Social Responcibility.
I believe the right to declare ones own guilt at the beginning of a trial is both very powerful and relatively unused.
Time and again our legal system comes under criticism for letting the guilty go free. I wouldn't want to be part of the problem and neither should you. People are more than willing to vote for harsher penalties and support their local police, but when its their butt on the line, god forbid they accept responsibility for their actions. Everyone wants the guilty to be punished, except themselves. This sort of narcissistic behavior has helped to created the criticism our legal system faces. The good old problem everyone complains about but won't fix.
Lets take a simple example. Someone I know was pulled over for speeding. They appeared at the court date perscribed by their ticket on the off chance the police officer wouldn't show up and they'd get off scott free. They did. Now speeding is a minor infraction and most people dismiss this case as unimportant. It is not. It is anemic of the flaws in the system.
Instead of griping, I propose the members of society hold themselves to a higher standard than society holds them. That or stop griping. You pick.
taken from the trial of Jim Tzenes August 8th, 2005
I believe the right to declare ones own guilt at the beginning of a trial is both very powerful and relatively unused.
Time and again our legal system comes under criticism for letting the guilty go free. I wouldn't want to be part of the problem and neither should you. People are more than willing to vote for harsher penalties and support their local police, but when its their butt on the line, god forbid they accept responsibility for their actions. Everyone wants the guilty to be punished, except themselves. This sort of narcissistic behavior has helped to created the criticism our legal system faces. The good old problem everyone complains about but won't fix.
Lets take a simple example. Someone I know was pulled over for speeding. They appeared at the court date perscribed by their ticket on the off chance the police officer wouldn't show up and they'd get off scott free. They did. Now speeding is a minor infraction and most people dismiss this case as unimportant. It is not. It is anemic of the flaws in the system.
Instead of griping, I propose the members of society hold themselves to a higher standard than society holds them. That or stop griping. You pick.
taken from the trial of Jim Tzenes August 8th, 2005
posted by jim at 8/08/2005 12:11:00 AM
2 Comments:
as long as you pay the fines
What I advocate is part of the system, a part that if exercised on a more freuqent basis will help to fix the flaws part. However, noone can really know whether or not another person is guilty (and you might disagree at this point and before I get into quantum physics with my proof let me finish) and thus this doesn't become a judgement of the system at large, but rather self judgement and the abolision of hypocracy. But you're welcome to disent.
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