Why Jack Johnson’s Family Should Refuse Any Exoneration

Successfully? As in actually moving the needle? Many smart people have tried and failed, because its not just about ideas, it's about execution, which requires consensus. This is the crux of the frustration with politics. It's slow, meandering, and often counter intuitive.

Obama entered politics gushing with ideals on justice reform. He was friggin president of the free world, and couldn't do more than pardon some non violent drug offenders, and various symbolic acts.

Sure, I could think of tons of impactful ways to improve the justice system too. Just remove congress from the equation, hand me a magical box with buttons that lets me change millennia old systems on a whim, and wham, I'll fix it for you!

All those great ideas you have for justice reform? Someone out there will vehemently oppose you. They will have their reasoning, curated "evidence," and supporters. You could sacrifice 5 decades of your professional career to try and push your agenda through, and fail.

Here, the iron is hot for the striking. To forgo in defiance is silly I think.

I'm with you. Jack Johnsons pardon is nothing compared to the need for real justice reform. His story is a grain of sand on beach of suffering. But when a window of opportunity presents itself, act! If we don't have the steadfastness to correct this when all the stars are aligned, we shouldn't have faith in our ability to correct it on a larger scale.

 

I'm fully aware that there are numerous steps we can take to improve the justice system.

I'm asking, can you materialize these ideas and push any of this through legislation?
Do you have a plan to get both sides of the table on board to implement these changes?
Of course not.

That is a whole other monster than asking the president to pardon a historical figure.
There are a lot of (misguided) Americans who believe that our prison system is not harsh enough. That's not easy to get around.

You can think of better ways to spend our time and money to impact change than to pardon Johnson, but I doubt that they're anywhere near the stroke of a pen away from going into action.

I'm saying we should pardon Johnson because it's easy to do, and there is little disagreement over if we should.
Whereas justice reform is very hard to do, and involves many disagreeing philosophies, motives and agendas.

Halting one for the other is like shooting ourselves in the foot. Makes no sense as one doesn't negatively impact the other.

That is great, and no step is too small.
My point is that a super idealistic US President could hardly move the needle on justice reform, but does have the power to pardon. There's no reason he shouldn't from a resource/efficiency point of view like you've argued from the start.

 

I know this is controversial, but here is my take

The OP article is very poor as it implies he was convicted concerning Lucille Cameron, who later became his wife. The actual charge concerned Belle Schreiber. Johnson was charged with "transporting Belle Schreiber from Pittsburgh to Chicago on October 25, 1910, for the purpose of prostitution." She was the star witness against him. I don't know what all the evidence was, but he was convicted. Off what I know at this point, he was probably guilty. Johnson was into running brothels and pimping women.

Was the Mann Act passed to target Johnson? It was passed on June 25, 1910. Seems unlikely that this law was passed just to go after Johnson when he hadn't actually fought Jeffries yet. The progressive movement against prostitution, alcohol, boxing, gambling, and other "evils" went back well into the 19th century. Just a guess, but I think the Mann Act would probably have become law if Johnson had never existed.

Was racism behind going after Johnson? Of course, to some extent. Anti-boxing feeling probably had a lot to do with it also.

Capone has been mentioned, and I think is a good analogy. Was anti-Italian and/or anti-immigrant bias part of going after Capone? I think yes. Was he targeted by the Feds? Yes. Does any of this make him innocent or a role model or even a victim? I don't think so.

Johnson? I don't think he was innocent either, so I don't see why he should be pardoned.

Ali took courageous political stands. Louis (like Joe DiMaggio at the same time) conducted himself publicly in a certain way because he knew he represented his ethnic group. It is true Johnson didn't give a fig about the Establishment, but that in itself doesn't mean much. I would imagine most criminals don't.

Bottom line--I think Johnson was the best heavyweight champion prior to Louis, but outside the ring we should be guarded at best with our admiration.

 

I appreciate your take, but what exactly do you think Johnson was guilty of?

 

Transporting a woman across state lines for purposes of prostitution.

Basically of pimping. The state lines part is only to bring it under Federal jurisdiction.

I am open to arguments that prostitution (although pimping might be a different issue) ought to be legal, but in fact it wasn't, which Johnson was, or at least should have been, aware of. Why a man who had just made the money he made beating Jeffries needed to be into this sort of stuff baffles me.

 

If Ronald Regan could waive the eligibility rules for Joe Louis burial
at Arlington National Cemetery with full miltary honours then
they can also pardon Jack Johnson.

 

kangaroo court sure.

 

the usual BS from you.

he wasnt convicted for cameron.

he was kangaroo court convicted for a case that happened before the Mann act existed.


You keep BS, its what you are best at.

 

Come on! Joe Louis was a hero for his country.

 

You can't even reply to my quotes in full context. How weak. Anyone can reply back with garbage, you can not formulate an intelligent reply. Johnson was GUILTY. The Mann act was active since June 25th, 1910!

So your wrong again as Johnson was convicted in 1912, and he was NOT the first.

It's getting hard to take you seriously HerolGee. You just don't understand the subject material and would be better off not commenting or making false statements in a Classic / History section.

 

It was a BS law they abused to target Johnson. This is all well documented.

"Assistant U.S. District Attorney Harry A. Parkin was not satisfied, and began looking for other women who Johnson might have transported across state lines. He asked the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation (forerunner of the FBI) to mount an all-out effort to "secure evidence [of] illegal transportation by Johnson of any other women for an immoral purpose." Federal agents fanned out across the country, looking for something — anything — to suggest that Johnson had violated the Mann Act."


Not sure if you're aware; but by supporting this arrest you are supporting a wrongful arrest driven by racism. He was targeted before they knew or thought he had committed a crime. Anybody who knows a thing about federal prospectors knows that as soon as they decide to target an individual, that individual is toast. Regardless of innocence or guilt.

 

You don't seem to underhand the art of politics .
You rarely get what you want in politics. When bipartisan opportunities arise, you take advantage.

You don't get to sit around in protest because some greater issue isn't being solved.
That's an immature way to look at it, and does nothing for nobody.

I want to solve world hunger.
But I'm not going to protest this pardon because I am aware that it doesn't take away from the efforts to solve hunger. It's two totally separate things. Same with justice reform.

Are you seriously asking about the differences in the difficulties in pardoning a dead man, versus reforming our justice system?

Are you seriously equating the struggle of McCain to get Obama to pardon Johnson, with sweeping justice reform? That is an incredibly naive position. My advice would be to listen more than you talk when it comes to this subject, because that sounded extremely silly, and you have a long way to go.

This pardon doesn't take 10,000th of the resources justice reform will take. And that figure is probably super conservative. Jack Johnsons pardon is not a full time, resource bending endeavor.

Again your ideals are great, but you have a poor grasp on the elements of government, and how to weigh cost and complexity with issues.