Is There Justice?
In today’s society, we have all seen a fair share of crimes, atrocities and injustices but in America, we see the most flawed and broken justice system ever. America, a free country that is known for it’s opportunity is a prime example of all the injustice and corruption happens in the world today. A good example of this is was a very controversial case of Trayvon Martin, where the murder, George Zimmerman was acquitted for the wrongful death of the teen. There are numerous examples of injustices that happen to victims and ‘criminals’ that are wrongfully incarcerated but there is one case that will get to people and strike them as the most wrong and stupid trial that should have ended in the criminal to be locked up. This case is about a teenager that was drinking and driving and killed four people and handicapped another but he was only given 10 years of probation because he was a rich kid that did not understand the consequences of his actions because he was rich, or otherwise ‘affluenza’.
So what happened that fateful night? 16 year old Ethan Couch, the perpetrator that caused the death of four innocent people went out with friends and stole beer from Wal-Mart and went into a vehicle and hit 4 people on the roadside tending to a broken vehicle. In a Texas court Ethan was given ten years probation by the judge. How did Judge Jean Boyd buy the case of the defence? A mental affliction called affluenza. This ‘condition’ is where a person does not understand the consequences of his or hers actions because they are rich or affluent. Utterly ridiculous. How can a judge sentence a reckless teen that was three times the legal limit of blood alcohol level and let him off because of a make believe mental affliction. To add salt to wounds, he is being taken to a spa like rehab that cost $450000 annually. Instead of sentencing him based on his wealth and status as a rich white teen who does not know better, he should have been sentenced as any other person should have been. Its tragic how money can bypass justice and is more valuable that 4 lives.
Criminals are not usually one to be blamed for their parts in injustices, it is usually the judge or jury or even both of them. George Zimmerman’s case was thought to be a lost cause and he was going to go to jail but the jury found him not guilty. Yes the jury. Out of the whole country, a select few people with the golden chance to put a murder behind bars found him not guilty. To make it even worse one of the jurors commented and said that he got away with it but he is guilty in God’s books. This makes America’s justice system a enormous sham. George’s defence case was a law called “Stand your ground” which allows a potential victim to use lethal force to a criminal when placed under life threatening conditions. For this case it makes no sense at all because George is a large male with a firearm ‘protecting’ himself from a defenceless young black resident of the neighbourhood, Trayvon Martin, who is clearly inferior to the man. George is a free man, Trayvon is dead, wheres the justice, nowhere to be found. The same law of ‘stand your ground’ was brought up when an African American female fired a warning shot to her abusive male partner that was threatening to kill her. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. A simple warning shot that hurt no one was enough to lock up a innocent woman fearing for her life and her kid’s lives but a grown man that killed an unarmed teenager is free roaming America.
How would you feel if your sons were taken by the police for no reason? That was the case for three black males waiting for the bus to go to play basketball. The police arrested them for obstruction the flow of other pedestrians on the sidewalk. Starting off , since when could you get arrested for that because that is the worst claim ever. There is a designated portion of the sidewalk for people waiting for the bus so other pedestrians have a clear path on the side walk. What makes this even more foolish is that the coach came and told the police that they were students going to play a game but to no avail he was threatened with arrest. How can we people stand for this? Cops are supposed to protect us, and serve justice to criminals, not arrest three innocent teens. Do we need to run a personality check on them now to see if they are racist or just give them a gun, a badge and some handcuffs and let them loose. No, we need to evaluate who we trust our safety with and not just take a gamble. It is unfortunate that even the police are the ones causing injustices too.
Most of all this injustice is mostly because of racism. It may not be evident but it is a huge give away to these stories. Remember the drunk driving teen that killed 4 people and was let off, the same judge sentenced a 14 year old boy to 10 years for unintentional killing a person with a punch. The catch here, he was black. The woman that was sentenced to 20 years for warning her husband to back off was also black. Many more people of different races are being stereotyped and being victimized by prejudice because our society has still not fully detached from the ignorance of racism. Every one should be judge equally not because of their skin colour, their wealth or anything else. The people that are judging these people should be the ones who face justice for their incompetence and their ignorance. Then maybe one day we will see all of this off and true justice will be served to the people who deserve it the most but if we are moving at the pace we are right now, there will be no true justice. So is there justice? No, sadly.