UPDATED: 11:15 a.m. ET, Nov. 24, 2021

Originally published: April, 30, 2019

One of the most glaring examples of racism in this country is the criminal justice system and its resulting outcomes that often vary depending on the defendant(s)’ skin color. Whether intentional or not, the racial disparities are impossible to ignore as Black suspects routinely get disproportionately sentenced to exponentially more prison time for similar, if not the same, crimes committed.

To that point, history shows that white people can many times commit violent crimes with little to no punishment, especially compared to their Black counterparts.

That truth rang resoundingly loudly this month when two white men who were each convicted of rape in separate cases were given lenient sentences that ensured they would not spend a millisecond in a jail cell for their violent crimes that the respective judges readily acknowledged. Both cases reinforce the apparent rule that allows white people to break the law — even rape and kill — with little to no consequences, especially incarceration.

READ MORE: Black People Who Got More Time Than White People For Doing Less

It’s especially offensive when it is a police officer who flagrantly breaks the law.

That was the case with Baltimore County cop Anthony Westerman, who raped a woman and assaulted another in crimes for which he was found guilty and convicted in August. But a judge decided on Monday that Westerman serving a sentence of four years at his home was a more appropriate punishment than prison despite the violent and sexual nature of his crime, according to NBC News. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Keith Truffer ultimately dropped one count of second-degree rape because, he said, there was no “psychological injury” for one of Westerman’s two women victims.

Serial rapist Anthony Westerman is a Baltimore police officer who sexually assaulted multiple women and was sentenced to house arrest. Judge Keith Truffer said there was “not evidence of any psychological injury to the victim,” despite the fact she receives therapy for trauma. pic.twitter.com/CxylL96JGH

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) November 23, 2021

Westerman’s lenient sentence came days after a judge decided that jail time wasn’t “appropriate” for 20-year-old New Yorker Christopher Belter, who pleaded guilty to and was convicted of felony charges of third-degree rape and attempted first-degree sexual abuse, as well as two misdemeanor charges of second-degree sexual abuse. Belter was a teenager when he raped and sexually abused four teenage girls on separate occasions during parties at his parents’ home near Niagara Falls.

On Nov. 16, Niagara County Court Judge Matthew J. Murphy III decided jail time wasn’t “appropriate” for these especially heinous crimes and that eight years probation and a stern warning not to do it again made for a more suitable punishment.

Convicted rapist Christopher Belter sexually assaulted 4 teenage girls in 2018 and a judge just sentenced him to probation. He won’t receive any jail time for his actions. Judge Matthew Murphy is a disgrace to the state of New York. pic.twitter.com/9yITgv62kZ

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) November 18, 2021

“I’m not ashamed to say that I actually prayed over what is the appropriate sentence in this case because there was great pain,” Murphy said in court. “There was great harm. There were multiple crimes committed in the case. It seems to me that a sentence that involves incarceration or partial incarceration isn’t appropriate, so I am going to sentence you to probation.”

After Belter’s lenient sentence was handed down, a lawyer for one of the women who Belter admitted to raping accurately noted that things would probably be much different if the defendant was Black or brown.

“If Chris Belter was not a white defendant from a rich and influential family, in my experience…he would surely have been sentenced to prison,” Steven M. Cohen said.

Ya think?

Whites who commit heinous crimes with no consequences are most definitely a consistent theme in America’s legal justice system. See some more of the shocking cases below.