Jackson Advocate

Jovial Paternalism Vs Justice

John Wrighten, a Negro lawyer of Charleston, S. C., has written us to point out that Southern courts are altogether too lax in their view of Negro crimes against other Negroes.

It is not a new thought; many Negro leaders have been disturbed about the situation for years. But it is a thought that deserves to make more headway among those who prosecute crime and judge criminals in these parts.

Mr. Wrighten says this: ...

"If a Negro kills another, once a lawyer has been retained that is the end of the case. You never hear anything more about it.

"This, I think, should be stopped. A Negro offender of the law should be punished equally--if he commits a crime against a Negro or if he commits a crime against a white person. He should be punished according to the letter and spirit of the law."

Anyone who has observed Southern courts even fairly closely has observed this phenomenon. Murder is taken most lightly if both murderer and victim is black. Grave crimes are sometimes viewed as jokes; court officials get their chuckles from assault and battery.

This is all good for the criminals, but for no one else. It is an open invitation to intra-racial crime and it is hardly calculated to build respect for life and property among a very sizeable segment of the citizenry.

Murder remains murder, of course, and a knifing is a knifing no matter who slashes and who falls. And it is easy to believe that there would be less of both if the courts dropped this attitude of jovial paternalism where Negro crime is concerned.-Charlotte (N.C.) Observer.