US criminal justice system ‘not fair’ for blacks: Rights activist

The failure of a grand jury to indict a white policeman for fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson illustrates that the US criminal justice system is certainly “not fair” and is a “huge problem” for African Americans, an international lawyer in Atlanta says.

Black people in the US “are frustrated because the criminal justice system in America is definitely not fair,” said Mustafa Ansari, who is also an African-American human rights activist.

An example of the unjust US criminal justice system is the stop-and-frisk program in New York City, “which has been a huge problem,” Ansari told in a phone interview with Press TV on Sunday.

“The issue of police reform in the US is a non-issue. I’ve been as a criminal justice professor, an international lawyer and now the dean of the American Institute of Human Rights. I have been to, over the year, a many sessions of police reforms. There is no way that the police departments in the US can be reformed … because we are battling 150 years of oppression.”

The stop-and-frisk program is a practice of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) by which police officers stop and question hundreds of thousands of pedestrians annually. The controversial program has disproportionately and unfairly targeted African-Americans and Latinos.

The grand jury decision on Monday not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown reignited violent protests for several days in Ferguson as well as demonstrations in dozens of cities across the United States.

Brown’s death had also sparked weeks of protest during the month of August around the country, which highlighted the longstanding racial tensions between whites and African Americans.

Ansari urged Americans to continue the “peaceful protests” and demand positive change in the country.