Top Prosecutors Call Out Heightened Pushback for Black Women in Power
“When you sit in this seat, people can say all they want about what they would have done or should have done. You've got to have the courage to do it when you're in the seat,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, the first black woman elected to serve as district attorney in the state of New York, said.
July 22, 2019 at 06:41 PM
4 minute read
Three of the nation's most prominent black women prosecutors on Monday told a gathering of lawyers Monday in Manhattan that they've faced a heightened level of scrutiny as they transform the way their offices do business.
Their remarks came during a panel discussion at the annual convention of the National Bar Association, the oldest and largest national network of predominantly African American attorneys and judges in the country.
“When I use my prosecutorial discretion in a way that someone doesn't feel like is the was that they would use it, then there's an extra level that happens when I do it, versus someone else, and we cannot allow that,” said Kimberly M. Foxx, state's attorney for Cook County in Chicago.
“Call a thing a thing when you see a thing being a thing,” she said.
Foxx was joined on stage by Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, the first black woman elected to serve as district attorney in the state of New York, and Aisha Braveboy, the state's attorney for Prince George's County in Maryland.
Clark, who has served as Bronx DA since 2016, said her position called for courage and confidence in charging decisions, as well as in crafting a broader vision for reforms. The pushback, she said, was a strength and not an obstacle.
“If you react to every single time that somebody comes at you, you're going to lose focus, and you'll never get the work done,” she said.
“When you sit in this seat, people can say all they want about what they would have done or should have done. You've got to have the courage to do it when you're in the seat,” Clark said.
The prosecutors said Monday that their offices had been engaged in a variety of reform efforts, including decisions not to charge low-level crimes, instituting bureaus to review wrongful convictions and pushing for increased mental-health services in lieu of prosecution.
However, the most controversial decisions are the ones concerning who to charge, or not charge, with crimes. Foxx said that four white nationalist groups joined a protest at her office in April organized by members of the Fraternal Order of Police, in a move that was seen as an effort to boost the groups' presence in the city.
“If 86% of the people in our jails look like me, and you get into this role and you start doing things that impact that community, the backlash will come,” she said.
But while black women take the brunt of backlash, Foxx said, some white reformers such as Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner are more likely to receive national praise.
Braveboy, the state's attorney in Prince George's County in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., agreed that the public response to the policies was inevitable, but, she said, her position called for increased communication and engagement with the larger legal community.
“That's what we're talking about. It's talking about the power to make a choice,” she said. “Some people hate the fact that we get to make the choice. … Each of us has the power, so we need you not to always stand up for everything we decide, because we may not always agree. But stand up for our right to make the decision and the choice.”
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