Disclaimer: This is a legitimate question, intended for law enforcement officers/officials.?

Question

In short, my question is: Do you think that our judicial system in it's entirety could use some reform.

Now, the some of the reasons I ask are:

Hypocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy. Does it make sense to put people in jail for possesion of marijuana or other illegal substances, when the government makes billions of dollars each year by taxing alcohol, which is one of the most destructive substances that anyone could imbibe, and ciggarettes, which are some of the nastiest, most addictive, foulest, disgusting and harmful things ever, and yet we continue to mass produce them in factories...and then complain about overcrowding. Look, a murderer belongs in jail, but why you gonna throw Shaggy and Scooby in there with him?

Then there are the corrupt "representatives of the court". I certainly hope that you are as a whole aware that theireare many of them out there. Police officers, judges, etc...they are all human too, they simply have badges and guns and so can tell me my rights.

Wow, I had to start a new thread. Let me pause to say this; I do have alot of respect for law enforcement officers who are trying to help people and make the world safer, but it is a sad truth that some of you guys are just previous high school bullies who wanted to keep pushing people around, and to get paid for it.

Then there is bias at large within the Judicial system. Statistics just don't lie, there is an alarming amount of selectivity when it comes to individual sentancing, and often times implied racism or prejudice. A person can be convicted of 2nd degree murder if he hits a pregnant woman and she miscarries, but women are allowed to chop up their own preborn babies so that they don't have to learn from their mistaes.

Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone gets caught, and some people do learn their lessons. Have you ever had your driving priviledge suspended? Try going through all the crap you have to go through to get your license back; they treat you as if you were a lower lifeform, and they don't do anything to improve upn traffic court systems or DMV efficiancy, because they simply don't care. Just gimme all your money, and wait until I say you can resume a normal life again...I don't care if you already learned your lesson 3000 dollars ago...

I will leave it at that, for now. Anyone feel free to email me.

(Ever seen that movie, V for Vendetta?)

Answer 1

I think that the judicial system is built on a rugged, well-intended, and largely well-designed framework starting with the constitution, and working its way down to the procedure of a single trial.

What I believe is that human beings are flawed, and because of that, there is a great deal of injustice.

A deceased friend of mine, formerly a long-serving judge once told me that when he first ran for circuit court judge, he was told that in order to win and stay in office, certain policemen, politicians and businessmen and their families were "off limits". So in the first few years of his seat on the bench, he routinely disqualified himself in cases involving the list of "untouchables". Then one day, one businessman who was to become involved in a bitter divorce with his wife who was a member of a politician's family, appeared in their divorce case before my friend. The case had already been "passed over" by several judges who literally feared tangling with these rich and powerful people.

When he went to the chief judge of the circuit, he was told that he could not disqualify himself.

So he heard the case, took the evidence, and a great deal of filth came out of that case that gave him nightmares and headaches. The divorce revealed in gloomy detail how corrupt the system was, just below the surface, and how much money the wife was getting from her father's payola and how much money the businessman was earning as his cut in a local price-fixing scandal. Neither one of the litigants had paid taxes on any of the illegal gains they received, which made things very difficult.

Nonetheless, he found a way to divide the property as evenly as possible, and decided child custody issues in favor of the wife.

Soon, however, my friend found himself on a list of "undesireables" being circulated between the elite that ran the county.

His wife was fired from her job as a school superintendent, a job she earned after 20 years of faithful, low-paying jobs in the school district. The judge's salary alone was not enough to support their children and their home. He found himself near bankruptcy.

Then one day a man appeared at the judge's office and offered to loan him money. Money he would not have to pay back, provided he took care of a criminal case. The judge was assured that the cops had been sufficiently "greased" and all the judge had to do was skew the trial a little with some discretionary evidentiary rulings so that the accused would be acquitted on reasonable doubt. I pause at this moment to tell you first how my friend the judge felt.

My friend wanted to kill himself. He was an honest man who tried for the life of him to avoid the crooks that had been running the county. He knew if he didn't fix the case, his family would suffer even more. But my friend found out he had a lot more courage than he expected.

He told the man to leave and would consider the offer after the trial but before a motion for new trial was heard.

The judge ran a clean, even handed trial. The defendant was convicted, and his lawyer filed a motion for new trial. My friend the judge at that point disqualified himself when the man re-emerged with an even larger offer of cash and incentives to helpt the judge and his family out.

The judge had also called the FBI.

My friend died back in the 1990s. He was a good judge. Honest, fair and decent. His family suffered because he was an honest man.

But my point is, those who are like my friend are the people you want in those black robes. People whose only agenda is to serve justice honestly.

I don't see very many people like my friend anymore. Most judges are part of a larger agenda. That's sad. The rest mean well and cannot be bought or paid for. But they are in the minority.

If you want to change the system, you need only change some of the cheaters and players. Then you have a good system with good people running it.

Answer 2

Some people are trying to get alcohol and cigarettes illegal just like prohibition, only with cigs included. Which only proves that people that don't learn from history are bound to repeat it. I don't believe in laws designed to protect people from themselves. Big brother laws are not consistent with a free country.

Answer 3

Yes, the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of the government could all use reform, thank you.

Answer 4

Yes they could but they wont. It's all about politics.