Still watching the random stream I pulled up. At least one black guy got released when his lawyer spoke on his behalf, and showed the parole board video evidence that more or less exonerated his client of the crime he was charged with (punching the girl he was living with after she caught him cheating with their next-door neighbour). Most were sent back to the cotton fields.
Then after an hour or two, finally got to a white guy.
The dude was polite, well-spoken, and clearly rehearsed a lot. He knew his crimes down to the exact wording of the statutes, admitted to them fully without deflecting blame, and repeatedly acknowledged the victims' feelings and trauma, which he could never truly make amends for. The warden of his prison was in the background and the warden and several DoC staff members spoke highly of him. He'd taken dozens of classes, racked up the maximum number of "good boy points" his prison gives out, and continued to do programs even though it wouldn't give him any additional rewards. His brother showed up on a Zoom call, confirmed that he would have a place to stay, and added that his nieces and nephews were really eager to have their favorite uncle come to live with them - until he finds a job, which will definitely be the first priority, even if his family has to show him tough love. Then the parole board popped him with some surprise questions, like "what were your victims names?", which Mr. Whiteguy was able to answer fully. With emotion.
He'd been in prison since he was 20, having spent 25 years behind bars for attacking a coworker with a telephone chord. Which is
five times longer than the much-less-white George Floyd got for assaulting a pregnant woman with a gun, mind you.
Spoilers:
The white supremacist parole board approved the contrite white man's release into the care of his lovingly, but conditionally, supportive family. Those monsters!
It's like you can't even be black, do crimes, show no remorse, fail to prepare a thing, and then blame everyone else around you for your incarceration, without the parole board getting all racist.
But a smart, well-behaved white guy can spend decades being a model prisoner and thanking God, family, and the State of Louisiana Corrections Department for giving him another chance to make amends, and ooooo HE gets parole???
- all jokes aside, you just know that this case is going into some SPLC briefing, stripped of all context save "race of offender granted parole", in order to make the case that the parole system is racist and unjust, and that social justice overseers are desperately needed to redress the racial imbalance in parole hearings.
ngl, sounds like the height of entertainment.
