The Air Force said there has been “persistent and consistent” bias against black airmen in its judicial system.
The findings come in internal documents, according to Protect Our Defenders (POD), an outside advocacy group.
The documents were obtained by the group through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The Hill detailed the findings on Wednesday.
“Do we have racial disparities in our justice system or not? If the answer is yes, then what are we doing to identify their origins and to counter them?” reads a slide from a November 2017 presentation to Air Force headquarters. “Yes – the data reflects a persistent and consistent racial disparity.”
The Protect Our Defenders group noted that in 2016 “the U.S. Air Force claimed it was taking a series of steps to identify and address racial disparity within its justice system. This included, according to the Air Force conducting an internal investigation and establishing an expert working group to put forward recommendations.”
And it added: “Documents obtained by POD through litigation show that the working group touted by the Air Force met only briefly and made only superficial recommendations, none of which have apparently been implemented by Air Force leadership.”
Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said: “While we have taken steps to elevate unconscious bias training at all levels of our command structure, we have more work to do to identify and remove barriers that stand in the way of our people’s success.”
Meanwhile, a Pentagon report released in January showed sexual assault reports by cadets and midshipmen at military academies jumped 32% during the previous school year.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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