The Empire State?
Submitted for your approval is this story from the New York Times documenting the ongoing perversion of justice in New York State. The article documents the abuses and corruption that are rampant in New York's mostly rural town and village courts.
As the article points out, the presiding judges in these courts are not required to be lawyers, have any knowledge of legal proceedings, or even have a high school diploma. They simply need to be elected to the position. Here are just two examples of the outrageous behavior of some of the judges:
A woman in Malone, N.Y., was not amused. A mother of four, she went to court in that North Country village seeking an order of protection against her husband, who the police said had choked her, kicked her in the stomach and threatened to kill her. The justice, Donald R. Roberts, a former state trooper with a high school diploma, not only refused, according to state officials, but later told the court clerk, “Every woman needs a good pounding every now and then.”
A black soldier charged in a bar fight near Fort Drum became alarmed when his accuser described him in court as “that colored man.” But the village justice, Charles A. Pennington, a boat hauler and a high school graduate, denied his objections and later convicted him. “You know,” the justice said, “I could understand if he would have called you a Negro, or he had called you a nigger.”
This sickens me. I am proud of my roots in Upstate New York, but we have a legacy of shame that needs to be exposed. Too often, northerners make crude jokes about southerners as being racist rednecks and little more than hillbillies. Well take a good hard look at this and learn that we northerners have our pockets of ignorance and unchecked corruption, too.
No region of the country is safe, let this sad tale of Upstate New York be a warning. Be vigilant against tyrants, judicial or otherwise. Shine light on the dark shadows of our human community.
I commend the New York Time for this story, this is what journalism should aspire to.
posted by Blaine the Mono @ 7:43 PM
2 Comments:
I read this story, and ... I am still cringing about it. Where as I certainly am not in favor of giving up on my Yankee bias for the time being, we absolutely have to get our house in order.
We're supposed to be one of the smart states, people.
If it wasn't true, it could be the set up for a comedy called "Mao's America", where we have a cultural revolution and jobs are shuffled. Janitors become judges, waitresses become doctors and professional bowlers get to try their hand at industrial engineering.
i applaud you both for your insight and candor. too often, folks want to defend "the way things are" instead of truly righting the wrong. hopefully this exposure will lead to change.
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