"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you." You don't need to take a course in Criminal Justice to learn your Miranda rights. You just have to be a member of the first American generation to grow up in front of the TV. After a lifetime of cop shows, lawyer shows and TV movies, you sort of get the idea. You have rights!
Our justice system in America was never perfect or completely free from bias or corruption. However, the concepts upon which it was built - "Miranda Rights" - "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" - "Due Process" - "Fair Trial" were bi-partisan and never questioned.
Wednesday April 2 was the day we had been warned about for a long time - the day that a financial earthquake rocked the whole world. It was the far-off threat of this day that pulled me off my couch two months ago and pushed me out into the streets. Its hard to believe that anything could be big enough to distract from the tense fixation we all had on skyrocketing prices and plummeting stocks. On the morning of April 2, though, I found that all that I could think about was a man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia. My gut had been telling me all along that there were innocent men in that infamous Cecot Mega Prison in El Salvador. The day before it had been confirmed. What might this man be going through behind closed doors that we didn't know about? Would he ever be able to get out of that hell-hole? And what was happening to the heart and soul of my country? It seemed in a way like a bigger threat and a greater loss than even the financial things.
The Bible is full of quotes about justice and mercy. It is impossible to direct people to something like mercy in an environment in which even basic principles of justice are not respected or upheld. Let's go back for a minute to the whole concept of justice and the purpose of the courts. Most definitions of justice talk about fairness and a lack of bias. The Biblical quote "An eye for an eye" was created to ensure justice, but not in the way we usually think about it. It was meant to constrain people from engaging in unfair acts of retribution. If someone took your eye, you could only retaliate by taking their eye. Most people would try to take much more! The quote was not created to encourage revenge, it was actually a primitive way of ensuring fairness. Jesus challenged us to move from thinking about merely not "overdoing" retribution, to "turning the other cheek."
There was nothing "just" or "fair" about what happened to Kilmar or the other men who were secretly deported to that terrible place without due process. You don't need a law degree to see that things just don't "add up" in this story. The administration claims that they have tons of evidence that they were all violent criminals associated with the MS-13 gang, and yet they have not presented a shred of it. They have been unable to present evidence of criminal records for them. There is no evidence even of their gang membership other than a few tattoos. Since when is it against the law to have a tattoo? Trump has made it blatantly clear that he couldn't care less about fairness or justice in this case. After admitting that the deportation of Kilmar was a mistake and being ordered by a judge to return him to the US, he continues to find reasons to avoid doing so. Could it be that he just doesn't like Kilmar? That his skin color is too dark or his culture is too different?
Let's be reminded of the other purpose for our courts. It is not just to determine innocence or guilt. It is to determine a just sentence for those who really are guilty. (Yes, they really do have rights even though they may be guilty). The purpose of the courts is to make sure that the punishment fits the crime. What kind of crimes would "fit" a punishment like being sent to a prison in a foreign nation with eighty inmates in a cell, with no mattresses or sheets on the beds, no contact with anyone on the outside and no way of ever getting out of there? How can we know? We've never been given any information about their crimes, and yet they seem to have fewer rights than the man who was observed shooting a CEO in cold blood. By the way, if we're so worried about the deficit, why are we spending six million dollars to send these people to El Salvador? Is that really an expense that we can afford?
In his inauguration speech Trump got lots of applause for saying that we would not forget about God, but how can we remember God without remembering to be "fair" and "just"? We must work to make America just again!
"Do me justice, Oh Lord, because I am just, and because of the innocence that is mine, Let the malice of the wicked come to an end, but sustain the just, Oh, searcher of heart and soul, Oh, just God." (Psalm 7).
"But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.' Can a mother forget her infant? Be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you." (Isaiah 49:8-15)
Add comment
Comments