Cartoon 843: American Justice

America over the last couple of decades has gone through some seismic shocks in our beliefs. One is the America justice system. When Ojay Simpson was not convicted, many Americans were in disbelief. They believed he was obviously guilty. At the fore front of those shocked were Conservative Americans. They firmly believed in the American justice system. How could this happen?

The American justice system is really binocular. It sees and treats the rich and powerful through one eye and everyone else through the other.

Not too long before the Ojay trial there was another high profile one. It was a murder case which involved the Du Point heir. He was admittedly guilty of cold blooded murder but did not go to jail. Where was the same outrage? We take for granted the rich and powerful are treated differently. Our shock with the Ojay trial was that money can generate color blindness with the same result.

Books and movies have been written about the power of money in the legal system. The book by John Grisham and the movie, “Runaway Jury”, demonstrates how desired verdicts are achieved through controlling the makeup of the juries. This has gone from an art to a science. There are high priced businesses that can be contracted in this kind of effort. They have private investigators, psychologist, artist, writers and lawyers all under the same umbrella that function as a team.

There is no greater indictment of American justice then that no one at the top in financial institutions has been convicted of malfeasance in the Great Recession and sent to jail.