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MillennialExistential's avatar

"The protections of the American system" were largely an illusion though.

Sure, if you were a moderately wealthy white person you weren't likely to be victimized, but lynchings were rampant in the cold war era and police abuse and brutality aren't new phenomenon.

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Mike Lew's avatar

It's not so much that I'm mourning the cold war era justice system. As you correctly note,it was far from perfect. I'm lamenting the loss of a broader consensus that everyone deserved their day in court, and innocent until proven guilty. MAGA just wants to go vigilante and call it a day.

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knowltok's avatar

Not disputing your larger point, but lynchings dropped off a lot by WWII.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html

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MillennialExistential's avatar

Interesting, guess I have to update my priors on that. I assumed they were more common than that set of statistics suggests. Thanks for pointing that out!

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knowltok's avatar

No problem, and I know you know this, but for anyone else, I'm not trying to minimize the larger point, or the violence that was prevalent that wasn't an actual lynching.

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