Our "justice system"?

Question

America has the most amount of people in prison than any other place in the world. The most disturbing part of that is, that number can be greatly reduced if common sense was used. Honestly, the only people i believe belong in prison are people who try to intentionally harm others. We are slowly loosing our rights as each day progresses. The fact of the matter is, probable cause does not exist anymore and people are searched based on there stereotype rather than illegality. For instance, a 20 year old kid wearing a bob marley shirt will be searched based on what that kid is wearing not based on the law enforcement officer believing he was doing something illegal. I do not see justice here whatsoever. The goverment is just looking to drain as much money from you as possible . I can not tell you how many times cops have been so desperate to bust people with as many charges as they possibly can just for there own "growth". Whats your opinion on this?

Answer 1

I agree about the system being in shambles, but not necessarily for the same reasons. I used to supervise a parole office, and I've been a witness to what you've described. People are corrupt.

On the street, it's one way. The legal system and the correctional institutions are a big problem too.

Overcrowding (perhaps due to the problems you described), allow for lighter sentencing for violent crimes in order to accomodate felons who are serving time for simple possession. Recidivism, last time I checked, was about 33%. That seems like a failure to me.

Another reason for overcrowding could be because police and D.A.'s can use their discretion when charging somebody for a crime. Nothing is strictly by the book. There's plea bargains being offered left & right. I've known of murderers pleading down to aggravated battery. Even if you didn't commit the crime, wouldn't just about anybody accept that deal? If they like somebody more, they can charge them with a less serious crime. I suppose it's a good incentive to be cooperative, but it's also being used unfairly to gain leverage when evidence is lacking, and the suspect is too dumb to realize he should "deny, deny, deny".

I know a guy who lived in Arizona for a few months when he was 13. During that time he played truth or dare with a girl the same age. She dared him to get naked. He did. Her mom told the cops and the cops drove him home & told his parents.

5 years later, while in Illinois, a deputy arrested him on an Arizona warrant. He was extradited, and in the end served 8 months in an Arizona jail and has to register as a sex offender because of that game of truth or dare. Something is wrong about that.

Answer 2

OUTWARD APPEARANCES
If I am reading and interpreting this correctly, it would seem that you are also talking about the practice of evaluating people by their outward appearance. It is all well and good to say things like "Don't judge a book by its cover." but if you want a book about Japanese flower arranging, you do NOT pick up one with a picture of a wrench and pliers superimposed over a Volkswagon wiring diagram. That's just everyday common sense.
There are aspects of our outward appearance that we cannot control at all (race, skin color, height, eye color, various physical handicaps, etc.) and some we can control only with serious intervention (weight, natural hair color, etc.) and these are things that should NEVER, NEVER be used to evaluate a person!
However, there are also aspects of our outward appearances that we CAN and DO control (our choices of clothing, the style and length of our hair, general grooming habits, our posture, etc.). These, we DO choose and DO control, therefore they tell everyone who sees us just who and what we, as individuals, are. They tell the rest of the world whether or not we have enough respect for ourselves and others to put some effort into presenting a good, positive image, whether we are mindless crowd-followers or proud individualists, whether we go to foolish and impractical lengths to project our chosen self-images or know enough to combine practical comfort with attractive style, etc. In short, we WEAR who and what we are on the surface for all to see. Hence, phrases like "Fashion Statement", "The Clothes Make the Man (or woman)", "Who you are stands above you and shouts so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying to the contrary."(Voltaire).
To evaluate a person by those aspects of his appearance he CANNOT reasonably control is a severe mistake, but so is FAILING to evaluate by those he CAN and DOES deliberately control.

JUSTICE SYSTEM
It is true that there ARE MANY abuses in our justice system that go far beyond the issue you touched upon. In even the most benevolent societies, there exists a "legality gap" - the gap between common-sense ethics/morality and legality. The more corrupt and twisted a society becomes, the wider this gap, and there is no question but that ours grows daily.

TRAFFIC LAWS
Traffic laws, for example, are a legal obscenity! Had the British imposed the same laws and restrictions on the Colonists with regard to the ownership and usage of horse-drawn carriages that we have on the ownership and usage of motor vehicles today, we would be reading about them in the history books as causes of the Revolution - right up tyhere with the "Stamp Act" and "Taxation Without Representation".
Most, if not all, states label the ownership and usage of a personal motorized transportation device as a "privelege" not a "right". Acknowledgement of this even appears as one of the questions on the written test for a driver's license in some states! In other words, NO ONE has the RIGHT to own and use a motor vehicle, it is a PRIVILEDGE granted us by the state governments - a PRIVELEDGE we have to BUY from them!
In most states, the Statute of Limitations for a felony is 7 years and it is 2 years for a misdemeanor. In at least two states I have lived-in in the last 15 years, the Statute of limitations on a traffic citation was 9 years! That is the term of a FELONY AND A MISDEMEANOR, PUT TOGETHER! How distorted is THAT?

COURTROOM JUSTICE
We see it every time there is a courtroom scene in a movie or on TV. When a witness is sworn-in, they are instructed to tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth". That is, "the truth, the WHOLE truth and nothing but the truth". Yet, it is a common staple of courtroom scenes - one or the other of the attorneys cutting the witness off in mid-sentence to make sure only that limited portion of the "truth" that they want exposed gets out.
Every day, on shows like 48 Hours, Dateline, and other TV journel-type programs, we see cases where important pieces of information were never shown to a jury who, in the absence of that crucial information, made a wrong decision and convicted an innocent person or released a guilty one. There should be NO evidence EVER excluded on EITHER side when the fate of an innocent defendant or the fate of a guilty one's future victims hangs in the balance!
After the lawyers have completed the questioning of a witness, the court should then allow time for members of the jury to question him/her. (Any jury is going to have questions that were never brought up by the attorneys - questions that SHOULD be answered BEFORE a verdict is rendered!)
Yes, our justice system is a convoluted nightmare, and will continue to be untill it ceases to be about two sides, each fighting to win over the other, and GENUINELY becomes a search for the TRUTH!.

Answer 3

You asked for opinions, and you're not going to like my answer. Quit the victim-think. That's a loser's attitude. Chuck it or wallow in it; your choice but accept the consequences of that choice.

It's total BS that a kid would ever be searched just for wearing a Marley shirt. Shirt plus attitude? Could be. John Wayne shirt plus attitude? Same thing. It ain't the shirt.

As a devout libertarian, I agree that "victimless crime" is never cause for imprisonment. But I do realize that many of those in prison for such crimes have plea-bargained their way into lesser sentences.

Ah has spoken.

Answer 4

Grow up and get rid of the Bob Marley shirt. The justice you receive is based on the quality of the legal representation you can afford.

Answer 5

I totally agree. The Family Court system also sucks. There a children our their dying, because one or two people think they have the right to decide what is best for others. If lawyers and judges would actually listen to people and get off their high horses, the system might actually improve.

Answer 6

no i dont think you get it money is power in the usa when it comes to politics or even justice its fairly obvoius and its been that way for years and theres nothing you can do about it. check out some people that have been made prisinor just because of race like "Leonard Peltier". you can call me unpatrotic but I find it hard to be when things in the system are broken and not being fixed.

Answer 7

to verify what your very own experience of justice is, you're able to desire to ask no rely in case you think in determinism/fatalism or unfastened will. Its no longer an uncomplicated question. Your environment and your genes verify who you will boost into from a youthful age, which you haven't any longer have been given any administration over. in case you do undesirable issues because of the fact of those determining circumstances it is not precisely honest to hold you in charge. whether you have this determinist/fatalist point of view, nonetheless, you won't be in a position to get rid of punishments for undesirable movements and rewards for stable movements, because of the fact the lifelike expectation of advantages or punishment constitutes an important part of the determining circumstances on your environment. with out those classes to stable and undesirable action, the ambience is replaced to motivate the worst in human beings, so the question isn't no rely if punishments and rewards are merely, yet no rely if we are in a position to stay with out them. The non-medical and non-fatalist point of view is that we've unfastened will and that punishments and rewards are justified in themselves because of the fact we are finally in charge for our movements.

Answer 8

no one has the right to make another person hang out with them and the government cant be sure antone done anything wrong or else they would send them in space,

if someones defected just because you take care of other peoples problems,dont really know how to do it,and someone who lived before they had cars electrisity air condituoiner televisions and telefones was doing it before you, you still want other people to take care of you so you do what you have to

and i hoppe that answers your questions

Answer 9

What you are saying makes a lot of sense. Our justice system needs to be changed in many areas.

Answer 10

Somebody once told me, "If you don't want the "COURTS", in your life, Don't break the law." Well I used to believe that. But I no longer do. I know a few people, who have gotten "the raw deal" , for hardly anything !!!!