As the drama in the Van Buren County District Court comes to an end, the drama critic Pierre Percy Smedley is struck by the heaviness of the drama, its finality, its gravity. It is a sobering, somber experience for those in the Yard of the Peasants charged with crimes and whose liberty is at stake.
The law breaker soon realizes that to be up against the criminal justice system is a very serious business, that his future is in the hands of powerful people who can literally take him out of his seat, shackle him, put him in a van, and take him off to the nearby county detention center. “You can’t do this to me!,” cries the convicted peasant. Oh, yes they can!
The courtroom is the end of the line for the wrongdoer. This is the place where all his rebellion and foolish behavior finally hits the proverbial brick wall. In the past, he has told his parents and his teachers where to go as he walked out and went on his merry way, heeding no warnings or advice. Nobody was going to tell him what to do, he would live as he pleased to his own set of rules. He smoked the pot, he drove without a license, he passed a check he knew was no good, he beat up his girlfriend, he broke into the house on the lake to steal valuables needed to pay for his meth. Today in the courtroom, his days at least for a time as a rebellious wise guy are over.
The convicted peasant is angry that his attorney, a public defender, didn’t give him enough time to explain to the judge what a good kid he was, that his friends made him do it, the cops were unfair, blah, blah, blah. As he is lead away by two muscular policeman, the audience is left with the hope that finally, perhaps finally, this young peasant will realize that the precept – “what you sow is what you will reap” – clearly applies to him as he rots for untold days and nights in the county detention center.
But is this felonious peasant the only player in this courtroom drama that needs to heed warnings and advice to steer clear of mischief and serious misdeeds? What about those Nobles – the lawyers, the prosecutors, the judge, the police officers? Is there some precept that they too should be mindful of? These players have been given great power over the lives of the community’s citizens: they can arrest, they can indict, they can prosecute, they can convict, and they can take one’s possessions and liberty away. Such power should require the greatest carefulness, lest an innocent citizen suffer untold harm. There are too many examples of justice being administered improperly, unfairly, or even corruptly to the detriment of someone caught in the mesh of the criminal and civic justice systems
Why is this so? It is because all men have an inherent nature that can lead to corruption and this is made ever so more lethal when those in positions of authority succumb. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The form that this corruption takes is best seen by indifference, lack of compassion, cynicism, disbelief, but above all – arrogance!
Arrogance is the trait that does not allow for self-correction; it does not allow for confession that one is ever wrong. There are too many instances of unfair convictions that are allowed to stand only because of the arrogance of a police officer, prosecutor, and/or a judge. Can this happen in the Van Buren County District Court? Yes! Does it? Only God knows.
The curtain falls with the judge making a closing benediction: “We pray that all procedings today in this court have been done with extreme care and adherence to the precepts of fair and full justice as set forth in our Constitution. But more so, it is the prayer of this court that all men examine their hearts and consciences, that no unfairness or selfish actions ever enter into their duty as officers of the court.”
The audience with one voice cried, “AMEN!”
Fairfield Bay News
