In this qualitative study, I examine the criminal justice system, specifically powerful individuals' (primarily high-ranking police officers, district attorneys [also referenced as prosecutors], and authoritative judges) mindset when interacting with people of color. I argue lumping people of color into "typical" categories -- stereotyping, images, prejudice, and emotions -- are compiling factors for consequences (unequitable discretionary decisions, criminalization, and mass incarceration) people of color encounter when interacting with powerful individuals in the criminal justice system. Therefore, I will demonstrate the mode of thinking by powerful criminal justice individuals in relation to people of color through relevant quotes. The quotes for this study were collected directly from interactions within court cases (court transcripts), exchanges of emails (primarily during business hours shared on company computers), and intimate interactions (everyday actions) provided by people in power. This study will analyze a vast majority of available public interactions with multiple powerful individuals within the criminal justice system. This research has found direct results of people of color being criminalized and facing inequality, discrimination, and racist interactions with powerful individuals' in the criminal justice system. Primarily, patterns of systemic racism in conjunction with white racially framed mindsets of powerful individuals resulted in institutional and embedded practices of bias. The results of this study suggest integral to the existing body of knowledge now available, studying the criminal justice system from the bottom-up (how the actions of minorities contribute to the system) is the incorporation of the top- down (how the actions of the powerful contribute to the system) perspective. Ultimately, people of color are criminalized in multiple facets of the criminal justice system, influencing how they formulate appropriate counter narratives. Thus, the concluding chapter describes the creation of a resisting counter frame by people of color. These resistance forms include active individual aspects coupled with community action -- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and activists --and resistance to racism. Consequently, the cases of activism are connected to specific instances in relation to the quotes provided in this study. Demanding actions against powerful individuals' abuses of power.
