Despite the Propaganda of Screen and TV
The Legal System is not Your Friend
Our legal system has the best public relations in the world. It masquerades as the “friend of the little person” all the while bringing the vast economic and power resources of the state to bear on whom ever falls under suspicion. Nearly since the beginning of the moving media (movies and television) the police have been portrayed as the good guys, except for some exceptions which invites rebellion against authority which is equally wrong and sinful.
The truth of the matter is that the legal system functions in a statistical system. The system and the individuals in the system are judged based on the number of “crimes solved”; i.e., convictions. This is the number one motivation of the vast majority of people in this system. The terms like justice, fairness and everything else we have been taught to expect from the legal system are just toys to be used to obtain your trust and wring a confession from you. This hit home recently while reading a book.
Mr. James Duane clearly and succinctly details how people are taken advantage of by the members of the legal system in order to gain convictions. It begins with the police seeking to ask you a “few” questions in order to clear a matter up. In your eagerness to help the police do a proper job you suddenly find yourself a suspect. It’s like going into a Used Car lot. The sales person has spent years perfecting the art of separating you from your money. Similarly, the legal system has spent centuries learning how to separate you from your freedom with nary a qualm of guilt that you may in fact be innocent. The system further legitimizes itself in that no one in the system is obligated to be honest, about anything. But, you are required to be honest about everything and any hint of dishonesty, or confusion, can be construed as evidence of guilt. What kind of “Christian nation” legitimizes its agents to be immoral in order to further its righteous ends? The answer; a decidedly unChristian nation which uses the methods of Satan to accomplish its own ends at the expense of its citizens.
Christ spoke to this when He condemned the Scribes and Pharisees (Mt 23:1-4). He told the people that the Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat so do and observe all they tell you. By this He meant that they explained the Law to the people who were to follow the true Law as written in the Scriptures for the Law pointed to Him, the Messiah. Yet, Christ truly said that these same Scribes and Pharisees do not do what they demand that the people do. They set one standard for themselves and another for those outside of their circle. They make the Law so onerous that no one could keep it and actually acted it! This is true of our legal system today.
Our rule makes at every level are so sloppy at writing the laws leaving it up to the courts to figure out the pieces. Thus, the legislature has given up leadership to the President and legislative prerogatives to the Courts so the only thing left for them is making money and passing more bad laws that make felons out of everyone. It has been said that every American probably is guilty of three felons nearly everyday because the laws are so poorly written. The law has also said that you are guilty of breaking these laws even if you had no intention or knowledge of these laws and rules!
Thus, when a policeman walks up to you wanting to ask you some innocent questions you can easily be ensured into a legal maze of which you were unaware! You can quickly change from helpful citizen to suspect to felon before you realize you were being interrogated for a crime! How did this happen? Mr. Daniel Boorstin (The Americas:The Democratic Experience) wrote a chapter on the influence of statistical measures on modern society. It was statistical analysis that created artificial divisions of the family segregating its members into toddlers, pre-schoolers, childhood, teens, young adults, middle-age adults, and seniors. It was statistics that gave power to psychology to imprison you indefinitely just for being different from everyone else. It is statistics that motivates the police state to judge progress by conviction rates (to name just one measure).
I do not mean to imply that the individuals of this system are aggressively evil but they are human. They want to be successful, especially in higher profile cases, in order to keep their jobs, gain promotions and retire. In this respect they are like each of us. However, unlike very few other professions, a mistake on their part can mean a cost of years on your part, if not your life. They have nearly unlimited resources of money, technical expertise and raw power at their disposal. Many have died rushing toward crimes while you were running away from danger. We acknowledge their contribution to our safety. But, this does not erase the danger they pose to us or excuse their blunders.
For example, FBI agents, a decade or so ago, acted as expert witnesses in many cases claiming to be able to prove that certain bullets came from the same batch of lead. People were convicted on their testimony. Later, this expert knowledge was debunked; in other words, there is no methodology available to prove which bullets came from which batch of lead. It was simple nonsense that robbed people of their freedom. How would you like to be sent to prison on fraudulent but sincere testimony?
We are increasingly surrounded by a bloated legal system that can turn anyone into a criminal. Recently, a Texas deputy was convicted for bringing false charges against a person he felt had insulted him. How much time, money, and worry did that person have to endure in order to “prove” himself innocent? How many times has this occurred and not been uncovered?
Thus, while I am no fan of lawyers, you should strongly consider obtaining one whenever the police want to ask you questions of any nature beyond 1) establishing your identity and 2) explaining your current presence (why you are where you are and doing what you are doing at the moment of the questions). Anything beyond that requires someone with expertise that you do not have of the legal system. It’s like hiring an auto agent to help you negotiate the sale of an auto at the best price (a practice in some countries, but not ours).
Remember, the life you spare may be your own. Yes, they can be that essential help in need but, you can also be that extra notch they need to advance up the ladder of their success meaning…you go to prison for a very long time.