Tom’s Tidbits- The goose is cooked while the gander goes free

Greetings,

Crime and punishment have dominated the news the past two years, but pick the past two decades, centuries, or millennia… the questions of what crime is, who should be punished, or what ‘appropriate punishment’ means are as old as humanity. We might aspire to a world where punishment fits the crime and Justice is blind, but we don’t live there yet. From the poorest illegal migrant worker to the richest Plymouth-rock corporate raider, we know the eyes of Justice see money, race, sex, and politics all too clearly. Politicians offer platitudes of how lucky we are to live under the Rule Of Law, but laws that don’t serve people oppress them. As corruption attacks our Justice system we’re quickly sliding from the Rule OF Law to the Rule BY law, and there’s a fundamental difference. In one, the laws serve us while in the other, we serve the laws… 53599034_1511800522285602_5682264135157415936_n

Before laws the strong ruled the weak by whim so as a natural extension, when laws were developed, there was one set for rulers and another for the ruled. Sometimes this was explicit, as in the Chinese Qin dynasty where “the ruler is the source of all law and stands above the law… Law is what pleases the ruler”. In the West, the “Divine right of Kings” left no doubt the king was to write the law, not obey it. These tiered justice systems, or ‘private laws’, are at the root of our word ‘privilege’. But they’re examples of Rule BY Law, not Rule OF Law… Law used as a tool to bludgeon, not as a tool of Justice. The Magna Carta brought Law to kings, and our Constitutional assumption that “all men are created equal” theoretically underpins all US law, but in our 243 years the Rule OF Law has been observed as much in breach as in practice. Ask native Americans, racial minorities, women, homosexuals, religious minorities, political enemies, poor people… equality before the law has stayed aspirational.

But that’s the nature of Justice… even as we struggle for it we know we’re doomed to failure, but we have no choice but to try. Law is a sterile and mechanical framework applied to messy and imprecise human beings, so we make allowances because we know it can’t fit perfectly. We build flexibility into the system with ranges of punishments, we judge the same acts differently if motivated by malice or negligence, we consciously choose to let the guilty go free if there isn’t enough proof to punish. These are just some of the many flaws we must accept as unavoidable evils. But what we CAN’T accept, what subverts Law from a blessing to a bludgeon, is privilege… Private Law.

Again, we know we’re doomed to failure. We can try to apply Justice independently of individuals’ political or economic power, but “power” is specifically the ability to tilt the system in one’s favor… to corrupt it. Corruption is a bad thing for all of us no matter who does it. While we can’t eliminate corruption, we can and must ferret it out. But this fundamental assumption is challenged every day as we’re told Justice isn’t for all; it’s for the winners. We’re told corruption is just normal politics and shouldn’t be reduced, it should be accepted and we should all just learn to play the game. We’re told, bit by bit, to accept Private Law.

Multiple daily abuses of Justice tell us corruption so egregious it can’t be accepted should be ignored, but if it can’t be ignored then it certainly shouldn’t be punished. One need look no further than Donald and the rest of the Trumps for a buffet of unpunished corruption, but let’s take a look at some other recent cases anyway. Paul Manafort just got 8 years for tax and bank fraud worth millions, while crimes as petty as siphoning gas from a truck and possessing stolen wrenches can land people in jail for life. In his “otherwise blameless life”, Manafort created a new business niche not just by peddling influence to foreign governments, but by choosing to represent dictators, torturers, and strongmen… creating the Torturer’s Lobby. Of course, neither the cash lobbying nor supporting torturers were illegal, so maybe that’s not corruption. How about Obama not pursuing crimes of torture (among others) of the Bush Administration because they “were in the past”, where virtually all crimes occur? That decision imperils our basic American and Human values, but thank god we didn’t embarrass Bush or Cheney. You Righties will remember Hillary and the emails… while they found no crime, or at least not enough evidence to prosecute, her behavior would have ended the careers of anyone less powerful. Who was shocked to hear about the college admission scandal? To me, the only shocking thing was that giving millions to fund a building and thousands to bribe an official weren’t the same thing. What about Justice for corporations? Just recently, PG&E filed for bankruptcy to escape liability in the Camp fire and Purdue Pharmaceuticals is considering bankruptcy to flee from the opioid crisis they created. Exxon’s consciously denied Climate Change for 27 years, crippling humanity’s ability to reverse it and possibly dooming the planet. Don’t even get me started on Wells Fargo!

Even in the best conditions, no political, economic, or legal system will ever generate perfect, equitable Justice For All. But In today’s world corruption is the rule rather than the exception; reason for bragging instead of shame. We can’t eliminate all corruption but fighting it is a matter of will, and any civilized society depends on the fight. Corruption is a cancer in every society, and if ignored, cancer is always fatal.

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