We hear a lot about justice these days: racial, economic and environmental, for example. Usually, the focus is on skin color, because identity politics is an obsession of the left and their media lapdogs.
But just as race is not the true wedge that splits apart our society -- class, wealth and the special privilege of connections (i.e., who you know) are far more divisive factors -- race does not play as big a role as it is purported to in the administration of justice. These days, political ideology takes the cake.
A quick word about the race obsession vis a vis justice, and then I'll move on to my main point: There is no question that in the past -- let's say 40-plus years ago -- there were many instances of minorities being unjustly treated by juries, police, judges and other officials, simply because of skin color. How many times has the "To Kill a Mockingbird" scenario played out, where an all-white jury reached an unfair verdict with regard to a person involved in a crime -- unjustly exonerating a white or convicting a black?
But those days are long gone. Despite the media's simple-minded distortions, and analyses by lawyers and justice organizations that overwhelmingly consider race as the determining factor on whether justice is being served, many variables are usually in play.
First and foremost would be a defendant's past record in terms of arrests, convictions and overall comportment. Harsh treatment for a seemingly minor crime might be because the defendant has a lengthy track record and shows no signs of trying to reform himself. This will piss off the lefties, but in many cases, black men shot dead by police would still be alive if they had not resisted arrest or threatened the officer with a weapon. (Of course there are instances where the officer is clearly guilty of egregious behavior and deserves to be convicted, but these are rare.)
Income level is also a major factor -- those who can afford the best lawyers, be they black, white or any other race -- usually receive more lenient treatment. Public defenders are often overworked and underpaid. They are never anywhere near as effective as the $700-an-hour big shots from white shoe law firms.
But let's turn to an ongoing injustice that grows worse with each passing year. In recent years, we have witnessed an unprecedented degree of selective prosecution of political enemies. In short, an attempted criminalization of political differences, wielded primarily by Democrats in power and carried out by the massive federal law enforcement and taxation bureaucracy -- i.e., the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security and others, including the ruthless IRS.
If they don't raid your home pre-dawn with a panoply of heavily armed special agents, and then ransack your belongings, they just might bankrupt you with tax audits, fines and legal harassment.
Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and now Rudy Giuliani have been victims of the over-the-top raid by SWAT-like operatives -- something that ought to be used on big-time drug dealers or prison escapees, not political hacks who did what all hacks do but unfortunately were targeted for reprisals.
And then there were a number of bit players or folks who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time who paid a heavy price in the obscene Russian Collusion hoax that chewed up three years and cemented the American media's position as solidly mendacious and partisan. Gen. Mike Flynn had to sell his home to pay his legal bills. Carter Page, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos were among numerous people nailed on trumped up charges.
Moving forward several months to the Jan. 6 unrest at the U.S. Capitol, dozens of those who trespassed are being harassed by the FBI, and some have been locked up steadily for going on four months without being released on bond. The FBI has pulled out all stops to hound these people across the nation. There are reports that several inmates involved in the Capitol trespassing were brutally beaten by guards at Washington, D.C.'s city jail. It is doubtful we'll ever get to the bottom of this; ditto for public revelation of the Capitol Police officer's identity who fatally shot Ashli Babbit that fateful day.
Meanwhile, going back nearly a year, authorities from cities and counties up to the FBI and Justice Department have given the kid gloves treatment to hundreds of Antifa and Black Lives Matter anarchists who have looted and burned buildings, shot fireworks at police officers, taken over city blocks, assaulted Trump supporters, and in some cases even committed murder. Despicably, Vice President Kamala Harris organized a fund to bail out leftist perpetrators arrested for committing some of these crimes.
And of course, all of this comes within the context of big-time criminals and miscreants committing offenses for which most of us would be sent to prison for decades. Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and others got away with serious offenses. Untold numbers of deep state hacks feloniously revealed classified information to the New York Times and Washington Post during the Trump administration. Three directors of major agencies, James Comey (FBI), John Brennan (CIA), and James Clapper (NSA) clearly perjured themselves on numerous occasions involving congressional testimony. The list goes on.
One of the hallmarks of justice is consistency. Consistent standards, application and punishment. Consistency is nowhere to be found, and may be gone for good in our thoroughly corrupt government. It may be too late to repair the grievous damage.
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