The Equal Protection Clause

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

This is from the 14th Amendment, and it seems pretty straightforward. It's kind of not. At the time it did not really cover women. While it covered Black men it did not make people of other races citizens, and soon the government was going to greatly relax enforcement efforts so that they could be better reconciled with the South.

So yes, it seems straightforward, and has been used as a way of holding state laws to a higher standard, but there are constantly decisions being made about who gets to be equal and what is equal enough. I would like to point out three examples where there is not equal protection under the law.

First of all, there is often not equal protection under the law for people with disabilities. While statistics about police shootings frequently focus on race, disabilities are often overlooked. Traumatic brain injuries and seizures have played a role in some shootings, deaf people have been shot for not following orders they did not hear, and people on the autism spectrum are often in danger.

I have no doubt that police response could be improved there, but these incidents often start without them knowing that there is a disability in play. When they are responding to a mentally ill person having a breakdown, or a suicidal person, that should be enough information to handle things differently. Responders still frequently escalate the situation, and then shoot. We know how to do better - Memphis has pioneered progress in how to do better - but too many cities don't choose to improve, making an important segment of the population not protected, but more endangered.

But that race issue is there too. Drug policy has been selectively enforced, showing a clear racial bias. Communities that fund through fines target poor communities, which often includes racial bias, because there is a perception that people of color will be less able to successfully combat the fines. Stop and frisk is a racist and ineffective program. There is compelling evidence that there is not equal protection under the law or from the law by race.

Third, let's talk about rape. A backlog in rape kit testing has been a scandal, but in many cases kits were not prioritized not because there was no budget, or there was too long a wait, but because the responding officers did not find the victim credible. Attacks on other victims may later make the case for some credibility, but there is a pressure on rape victims that other crime victims don't get. What were you wearing? Did you know him? Are you sure you didn't lead him on? Do you really want to ruin his life? Quite possibly the only people to face similar pressure are those complaining of police brutality.

That is not equal protection.

Recently a friend of my sister was mad because a boy kissed her granddaughter - who did not want it - and both the boy and the granddaughter got in trouble. This reminds me of policies in some departments where on a domestic violence call the standard is to arrest both people in the dispute. I believe the justification is to discourage false complaints, but it is a policy that discourages true complaints as well, and punishes someone who is already suffering.

Thinking about that, and how often children asking for help are told to just ignore their bullies, I think the real issue is that we are uncomfortable challenging the power structure. The bully is the one with the power, or the one doing the beating - we can't fight that! Police officers and principals are after all establishment, so it should not be too surprising if they support the traditional power structure.

It should be a little surprising that so many of us put up with a power structure that is disadvantageous to so many, and we make dents in it here and there, but it really isn't satisfactory. We should not be satisfied with "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."