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Do You Diggit? If so, please share!
It used to be that Truth, Justice and the American way was more than just a cool motto for Superman and was actually viewed to mean something in real life as well. Anymore, I am not so certain that this remains the case. In fact, like so many things, I have been saying this was a thing of the past since I was a young teenager.
It used to be that courts revolved around truth and justice but anymore, conviction rates seem to be the “in-thing” that judges and lawyers seem to concern themselves with. Ask any honest attorney or judge and I doubt that this will be openly contested to any great degree … other than as much as may be necessary in order for them to “save face” and prevent having any shame in the truth.
I remember in the mid nineteen eighties in Orlando, Florida, Sheriff Lawson Lamar was running for re-election and all of his campaign posters proudly proclaimed that crime was down thirty three percent. If ever there has been a case for truth in advertising, to me at least, in my personal experience, that would be the proverbial cause for truth in advertising laws.
To understand that, you have to understand the situation in Orlando at the time. Violent personal crimes were up noticeably. (Having steadily increased during his previous stint as sheriff in Orange County) Rapes, murders and violent robberies were approaching record rates as I recall.
So how is it that crime itself was down thirty-three percent?
Since I lived in what many people deemed to be “the bad side of town” at the time, I happened to know many of the “criminals” who were caught (and some of them were actually convicted) during this crackdown on dangerous crime. One exceptionally notable criminal was standing at the seven-eleven quite literally across the street from his house, holding a still cold gallon of milk in his hands.
What had been his crime?
He had walked across the street without arming himself with a valid ID and fifty dollars so he was arrested and prosecuted for vagrancy. I do not personally partake in illicit substances, but I actually had a friend who was arrested for “Intent to use controlled substances” when an undercover cop asked him if he wanted to go smoke a joint and he said he would like that very much.
He was not prosecuted as at the time at least, entrapment laws were still being contested and it was still understood that you could not legally prove “intent” beyond any reasonable doubt … even if people regularly do claim to be able to do so in the courts today.
Prostitution was definitely down and most of the “prostitutes” that were present were undercover police. They would bust literally hundreds of tourists, sailors and a handful of locals every weekend. Now I cannot personally say that this was a bad part of the crackdown on “dangerous” criminals but it certainly did not help to alleviate the problems with violent crimes.
I suppose that this incident would have actually passed me by in my teen-age years completely un-noticed had not one thing occurred that struck me as odd and made me remember it. Sheriff Lawson Lamar was re-elected and the papers praised his “effective crackdown” on dangerous crimes and criminals.
Now I do not know about you, but when I see somebody who is barefoot standing in front of a convenience store holding a gallon of milk, “threat” is not the first thing that comes to my mind.
Maybe I am just fooling myself into a sense of complacency and refusing to see the real problem here but there were many equally farcical cases that should never even have been looked at, much less carried out.
In fact, vagrancy in my neighborhood became almost a fact of living there as not many of us had fifty dollars at one time, much less carrying it with us at all times. If we had fifty bucks, we were doing well and usually bought food at Naugles or some other fast food joint and maybe some beer. Mind you, getting home with the beer was questionable too, unless you took a taxi across the street, or kept at least fifty dollars on you, but I am sure that the cops dutifully destroyed that evidence once the charges had been dismissed or fully prosecuted.
I have been very fortunate in staying out of the courts for the most part since then but I see no evidence that things are getting any better. With the exception of Judge Mills Lane in fact, I do not know that I have ever sat in any court room and listened to someone speak reasonably about our nation of laws.
I have seen no presumption of innocence and I certainly have not seen any ambitious search for truth, much less for justice, but maybe that is just the American way as it is anymore. Forget about the truth, justice is for those that can afford it, and I guess that really is the American way today.
Ward Tipton
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