Authorities shoot an unarmed teen, whether justly or not, there is no accounting. Looking at the underlying systems in place in St. Louis Missouri as everywhere in America there should be no wonder millions have NO confidence in the police and the justice system.
We do not trust our Authorites. Well, maybe if you are really, really white you might. But most of us know the police are bullies and police are not accountable for the harm they cause in our lives and our neighborhoods.
The problem is the bullying. Our authorities bully us. Ironic because our authorities also make us pay for pubic service announcements and advertising explaining what bullying is and why it is bad in schools.
But our police and judicial system work almost entirely on bullying principles right up until you go to trial. Do what the police say, no questions, and you will be okay, which is often difficult to do. And if you get charged with a crime get a lawyer so the police and prosecutor don’t just put you in prison based on some silly procedural trick, or make a deal without regard to justice.
Sure our Constitution guarantees due process and equal protection regardless who you are, but that is not the experience of millions of us who intimately know our justice system. Generally speaking the best thing any of us can do is go to trial where principles of justice might exist rather than take a deal that means your lawyers and the prosecutor have to do less work. That is the basis of our judicial industry, shuffle money from the government to insurance companies to lawyers and put lots of people in the custody of lots of government employees.
The examples are countless. Read my book Against Goliath for common legal bullying methods used by Microsoft against me, commonly called Predatory Litigation. Microsoft’s legal department tries to earn money by charging people with copyright violation and extracting as much money as possible.
Microsoft hopes the person will have insurance and will hire a lawyer and a lot of professionals just shuffle money from corporation to corporation based upon the threat of going to trial, which no one wants to do. If it goes to trial there might be some justice, as judge or jury involved, and the bullying has to stop, and maybe even change the ways copyright laws are used.