The AP found disproportionately high denial rates in 19 out of 23 states willing to provide detailed racial data, the largest collection of such data to date.
It began"Dear Claimant," and said her 24-year-old son, Randy, who was fatally shot in April 2006, was not an"innocent" victim. Without further explanation, the New York state agency that assists violent-crime victims and their families refused to help pay for his funeral.
People are also reading… Every state has a program to reimburse victims for lost wages, medical bills, funerals and other expenses, awarding hundreds of millions in aid each year. But an Associated Press examination found that Black victims and their families are disproportionately denied compensation in many states, often for subjective reasons that experts say are rooted in racial biases.
"We have this long history in victims services in this country of fixating on whether people are bad or good," said Elizabeth Ruebman, an expert with a national network of victims-compensation advocates and a former adviser to New Jersey's attorney general on the state's program. "State compensation programs are downstream resources in a criminal justice system whose headwaters are inextricably commingled with the history of racial inequity in our country," Mat Marshall, a spokesman for Delaware's attorney general wrote in an email."Even race-neutral policy at the programmatic level may not accomplish neutral outcomes under the shadows that race and criminal justice cast on one another.
Applicants can be denied if police or other officials say they failed to cooperate with an investigation. That can inadvertently harm people who are wary of retribution for talking to police, or people who don't have information. A Chicago woman who was shot in the back was denied for failing to cooperate even though she couldn't identify the shooter because she never saw the person.
"A lot of times it's perception," said Chantay Love, the executive director of the Every Murder is Real Healing Center in Philadelphia.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Black Californians hope state reparations don’t become another broken promiseBlack Californians have watched closely as the state’s reparations task force forged ahead in a two-year study, finally signing off this month on a hefty list of recommendations that will be submit…
Read more »
Black Californians hope state reparations don’t become another broken promiseIt’s uncertain what California lawmakers will do with the reparations task force’s proposals, which include payments to descendants of enslaved people and a formal apology from the state.
Read more »
Black Californians hope state reparations don't become another broken promiseCalifornia’s first-in-the-nation Black reparations task force is nearing the end of its historic work with a hefty list of recommendations for lawmakers to consider turning into action. Black residents say they hope the effort results in meaningful reparations. Many fear this will end up being another broken promise from a government offering false hope. At the end of the Civil War, newly freed people were supposed to receive up to 40 acres of land, but that never happened. Efforts in Congress to study reparations have gone nowhere for decades. People opposed to reparations say slavery happened so long ago.
Read more »
Black Californians hope state reparations don’t become another broken promiseAdvocates watch closely as California's reparations task force signs off on a list of recommendations that will be submitted to lawmakers. It’s uncertain what the state will do with the proposals — which include payments to descendants of enslaved people.
Read more »
Kentucky Gov. Beshear to face Republican Daniel Cameron in NovemberNEW: Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron wins the Republican primary for Kentucky governor, becoming the first major-party Black gubernatorial nominee in the state’s history and setting up a November showdown with Gov. Andy Beshear.
Read more »
Daniel Cameron wins Republican primary for Kentucky governorDaniel Cameron won the Republican primary for Kentucky governor on Tuesday, becoming the first major-party Black nominee for governor in the state's history.
Read more »