System out of Balance?

15 Dec 09

Additional comments on the Justice System, from a law professor and student:

"Who believe only guilty people are arrested and prosecuted are falsely/foolishly confident.

In fact, we now see an unlikely alliance of both Liberals and Conservatives, joining together to vehemently oppose the ever-growing list of federalized crimes.

For generations, when someone committed a crime, he knew he was wrong. ' Intent' was, after all, an element of the crime. Today, we can commit a felony, and that fact that we did so never even cross our minds, until officers come to arrest us. Congress is busy passing legislation (most of which they never read) instantly converting an innumerable host of benign behaviors into federal felonies! Not labeling a package properly (according to some obscure regulation), or even presenting a gun to your son or daughter as a birthday present, may well make you a federal felon!

How many good and decent people have been impoverished, and had what was left of their lives and personal reputations ruined, when 'repressed memories' were used as the basis for sexual-abuse charges? Police and prosecutors, anxious to pad their resumes, brought charges against them because some alleged 'victim' had her 'repressed memory' magically 'restored' during dubious 'therapy' sessions. Not all of these people could afford a jury trial with competent representation.

With the Duke University Lacrosse Team fiasco, the Central Park Jogger Case, and other high-profile instances, we eventually learned the truth. We would be foolish to believe that there are not many other cases, that never generated headlines, which resulted in an innocent person being swept away with a 'negotiated plea.'

Unless you can afford to hire stellar attorneys, the immense (and growing!) power of government can easily overwhelm you, and, when the prosecutor offers you a deal, you may have little choice but to accept."

Comment: We all agree that the foregoing is not what our Founders had in mind when they wrote the 6th Amendment!

/John

Truth?

15 Dec 09

Comments from a friend and student in South Africa:

"I have been enjoying your recent posts with regard to life in the USA!

Curiously, news reports over here are all still hyper-positive with regard to the current Administration. From reading them, one concludes that God himself now sits in the White House! In fact, you cannot find so much as a single unenthusiastic jot nor tittle! No mention here of your out-of-control national debt, nor double-digit unemployment! Your president can apparently do no wrong, according to our media.

With yours, and now even the European Press, the blush is slowly fading from the rose!

Our media, like yours, are a disgrace to their profession! Rather than guardians of truth, they are guardians, and promoters, of political agendas. They have scant regard for truth, routinely reporting what they wish were true, rather than what they know to be true.

By comparison, they make Al Jazeera look downright enlightened!"

Comment: The politicization of our news media, like the politicization of education, art, and now even science, is a clear sign of a declining civilization. When we steadfastly refuse to confront the unvarnished truth, and start blindly telling, repeating, and wallowing in, comfortable lies, we needn't expect a sympathetic response from World History!

/John