The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap Highlight

In the summer of 2012, a judge named Noach Dear, rotating into Brooklyn for part-time duty, infuriated the city when he challenged the public drinking summons of a Latino man named Julio Figueroa. “As hard as I try, I cannot recall ever arraigning a white defendant for such a violation,” he told The New York Times. He later had his staff check and found that only 4 percent of all public drinking summonses were issued to whites, while 85 percent went to blacks and Latinos. Ultimately this all comes down to discretion. If they want, the police can arrest you for just about anything.