Criminal Law and the Popular Hoorah

CRIMINAL LAW AND THE POPULAR HOORAH

Whether or not our criminal justice system is the best or worst in the world, pundits will no doubt inform us. I assume it is somewhere in between. Nothing is perfect and how the hell would such comparisons be measured? Noisy people rant on about how the system is broken and point with alarm at egregious examples of how the law-enforcement fails us. None, however provide sufficient data to support their belief. There is a strong tendency to ignore triumphs and emphasize failure, and the old dictum, “You find what you are looking for,” prevails. Well, if the standard is perfect success then we all are failures and that, of course, is the notion of original sin. Sorry, that's not for me.

The latest hoorah is about the young man killed by a neighborhood watch fellow. More accurately, it's about his killer. The noisy ranters carry on that he is a murderer and should be immediately jailed with such certainty that the listener is amazed at such true belief, at least the listener who maintains a rational mind. I must admit, it took me a while to sort out. Clearly, passion distorts thinking and overwhelms any discussion. Mr. Zimmerman, the shooter called 911 and, according to some listeners, he included a racial slur. Others cannot hear it; I assume that means it never can be determined and that means that the feds cannot use it to establish that the killing was motivated by hate. That means, unless they discover other hate evidence, they cannot take action. Apparently, the direction of one's passion affects hearing as well as thinking.

It is quite surprising that without evidence Mr. Zimmerman should be popularly accused of murder, while the absurdity of the police department is barely commented on by TV pundits. Experts in police investigation have all asserted that that police department simply did not do its job. They didn't question neighbors who heard the events, they checked the dead man for drugs, but not the shooter. They took Mr. Zimmerman at his word about self defense without exploring how the event occurred. They made little of the reality that Mr. Zimmerman chased after the young man in his truck after being told to let the police handle the matter. An outraged elected official pointed out that a police officer would be carefully investigated but Mr. Zimmerman disappeared from the police radar. My guess is that he did wrong, but so far that has not been determined. One police investigator wanted to arrest him but that never happened.

If we get away from our rage at the killing, and get away from the demand to arrest Zimmerman for murder we can look at that police department and wonder about their apparent indifference. Whatever the outcome of developing a case against Zimmerman, we are again faced with a national crisis about police behavior or police inactivity. Where are we if we cannot trust our police? It surely is not fair to tar all police departments with the same brush, but we are reminded that the police, our first line of defense against mayhem have considerable power. No so long ago, racial profiling was of major concern. Police would pull over black drivers for whatever infraction they could identify, sometimes it was simply driving in the wrong part of town, and harass them, ticket them and otherwise demean them. Keep in mind that police are members of our culture and carry with them the prevailing assumptions and prejudices extant in our society.

Police are faced with a perpetual dilemma: they need to be, like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion. Hell, they are ordinary people; don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But, that Florida police department has failed miserably. Whatever else happens, they need to be fixed.

The police are a wonderful crew

Whose malfeasance is hopefully few

But, sometimes they do bad

That makes us all sad

Do we get the best they can do?