Lady Justice is Kind of a Bitch

Ok so yesterday I came at you with my review of the "Fyre Fraud" expose, and honestly, I walked away fairly unimpressed. "Poor little rich kids" was kind of my takeaway, but it got me to thinking about something much bigger and entirely more relevant: our justice system and the lack thereof real justice.

Now when you think about America, you think about freedom, and justice and all of the amazing things that we peddle to those "less fortunate" in other countries. This is why we have people risking their lives to come here, paying coyotes thousands to sneak them across the border, risking deportation, death and other unfortunate circumstances. Yet, does what these people coming here for really exist? Do we have a real Democratic Republic, freedom, unfettered capitalism, justice and proper rule of law?

Hardly.

Not by a long shot.

So are people being led here on a platform of lies?

Well, kinda. I mean, citizens that live here are led to believe that they themselves have these things, and to be grateful for it Goddamn it. Kiss the ass of Uncle Sam, worship at the feet of Lady Liberty, play Bird Box with Lady Justice, and so forth and so on.

So why are so many people screwed over by the systems that we have? Why don't we have real justice? Why is Lady Justice such a bitch?

Well, because we have allowed crapitalism to invade our economy, culture and even rule of law.

Dat money doe.

Money talks and nowhere is it louder than America.

Crony capitalism has all but destroyed a once flourishing nation. It snuck in and started small, first encapsulating small decisions, small governments, and then grew bigger and stronger and is now virtually unstoppable.

So what does that have to do with justice?

Well, let's take a look at our justice system.

We have relayed the responsibility of incarceration to private entities. These private entities only make money if there are people in jail. There are only people in jail if judges put them in jail, so who do you think those private companies are going to offer moola to? (Hint: it's not the court typist).

Internal investigations have caught dozens of judges having taken bribes from large corporations to incarcerate perps and for extended periods of time.

This doesn't really sound like justice to me.

It isn't about getting bad guys off the street, or drugs out of the hands of addicts, or pedophiles away from schools, (although I would be okay if all pedos were set to just rot in jail, but I digress) these convictions are made solely out of the transactions made with private prisons. How utterly disappointing.

But wait, maybe there is justice to be found on a smaller scale. We have small claims court, right? Anyone can do that for free, without a lawyer, and get in front of a fair judge!

Well, yes and no.

The judges may be more fair due to the fact that practically no one in small claims court is sent to jail, therefore losing the incentive for big business to bribe judges, however, another evil has entered the courtroom: Representation.

There is a chance, without representation, that you can get your money back from someone in small claims court, but this often is a process that takes months upon months and requires taking multiple days off work, likely unpaid. Do you think the average person is going to lose a week's worth of pay just to get a $500 payout? And that's if the person they are seeking restitution from, ACTUALLY PAYS...and yeah, good luck with that.

Let's go up a little further though, and see what happens if you are looking for a bigger payout...say that a company did something terrible to you, or you were in an awful car crash, and the insurance company is being a dick...well you still have to have the money for a lawyer AND you have to be ABSOLUTELY SURE you are going to win. Good lawyers can cost anywhere from 500-1000 dollars an hour, and if you don't win, you will have to pay them back for all of that time. Most people won't even take that chance, therefore most people don't even bother to sue, even if they are owed something.

The trend you can see here, is that wealthy people have the opportunity to seek justice, but many poor people can't. Of course there are many exceptions to this, but we are living in a world of generalities here just for the sake of time.

My article about the Fyre Fraud was a great example of this. Stupid, gullible rich kids got their money back, because their parents had the money to pay GREAT lawyers, some which ended up turning them a profit. If you are poor and get swindled however: tough fucking luck. What comes to mind is many colleges that claimed to be legit and have all their credentials and ended up folding (I believe Trump U was one of them, but I believe he also settled out of court.) This left a lot of poor college-age kids, fucked, without a degree and tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Because they took out their loans from the government, rather than the school itself, when the school folds, the only person that ends up with the financial responsibility is the student who took out the loan (even though the Fed should have never issued a loan to a non-legit school to begin with and should have taken some of the fall, but they're the Fed, so they remain untouched.)

So is it possible to restore a sense of justice in the United States? Sure, but it will likely never happened. We have been infiltrated from the inside out and now corporations and the wealthy run America.

I guess the answer to it all is to just get rich...maybe Steem can help me with that? ;)

xx - Beth