School Board Meeting photo by William Martin

In last year we have witnessed a rolling series of protests at police brutality against black youth and black women; the Binghamton school officials’ beat down of a young Black male student; and, now, the traumatizing and strip searching of four Black girls at East Middle school.  To the credit of the local community, protests have grown in size, led by the Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT).  There will be another rally at East Middle School at 3:15 on Tuesday January 29th (see the PLOT Facebook page for updates).

These are not isolated incidents, to be recorded briefly and then forgotten.  There is a systemic problem of the criminalization of Black youth that local officials will not admit.  Recall that one of the first acts of the Binghamton Mayor Richard David, was to close down the Human Rights Commission.  He and city legislators have refused to collect and disseminate the racial, ethnic and gender data of those stopped and frisked by city police.  Court proceedings and high cash bail are purposively shrouded in mystery.  County officials, despite years of testimony and protest by Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST), refuse to address brutal conditions and excessive deaths in the Broome County Jail. Meanwhile the County has massively expanded the budget of the jail and District Attorney, while cutting health funding and closing the local mental health center. And this despite declining crime rates for decades.

The result of mass policing, criminalization and mass incarceration?  Broome County has the highest incarceration rate of any county in the state.

For Black youth and their families, the process has its origins in school.  We know from academic studies over the last ten years that Black youth commit harmful acts, including the drug use these Black girls were accused of, at rates no higher and often statistically lower than white students.

How then do we answer these questions, questions that local officials have refused to address at successive board meetings:

  • Why are black students in the Binghamton school district suspended at a rate 2 ½ times more than white students?
  • Why do we have a 26% drop rate for Black students at Binghamton High School?
  • Why is the Black drop out rate 50% higher than the white rate?

And after school?  Black youth are 10 % of the youth population of the county. Why are they:

  • over 40 percent of those cast aside as Juvenile Offenders?
  • over 40% of the youth captured by family court?
  • almost 50 % of the youth put on probation?

And the end result: a county incarceration rate for Black residents over 2,000 per 100,000 (vs. 270 for whites).

And for contrast:  why are Black students only 5% of Binghamton University enrollment, but 15% of those arrested by Binghamton University Police?

Source and Data Notes: