The Law: a rant by Richard W. Benson
Do not wait until it is someone you love.
A 24/7 big-money noise-machine has numbed us with its ceaseless message that justice matters only to the undeserving riff-raff at the margins of society; that unless you want to get a late-term abortion, rob a liquor store, or get federal funding for your pornographic artwork, you really don't need to worry about what the courts are up to.
Thus older Americans grew up watching television shows like "The Defenders" that championed lawyers working to protect the hapless accused facing crushing by the unlimited resources of government prosecution. But today and for many years now an ocean of advertising dollars supports "Law and Order" and "a little flexibility with constitutional rights".
By slamming the message such that justice doesn't involve the lives of ordinary people, the "haves" have disconnected a great many ordinary Americans from their legal system.
But if you have a credit card, if you watch TV, if you file insurance claims, if you work - in other words, if you participate in American daily life at all - then you interact with corporations that are more powerful than you are. The degree to which those corporations' rights are protected over yours is extremely relevant to your life.
The disadvantaged forced into court step onto a playing field whereon relentless, paid messaging has already landed a fist on the scale in favor of the already-advantaged.
I represent people who participate in American daily life, including persons accused of crimes. I have represented innocent persons wrongly accused. Like the guilty, the wrongly accused have jobs (or do not have jobs), have families (or do not have families), and have hopes, dreams, and expectations (or do not have much by the way of hopes, dreams, and expectations). Like the guilty, the wrongly accused are terrified at their prosecution and are desperate for freedom.
I often meet the loved ones of persons accused of crimes. Parents. Spouses. Others. They are wide awake to the fist the already-advantaged have landed on the scale of justice.
Do not wait until it is someone you love.
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