Where I Stand -- Evan Donoghue: Righting the wrongs

Editor's note: More than 850 juniors and seniors from area high schools participated in the 45th annual Sun Youth Forum Nov. 21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Students were divided into discussion groups on seven selected topics. Evan Donoghue of Basic High School discusses his group's opinions on "Law and Crime."

THE FIRST subject our group discussed was the controversial issue of capital punishment. Although the majority of the 38 students in our group were in favor of the death penalty, I and a few others pointed out internal flaws in this system: racial bias, its blatant assault on those of a lower socioeconomic status, and the countless cases of police corruption and concealed evidence that would have freed many innocent people.

Others saw it as a moral issue, stating that taking a life, whether legitimately or illegitimately, is wrong. Still, the majority took a more vindictive view of capital punishment. Their perspectives consisted of revenge for the victims of crimes and their families. Some students believed that the death penalty instills fear into the hearts and minds of criminals. This view unfortunately is completely false. Just look at the state of Texas. Gov. George W. Bush gave the green light to 135 deaths, yet the crime rate in Texas is still exceedingly high.

The U.S. capital punishment system is severely flawed, is racist and is a punishment almost exclusively for the poor. This system must be either destroyed or severely reformed to return justice to the so-called "court(s) of law."

Our second topic was whether minors who commit serious crimes should be charged as adults. Once again the majority of students took the side of punishment -- to try children as adults. Yet a fair portion of the group, including this writer, brought up the fact that minors do not have the same rights as adults, such as voting. Therefore, youth do not have the ability to flex any political muscle to change or elect people who could write laws to prevent children from being tried as adults.

Others believed that minors are more likely to be rehabilitated. Their solution to this problem was education and mending the child's mind through counseling. Still, more of my peers bought into the idea of throwing children away to the so-called correctional institution that rarely corrects anyone. A few students argued that all children know right from wrong. These students are correct in most cases, yet most people recognize that youths are impressionable.

This leads me to believe that positive influences in a troubled child's life can lead to the development of a productive member of our world, as opposed to the career criminal that often emerges from our prisons. It is also true that one cannot generalize all youth crimes, but the focus on all crime, including juvenile crime, should be correction through education.

Institutional racism is visible in many aspects of American life. One example of this can be found in many police departments in America and known as racial profiling. African Americans and Hispanic Americans are especially targeted by our police and are more likely to be stopped, arrested, jailed or even brutalized. These tactics are justified by the "War on Drugs," which gives the police the pretext to target people they think are on drugs or are gang members. It seems that Jim Crow still looms like a specter over the innocent people of color in this country.

I was delighted to see the racial mix of students in my group. They brought true-life experiences to the forum about this subject that I, being white, can only condemn with rage. I was also delighted to see that the majority of the students wished to end this discriminatory practice. Yet there were some who made excuses for the police, contending "they are just doing their jobs" or "police have to deal with the worst people in society."

Many of the students argued that there is no excuse for discrimination, unless being racist is in a police officer's job description. In America the color of your skin makes you a suspect in a crime, and I truly hope that my generation has the fortitude to change this glaring injustice in our free society.

I would like to thank Sandy Thompson and the Las Vegas Sun for making the Sun Youth Forum possible. I also applaud Judge Philip Pro, our moderator, for his time and sharing his expertise in law. Thanks also to my U.S. government/AP teacher at Basic High School, Mrs. Zollar.

I sincerely hope readers will appreciate my generation's wish to change the wrongs of our system and better the lives of all citizens of America and the world.

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