'Justice cannot exist in a white supremacy system. Each person is either trying to produce justice or he is trying to maintain the status quo.' [MORE]  The system of white supremacy is based on deception and/or violence.The so-called "criminal justice system' is part of the illusion of democracy. The white supremacist goal of the criminal justice system is the Greater Confinement of as many Non-whites as possible.

The refinement of white supremacy requires the appearance of justice. How would the courtroom look if all the defendants were non-white and all the judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and police were white? The criminal justice system looks and feels better to the Victims of White Supremacy with the participation of Non-white judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers.  The operating system of white supremacy runs more effectively like that - manufacturing consent, participation in their own destruction. 

During the Holocaust, Nazi's used Jewish professional persons to assist in the destruction of Jews - such as by having them hold open ovens to assist in the burning of their own people. Prior to the Holocaust, Jews were highly assimilated & integrated into German society - they considered themselves Germans. To be effective counter-racist advocates, public defenders must understand the environment they are working in. If they do not understand white supremacy, everything else they think they understand will only confuse them. [MORE]

Non-white prosecutors are the biggest "true beleivers" in the illusion of democracy. Themselves, victims of white supremacy most direclty assist white supremacists/racists 

From [HERE] I’d always wanted to be a lawyer, but unlike Travis Williams — the subject of this Op-Doc video — I never wanted to be a public defender. I didn’t understand how anyone could represent people who did terrible things. “Criminals” were not people I wanted to help.

Then, in 2009, while working in the legal department at A&E Television, I met Jonathan Rapping, the founder of what’s now Gideon’s Promise. He invited me to his client-centered legal training program in Alabama. At the start of training, Mr. Rapping asked each lawyer to articulate why he or she chose to become a public defender. One young man said he had a brother with Down syndrome, so he wanted to help people who could not navigate the legal system for themselves. Another said he had been arrested as a teenager, so he wanted to help kids like him who didn’t know their rights. Their stories moved me. I learned more about the true state of the criminal justice system during that week than I knew from all my years practicing law. I wanted other people to learn about what they were doing and so I decided to make this film.

I was horrified by what I learned about the criminal justice system. Innocent people, in prison for months or years, sometimes plead guilty to get out of jail; onerous sentences are too often given for minor crimes; people can lose civil rights, like the right to vote, as a result of criminal convictions. In America, a felony conviction can be a lifelong sentence because of this multitude of collateral consequences.

I also saw what a difference it made to have lawyers like Travis fighting hard for poor people’s rights. I saw him tell clients and their families that they were facing long sentences, outrageous bail terms or prison. But I saw him deliver even the worst news with compassion, and I saw him fight for every client. He’s inspired me to judge less and listen more, to try to put myself in the position of people who face a terribly structured system that often provides justice to neither the victim nor the accused. Thanks to Travis and the other young lawyers I met on this journey, I can proudly say I’m a “true believer” in their cause.

This video is part of a series produced by independent filmmakers who have received major support from the Ford Foundation and additional support from the nonprofit Sundance Institute.

Dawn Porter directed and produced “Gideon’s Army” a feature documentary that is premiering at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and will be broadcast later this year on HBO. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Georgetown University Law Center.