried to control the supply and demand of drugs but “the war on drugs” turned into a war on minority communities, especially African Americas. At this time, cocaine was introduced to the scene, but was mainly used by Caucasians. The police did not pay much mind to it until this very same drug started to show up in African American communities. (Welch 2007) “Urban black Americans have borne the brunt of the War on Drugs. They have been arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned at increasing rates since the early 1980s, and grossly out of proportion to their numbers in the general population or among drug users. (Welch 2007) The war on drugs helped create the stereotype that African Americans are the top users and distributors of drugs which is untrue. This made police single out minorities, especially African Americans when it came searches, arrests, and convictions. As stated earlier, police raid Dee’s project and arrested her and several other people. This was a pre-determined raid that in the eyes of many, was unlawful and unjust. Many people that were locked up with Dee and/or prior to Dee arriving at the prison, were there on drug charges. This is not the first time when drug raids have plagued the African American community. Police target these populations quite often. African Americans

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