The True Achileas Heel of America: The Justice System

Many here on ATS have a belief that the US society is being--somehow from inside--upended, destroyed, ruined, on purpose.

Is there any other way to certainly destroy a society but through the justice system?


A poster lamented the thought on a thread that when the Charleston racist murderer gets the death penalty it may be in the year 2032…justice would be then denied.


I once went to an inner city court room to bail out a friend and was aghast at the site of young black woman in droves; Assistant DA’s putting young black men in jail who were up on charges of some criminal nature...very strange sight.

There was a case a few days ago where a young man was held without bail for over 3 years in jail before his trial would come up. He committed suicide.
www.nytimes.com...


Rand Paul even commented on the sad state of affairs over this case.


I could go on and on about our broken “justice” system… it may be better to call it INJUSTICE SYSTEM but we all know and seem to accept it as it is.

WHY


Do any of these politicians running for office ever talk about it ?

Rand Paul and Hillary actually did but I doubt if any of them is elected they will do anything about it.


There's something about the broken justice system that the elite seem to want to avoid fixing...


This issue actually is very applicable to the gun and massive murder issue that is being now debated all over the country over the Charleston killings.


Perhaps if we did swift justice we wouldn’t even have a debate about guns and murder


Don't we need to put the idea off a massive overhaul of our justice system at the head of the conversation?

But we never do.

I wonder why

a reply to: Willtell

You may want to edit your headline...Achilles heel

a reply to: soulpowertothendegree


thanks

a reply to: Willtell

You missed a spot.

a reply to: Willtell

Quite right in your remark you can destroy a society through its justice system.

We could do with a complete overhaul of ours in the UK as well, especially concerning our drug laws. However, with so many politicians here especially on the front benches being either ex barristers or solicitors, they seem to be ensuring themselves work if they don't get re-elected.

Our parliament is passing so many laws which jail and criminalise people, even for taking their children out of school for a legitimate reason, that its ridiculous. Our politicians actually need to think about their role and stop trying to constrict their own citizens into tiny match boxes of obedient clones and do something that will actually help the people in this country. I admit that will be an unknown and completely new concept for most of them.

I know someone personally here who was on bail for nearly 4 years and spent time in a mental hospital, the only different is that they were outside, but the effect of the wait for trial was devastating. Here we don't have as many prisons as the USA but they are totally useless for rehabilitation because the budget is so low there is no money to help people. We also seem to have a law system that lets off many violent offenders, whilst other 'paper-type' crimes which are non-violent get the full whack of the law. Something wrong when the courts don't protect the public from violence isn't there?

Amazing how similar some of the things are that affect people on both sides of the pond. But we should all remember that the legal system is great for controlling citizens rights and power.

a reply to: Willtell

In my many years, the US justice system has worked fairly well for all because the lady holding upraised the evenly weighted scales is blind. Now, the system is considered broken. I agree.

It started at the very top with the current administration that has, itself, broken law after law or let enforcement slide in critical areas. Respect for the law has diminished at all levels of society. The top tier and the bottom tier are the worst offenders in their respective ways. Those of us in the middle are powerless to change what has been set in motion. We can only ponder whether such chaos was intentional or inevitable. I tend to favor the former.

we have the highest incarceration rate in the world and a lot are in for low level offenses. here is a link to a story about how a south african delegation visited a jail in chicago and asked "where's the jail for the white people?" %86 minorities fill up chicago jails and %50 of jails nationwide. www.chicagotribune.com...

a reply to: Aliensun

It started at the very top with the current administration that has, itself, broken law after law or let enforcement slide in critical areas

Did you just assert that the problem started with the election of Obama? If so, it demonstrates a stunning ignorance of history.

The true Achilles heel of the judicial system has been laid in front of us for years .


It is called the almighty dollar . The quality of attorneys that represent's you is reflected by your wealth . Poor people go to jail and those that can afford very good attorneys rarely go to jail . That makes the system irreparably broken and biased from the start .

My opinion on the justice system in the USA:

Lady Justice may be blind; but she can sure as hell smell money.

a reply to: Greathouse

Yep. What if everyone was given a public defender. Rich, poor -- everyone got a PD from the same pool of public defenders?This way, no one would be allowed to flex their wealth in the court room by retaining a high-power attorney with "connections".

Everyone should be treated equally under the law, and if someone wants to hire representation -- they should be able to, from the same pool of representation as everybody else.

I wonder what that would do/look like...?

a reply to: Greathouse

It's so much more than not being able to afford a good attorney. It's the deliberate targeting of poor/minority communities where if you take up two seats on the bus or train you can be served a summons to appear in court which means having to take a day off work just to be issued a 500 dollar fine, that you can't pay so then you get thrown in jail for 10 days and you lose your job and your prospects for getting another job just vanished into thin air. Eventually you get thrown in jail for trying to survive, and then again... third strike and they have you.

The town/city/state makes money either way... either from people paying the absurd fines for having a moment of being human or they make money by keeping the quotas up for private prisons which in turn make their money from corporations that sell the goods you and I buy that we have no idea where the hell they came from (assembled in America).

People really have no idea how the justice system really works or what it has turned into.

a reply to: Kali74

My very first sentence read . "It's called the almighty dollar".

All of those things happen to people because they don't have a good attorney to prove bias or targeting . Take drug dealers as an example. Street level dealers are the ones doing the time, their suppliers can afford good attorneys .


The discrimination you speak of is at the enforcement level not the judicial level . But it is continued on at the judicial level for lack of proper representation .

a reply to: MystikMushroom


Well never see that

I believe who ever is undermining the system they know that to keep it as imbalanced and unjust as it is one of the pillars of its downfall to destabilize the whole society.

a reply to: Willtell

The system was created by wealthy people, as they are the only kind of people who have the money to be elected.

The same can be said about the tax codes. Tax code is written under the direction of wealthy people to benefit the wealthy.

If you have power and influence, of course you are going to use it for reinforce your own wealth and power.

Sometimes I think local politics ought not rely on elected officials, but randomly drawn names similar to a jury. Every time a seat on a city council comes open, a lottery of all local citizens is done and a name picked. Everyone would therefore share the responsibility for their community. How funny would it be to hear, "Aw man, I got picked to serve on the city council!"

It’s not only the process of unequal justice of the system but also the slow plodding way the wheels of justice turn.


To have a guy on death row for 20 years is ridiculous.

Or in jail for 3 years without a trial is the height of unequal justice


It needs to be streamlined


Where are all these smart politicians and judges and the Supreme Court doing something about this?


This issue is like the trade deals, that although some democrats are putting up a valiant fight, the deal will go through, just as they will keep this system and all its crookedness going like it is…
These 5 issues the elite keep on our necks to strangle us:


Trade deals

Immigration

Justice system

Terrorism

Crime

I don't support the death penalty, to give your government the right to kill citizens is dangerous IMO especially since its been proven the FBI crime lab lied for decades over hair evidence. The death penalty needs to be banned if only based on how many people have been freed from dna or other evidence in recent years.

The prosecuting attorneys have almost unlimited resources to gain convictions whether they are guilty or not. This needs to change there should be accountability, if you wrongfully send someone to prison you should be sent to prison for it. People need to stop electing government officials (prosecuting attorneys) for high convictions rate, this seems to adds to the current police state.

Obviously ending the drug war would go far in fixing our broken system but more work needs to be done both at the state and federal level.

Private prisons and prison labor also needs to be outlawed as it just provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption.

The judge that nailed me was a fmr ADA who spent 10x on his campaign than any other CP judge in the county. I was prosecuted for a minor crime with major political strings attached, along with the fact I had (real) evidence of crimes by appointed local officials. Well the judge sat there and made every obvious stupid ruling against me, plain as day and since the probation office had violated my rights up and down.

So, yeah....don't ANYONE think judges are honest and unbiased. They have an agenda, and where judges are elected, it means we have politicians policing politicians. In my case they have worked to undermine the most basic items such as Right-to-Know and Sunshine Act (rules of local govt). While the "laws" in this and other areas "look" good, the process is in ruins....deliberately. Imaging the local magistrate judges, 30 years plus never to get voted out, so very strange..?

This is a small-fry case. Judge's son didn't even bother to have his petition signed to run for his farther's seat, he forged people's signatures. What arrogance! www.timesleader.com...

This is the county where judges were taking cash to send kids to for-profit jails....

en.wikipedia.org...

Why are these things happening? It's simple. The public is demanding it.

What do you think tough on crime means?

a reply to: Willtell

Its the Criminal Just Us $Y$TEM.....The super wealthy and those that protect them have a license to be Criminal has nothing to do with Justice.

They are in the business of $ocial Engineering with false belief systems on every level. Mental Physical (genetics) Spiritual Emotional and Financial.

Media
Education
Entertainment (entrainment)
Religion
Spirituality

Its all controlled....plant the memes and we all keep each other in check with group think, go along to get along herd mentality or divide and conquer distractions