In a recent article that’s well worth reading, Dennis Prager announces the dropping of all charges against the two “butt-slapping” seventh-graders and then addresses a central concern that circumstances like these raise:
“A democracy cannot long survive the contempt more and more Americans feel for American law.”
That contempt is growing in direct proportion to the numbers of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, bureaucrats and legislators who demonstrate contempt for the law, a sense of entitlement, selective enforcement and arbitrary persecution of common citizens for the personal enrichment, enhancement of position or simply satisfaction of a bully mentality among law enforcement officers, prosecutors, bureaucrats and legislators WE cede power to.
And that’s the answer to the question I posed in my subject line: Who guards the guardians? We must. We must hold those who have sought the power to enact and/or enforce laws to the highest standards of conduct. Any time we observe a law enFARCEment officer making a mockery of the law–whether it is the cop speeding to his coffee break or the “Lon Horiuchi” who sees a “weapon” (a baby) in a mother’s arms and kills the mother, LEOs must be held to the highest standards of responsibility and when found to have violated them, suffer harsher consequences than common citizens, for “To whom much has been given, of him much shall be required.”
And the same for legislators, bureaucrats and prosecutors–more and more it seems, “persecutors” in the vein of Johnnie Sutton, Mike Nifong, Bradley Berry and Michael Schachter. “Michael Schachter?” you ask. Yep, there’s little doubt that Michael Schachter railroaded Martha Stewart, but almost no one cares, because, after all, she’s rich, right?
Justice perverted for one is justice perverted for all, friends.
It’s an axiom that power corrupts. Beginning with a sense of entitlement in the smallest things (“I can speed to my coffee break because I’m a cop”) and proceeding to killing 82 American citizens (Waco) abuse of power and its coverup (shame on John Danforth!) breeds a just and understandable contempt for law. Or at least for those brutes tasked with enforcing the law evenhandedly who instead use their power to enforce (or abuse) the law for their own purposes.
The answer to that is to do exactly as Dennis Prager is doing here: EVERY TIME we see the law used as a tool of anarcho-tyranny (loosely, abusing citizens instead of going after outlaws–see the article on Samuel Francis at Wikipedia)
And the same for legislators, bureaucrats and prosecutors–more and more it seems, “persecutors” in the vein of Johnnie Sutton, Mike Nifong, Bradley Berry and Michael Schachter. “Michael Schachter?” you ask. Yep, there’s little doubt that Michael Schachter railroaded Martha Stewart, but almost no one cares, because, after all, she’s rich, right?
Justice perverted for one is justice perverted for all, friends.
It’s an axiom that power corrupts. Beginning with a sense of entitlement in the smallest things (“I can speed to my coffee break because I’m a cop”) and proceeding to killing 82 American citizens (Waco) abuse of power and its coverup (shame on John Danforth!) breeds a just and understandable contempt for law. Or at least for those brutes tasked with enforcing the law evenhandedly who instead use their power to enforce (or abuse) the law for their own purposes.
The answer to that is to do exactly as Dennis Prager is doing here: EVERY TIME we see the law used as a tool of anarcho-tyranny (loosely, abusing citizens instead of going after outlaws–see the article on Samuel Francis at Wikipedia) we must press as far and as hard as possible to see the harshest possible penalty fall upon the abuser of power. Frankly, in the case of prosecutors who abuse their power, simple disbarrment is not harsh enough, though it may be all we can expect. *sigh* (Oh, for the days when a little “railroad expedition” organized by Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether might be possible! *heh*)
Oh, and as for “butt-slapping” seventh-grade boys? I’d agree with anyone who proposed the proper punishment for their behavior: a close aquaintance with my old seventh-grade math teacher’s paddle. You could hear the crack of the swats all the way down the hall (and into the next year, for that matter. *heh* Heck, the doughy lil old seventh-grade English teacher from my early teen years could probably have put the fear of God into those low-brow wannabe Till Eulenspiegels).
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