The Social Issues Shelf

Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice: Why Justice is Hard to Find in America Eric D. Oberer
https://ericoberer.com
Atmosphere Press
www.atmospherepress.com
9781639887620, $28.99 Hardcover/$18.99 Paper

https://www.amazon.com/Courts-Law-Not-Justice-America/dp/1639887628

Unlike most critiques of America's judicial system, Courts of Law Not Court=
s of Justice: Why Justice is Hard to Find in America does not assume a one-= sided approach, but considers the problem of justice from a variety of view= points. It provides a huge service to law readers in exposing an array of o= pinions, precedents, and analyses from both sides of the legal bench, servi=
ng as a starting point of information for broader discussions about equity =
in judicial proceedings.

Eric D. Oberer comes not just from the usual worlds of academia or law, but=
spent much of his childhood in high-crime White and African-American neigh= borhoods. This lent his pursuit of legal work (as a "guns, drugs, and viole=
nt crimes" prosecutor in Baltimore) a special connection to street crime sc= enarios that allowed him to apply ideals of fundamental civil rights to sce= narios of crime, punishment, redemption, and innocence. The history of Amer= ica's legal system and the evolution of the modern urban criminal justice s= ystem's processes and patterns are nicely covered.

The survey probes definitions of evidence, reviews criminal investigations = proceedings both within the court system and before and after its processes=
, and analyzes how miscarriages of justice are perceived and committed. Esp= ecially thought-provoking are connections between policing and racial perce= ption which give rise to bigger pictures of social issues embedded in and r= eflected by criminal justice system operations. Footnoted references from t=
he legal world accompany examples of court decisions, methods for generatin=
g arrests, and the limiting choices faced by the justice system in general = and Baltimore City in particular: "Baltimore City could arguably move many = more cases through the system if it hired more judges and court employees a=
nd built a new courthouse. But can you really bring thousands of citizens i=
n each day for jury duty?"

That Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice proves as accessible to non-legal = readers of social issues as it will to those studying criminal law and just= ice translates to a primer that should be in all kinds of collections, from=
law libraries and college student holdings to general-interest public libr= aries seeing patron interest in social and racial issues. Oberer's history,=
filled with case histories, commentary, and connections between past and p= resent American judicial evolutionary processes, is a powerful consideratio=
n of what the definition of how the ideal of "Equal Justice Under Law" actu= ally translates in modern American society. It's highly recommended reading=
for anyone either entering the justice system professionally or looking at=
its results from the outside.

US: The Resurrection of American Terror
Rev. Kenneth W. Wheeler
https://www.kennethwwheeler.com
Precocity Press
9798985149494, $29.95 Hardcover/$19.95 Paper/$9.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/US-Resurrection-Rev-Kenneth-Wheeler/dp/B0BM3HHFFJ

US: The Resurrection of American Terror is a memoir of Black anger and stru= ggle, and comes from an Evangelical Lutheran pastor who identifies white su= premacy as the real terrorist threat on American soil.

Using his experiences growing up in the Jim Crow South, Wheeler embarks on =
a historical and personal examination of racism and prejudice which exposes=
how its roots and spreading contamination have touched not only seven deca= des of his own life, but the experiences of every Black person in modern Am= erica. History blends with civil rights struggles and insights about the ro= ots and impact of white supremacy as readers receive an unusual blend of sc= ripture references and social examination that embraces scholarly and spiri= tual works alike.

From community-wide grief in response to senseless shootings to personal, p= olitical, and social examination on the deepest levels, Wheeler shows how h=
is search for answers led him to look to Biblical references to explain and=
explore Black experiences: "When I learned of this shooting I immediately = turned to Psalm 88. It is a Psalm that is rarely used in the Church because=
it conveys such total bleakness. The Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggem= ann calls Psalm 88 a Psalm of deep lament. The words of Psalm 88 are the wo= rds spoken by people who have faced an evil that has turned their world ups= ide down. The evil has left them disoriented. The enigma of slavery was the=
beginning of our nation's disorientation. You stand in a place where every= thing that once gave you meaning and mooring and balance has been taken fro=
m you at an instant."

The heartfelt nature of this memoir reflects both a call to action, a drive=
for wisdom, and Wheeler's own experiences in a major white Lutheran denomi= nation that was glaringly scarce in its own examples of racial diversity. T=
he hopes expressed by such a congregation seemed more like "white noise" th=
an sincere efforts to be inclusive or representative. The religious roots o=
f the writer and US: The Resurrection of American Terror sets this memoir a= part from most others.

Far more than another civil rights history or personal story of struggle, U=
S: The Resurrection of American Terror offers an unusual blend of scholarsh=
ip and religious inspection that make it especially recommendable to religi= ous library holdings. These audiences, as well as libraries catering to div= erse populations interested in issues of Black participation in largely Whi=
te groups, will find US: The Resurrection of American Terror holds many gro= undbreaking insights that deserve to be included in book clubs and social i= ssues discussion groups.

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