Anybody think we have actually have "equal justice" in America? (A rant)

[Cyrano]

If you or I stole a pair of shoes, we'd probably be on probation for six months. Unless we were black and then we'd probably be in jail for six months or more.

Meanwhile, Rove is still walking around free. Ken Lay (six years later) says he has no idea what was going on at Enron. The guy who drew up the road map for "legal" torture, Attorney General Roberto Gonzalez, will never see the inside of a court room. Nor will the guy who gave the go-ahead for torture, Donald Rumsfeld, (probably with a nod and a wink from Dick Cheney).

King George will never be held responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, not to mention the deaths in NOLA among his other crimes. Added to this are probably thousands of people around the country who have been involved in election fraud to one degree or another.

I may as well stop here, because the list of the inequities of our system are endless. It's always been this way. It's just more apparent today, given the robber barons currently running the country.

Why don't we all stop making believe it's otherwise. And while we're at it, why don't we stop making kids recite that "...liberty and justice for all" bullshit. End of rant.

[ThomCat]

1. Your post assumes that "you or I" are white.

In my case, that happens to be true. But it's not true for everyone here.

Other than that one minor slip, excellent post.

[SlipperySlope]

2. Let's see how that Duke rape case works out...

N/T

[anarch]

3. nobody thinks that

unless they're living in some kind of alternate universe.

[Coastie for Truth]

4. Excellent Post

One rule: The justice you receive is only as good as your lawyer.

Corollary: NY and North Carolina want to remove "Equal Protection" issues from their death penalty laws. So they, in effect, require that capital cases have to be defended by a "Capital Defender" - and that "capital defender" has to have lots of "major felony" experience (successful defense), and the "Capital Defender" has to be on the case from the instant that "custodial interrogation" begins, and the "Capital Defender" has an "unlimited expense account" (investigators, lab work, DNA, etc.) plus gets paid what a fancy, schmanzy Wall Street lawyer gets for defending a stock fraud case (that is "Big Bucks").

Result: No successful capital convictions.

[LibDemAlways]

5. There is no justice in this country. There is one

court system for the rich who can afford the best legal representation, and another for the poor and indigent who are at the mercy of the public defender's office - which may or may not be a good thing depending on the locale. A middle class person often has no choice but to hire the best lawyer he can afford, which probably isn't saying much.

In civil cases, a defendent is only going to find good representation if there are big bucks at stake. A decade ago I needed a lawyer to represent me in a civil case, and was turned down flat by many who couldn't smell big money down the road. The guy I finally hired did a decent job, but ended up taking more than 50% of the settlement because of a well-hidden clause in the contract.

The little guy in this country gets screwed at every turn.