Equal Justice

EQUAL JUSTICE

The recent killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old boy on his way home from the store, cries out to ordinary people to fix the inequalities in the present justice system, (which is really just an archaic tradition of pomp handed down from centuries ago). When innocent people are convicted and guilty people go free, the system is broken and needs to be fixed.

To provide equal justice, we need to base our judgments on evidence, testimony and reasoning that is not tainted by personal prejudice or agendas, and to value every human life as equally important. This has always been the framework for justice, and the goal has always been to produce peace and security by holding perpetrators accountable for their actions by a punishment that answers the crime. If the system is effective, everyone benefits – even the criminals receive a much needed lesson in how to behave towards others. These lessons ought to be the responsibility of parents, caregivers and teachers but the overwhelming problem of the present day is that reasonable behavior is neither taught nor demonstrated to children, and accountability is avoided by almost everyone, from people in a position of authority to the rejects of society.

For this case to be tried properly, every statement should have been recorded on disc at the time it was given and the fanciful “demonstrations” and video “re-enactments” should have been cause to have the defense lawyers disbarred (if not sent to jail). The facts were never in question.. A neighborhood vigilante followed and confronted an innocent boy who was walking home from the store, talking to his friend on the phone. In panic the boy tried to protect himself from a “creepy cracka” and ended up being shot to death. Instead of meaningful punishment for the killer, the police investigators, the media manipulators, the gun manufacturers and distributors, the UFC promoters, the disappearing neighbors and the crafty lawyers, this will be recorded as one more “unfortunate accident” among the thousands of unanswered tragedies happening every year. The truth is that if there was no justice in the death of Trayvon, there is no justice for anyone. Our system has ruled that he must have done something wrong to deserve this.  Blame the victim!