Liberty of Justice for All
by Jorge Vargas
The United States of America, through her strong emphasis on equality and individuality, has managed to create an aura of respect for human rights that few nations outside of Western Europe can lay claim to. The United States is so great in its respect for justice to all citizens that it has even created a set of basic rights allotted to all individuals arrested under suspicion of a crime - we have all seen the US police films in which individuals are told that they "have the right to an attorney... if you can not afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you."
The vast majority of individuals in the world, and in the United States, have not been arrested for any crimes, so, thankfully for them, this procedure ends at being merely part of a movie.
But let us actually be in those shoes, if only for a moment.
Assume with me, esteemed reader, that for a host of socioeconomic reasons you are addicted to a mind-altering and mind-enhancing drug. The particular drug type hardly matters. Let us assume that you have committed a crime while under the effects of this drug and are then arrested but, due to those same socioeconomic reasons, you can not afford an attorney. You can not afford to be represented in a court of law by a legal expert.
So the police officers who arrest you kindly promise you one, and they are instructed to do this by law. It is a right to which you are entitled.
But these lawyers are coming from an office of public defenders that is frequently under-funded - the money is all in corporate law, after all - and under-staffed. So, these court-appointed lawyers go to defend you but they are spread too thin to have any great deal of knowledge regarding the specifics of your case and of your person.
For those unaware of the U.S. legal justice system, it should be sufficient to point out that though the system is ruled by a strong system of actual laws, these laws are acted upon based on precedent and based on decisions made by a carefully selected jury system - or, more often than not, through a process known in the U.S. as 'plea bargaining,' by which lawyers work out a deal outside of the actual courtroom in order to appease both clients.
In this sometimes incomprehensible mix of common law (based on the British system) and civil law (based primarily on the French system but on the Continental European system more generally), the level of communication between attorney and client matters rather significantly. After all, what I do not know, I can not defend; and the same applies to lawyers.
Of course, to the average person in the United States, this is hardly of concern. To the average person, this is unfortunate - very unfortunate, if you wish - but a simple fact of life. Injustice will always exist, will it not? Some may even say that the fault is not that of a system that traditionally under-funds public defendants but rather that it belongs to the poor in the first place: They should work harder to improve their situation and stop depending on public financing!
To use a popular U.S. saying, that is easier said than done. After all, what is going on here is that certain sectors of society - U.S. 'African Americans,' to give meaning to the term - are continuing to pay for crimes committed throughout most of the second half of humanity's second millennium in the Common Era. To be more succinct, those harmed by socioeconomic and path-dependent realities set in place in the 1600s are now being punished for the 'crime' of being impoverished.
And those few individuals acting to create a public defense form in the State of New York, which is seeing this crisis expand first-hand, are being opposed by politicians that have excelled within this system and would see little cause to alter it - unless, of course, the 'pros' outweigh the 'cons,' so to speak.
Which is where you, esteemed reader, come in. Politicians are notoriously self-interested - and so are you and so am I, so let's not start blaming them too harshly. But their personal interests depend on being able to convince the electorates that they are the most responsible candidates. That is the beauty of democracy. The short-coming of democracy, unfortunately, is that the electorate is too often misinformed and even more often uninterested.
Again, to return to the point made earlier: So, what?
I am not an American, but I understand the concept of love for the fellow citizen and of respect for the nation. I have lived with Americans, cared for Americans, and have known Americans long enough to know that Americans are a very patriotic group of people - and to a point, patriotism can be a strong force for good. But this patriotism is challenged constantly, not least by this writer - for I have found many reasons to criticize the United States.
According to Article VII of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed by all UN member countries and drafted in 1948 - when it was adopted by the United States - all 'are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection before the law.' The United States has, understandably, criticized other countries for failing to live up to the spirit – and to the literal meaning - of this article within one of humanity's greatest legal documents. Furthermore, it is this same concept of just law that lies behind the U.S. 'pledge of allegiance' that so proudly promotes 'justice for all.'
Though our world does not need a patronizing nation to dictate the terms of co-habitation on our increasingly smaller planet, we do need those nations with the means to enforce objective justice to do so without any symbols of hypocrisy being apparent. And let us face it, the United States can not lecture anyone on discriminatory legal practice if the legal system of one of its most important regions - the State of New York - is dominated by a system that allows the economically disenfranchised to be tried in court without adequate legal counsel and protection, thus increasing the chances and opportunities for incorrect indictments and mistaken decisions that can take years from the life of an otherwise innocent human being.
I do not say that the United States is evil for allowing this system to exist - every country imperfections - but I do challenge the citizens of this great nation and, in particular, the denizens of the State of New York to act patriotically and exercise the aforementioned love for the fellow citizen.
Already, there are signs of action. Already, the Campaign for an Independent Public Defense (CIPD) has arisen, supported by the Justice Fund, and it is proposing a fund that will boost the budget of the New York public defense system. Already, a host of legal, parochial, and community groups have stepped forward to present their support for this fund and for this change to the system. The challenge is being answered, but so far, the change has not yet taken place. Instead, it is being replaced by politically safe but judicially and practically useless legislation that has hopes for keeping votes and donors, but none for actually helping out those individuals who can not afford attorneys and have to rely on an under-funded group of attorneys who bravely work to do their absolute best.
I am plain-spoken, so I will plainly ask you the following: Will you stand by and say "oh, that's a shame" and then go about your day and continue telling people that the United States of America is the 'greatest country on the planet,' or will you instead read about this issue, do further research on this issue, and then act to improve this nation so that she may proudly present herself as an example of humanity's greatness once more?
The choice is yours, but for now, this battle for justice rages on throughout the world and across the United States and, today, one of the battle-sites is New York, where the casualties are not the middle class or the wealthy, but rather those individuals whose lives have been dominated by societal inequities and educational disadvantages.
For more information, please see http://www.newyorkjusticefund.org or contact Ms. Katie Blackburn at kblackburn@newyorkjusticefund.org.
