Order 898799: justice

Marcos Felix

Professor LeMoine

POT 4932

2/5/18

What is Justice?

When a law enforcement officer pulls you over. What is running through your mind? Are you nervous, confused or are you scared? As you see him approach your car do you immediately put your hands on the steering wheel because you’re afraid to give him the wrong impression? You get a ticket for your brake lights not working. You can prove to the judge your brake lights are fixed and maybe he can rule for you not to get points on your license. However, do you trust the judicial system? After all the cases we here about authorities abusing their power, would you be able to tell me that you still believe in the judicial system? We often hear in the news, that an officer used justified deadly force, but you wonder if it really was. A judge has to be a impartial decision maker in the pursuit of justice, but is he always looking for what’s best for the defendant or society? What did Hobbes think when he talked about justice and the only way for justice to be served was for social unity achieved by establishing a commonwealth ruled by a sovereign to ensure the security of a commonwealth. Yes, establishing security but what about making sure those who have the authority over us are following the same guidelines as to protect the commonwealth and are not overusing their power. The sovereign should be the ruling force behind the contract that a Police officer or Judge has on us and if they are to break their word. I will argue for Hobbes On why our judicial system should have a sovereign.

In the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of controversy with police misconduct from using their firearm and from overstepping their boundary. For example, we’ve have had many incidents in the last years from Eric Gerner death in Staten Island, New York to Officer Jeronimo Yanez in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. It’s hard to pick an incident and discuss even though there is footage of these law enforcement misconduct. Officer Shelby is a law enforcement officer who shot Terence Crutcher. Terence Crutcher was having car trouble in the middle of the street and as officer Shelby arrived she started to question him about his whereabouts and Terence Crutcher got upset because he did nothing to wrong besides his car being in the middle of the street. Multiple Officers are called to the scene for back up. They even had a helicopter, which recorded the incident from the air. As Terence Crutcher decides to walk, back to his car because he feels he is being harassed as he get close to car and reaches into his car. Terence Crutcher is shot by Officer Shelby because she said she felt threaten and believed he was reaching for a gun. There was no gun in Terence Crutcher car and everyone who knew him knew him as a church going family man. Officer Shelby goes to trial and is found not guilty. Hobbes has always believed in avoiding chaos and bloodshed. He wanted a sovereign because he knew people were selfish and didn’t know how to control themselves and needed someone to act for them. When we look at law enforcement officers, I believe the same law applies to them also. The power is given to the sovereign permits him to do whatever he deems necessary in order to protect the commonwealth in order for protection to work. Now in days people feel as if they need to record their encounters with a law enforcement officer just in controversial were all recorded case things get out of hands. Although many of the past incidents have been caught on camera we still haven’t had peaces nor felt safe when we encounter a law enforcement officer. Hobbes wants a peaceful society govern by a sovereign so we don’t have chaos, but instead peace. A sovereign making sure peace is kept and that an officer followed all his procedure before using his weapon and can justify whether using deadly force was needed can change how we all feel about police officers today. Knowing that an officer knows he must protect us and keep his side of the contract or else there would be consequence for his misconduct can make society feel safe and can restore trust.

A judge can be held and look upon as a sovereign because he makes interpretation of laws like a sovereign, makes ruling like a sovereign and is also seeing if someone is holding their part of the contract they have towards society. In court a judge is like a referee and makes sure both parties are playing fair. Since interning in the public defender’s office the lawyer I shadow is in charge of the Spanish speaking cases. So he isn’t like every other defender who stays in one court room. He is running around from court room to court room in different floors of the court house. I see how many judges are bias and they do not really do not stick to the same guidelines. Some judges are more lenient than other, some give chances and some do not. To appeal a case is very difficult, because appealing a case is mostly appealed on law and not on how you were treated in court or whether the judge was having a good day or bad day when de decided to rule against you. We have the right to council, but a judge will always say to you if you decide to represent yourself. I cannot help you. For example if the State decides to charge you with a higher degree then what you’re supposed to be charge. The judge will not intervene. Why not have someone like a sovereign review and make sure that there is order in our judicial system. Let’s look at the judicial system in Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania. Two judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were sentencing kids for minor offense like a student making a fake Myspace page about their principal. Another student who cursed at another student’s mother. When they appeared in court they were shackled and sentenced month to a juvenile detention. Both judges were found to rule more than 3,000 for similar matters on small offense. Both Judges lasted more than a century in their position. The schools in that county would not deal with disciplinary action. They would just file a minor case with the school resource officer. Before entering Civarella or Conahan court, you were asked to sign a paper stating you were waving your rights to counsel. No one in the appellate court ever overturned a case nor did anyone in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ever find out what was going on in that city. A mother ended up hiring a private attorney which then these attorneys ended up realizing something was not right. Research was done and they realized that both judges were being paid for every kid they were sending to this private juvenile center. Not one review of the thousands of cases that were ruled. Hobbes wouldn’t stand behind a corrupt system that in any day would cause chaos. Hobbes believes in working together for the commonwealth.

When Hobbs talks about a sovereign having absolute power and that fear is what is to keep society in check. We think of those who are giving us their word to protect us when deciding to make a decision. The police officers that are here to protect us are now overusing there power without having any fear and say a shooting was justified. We need someone to enforce that everything is being done correctly like our judges but not many follow the same guidelines when making decisions. Hobbs believes the sovereign should have absolute power and control in fear in society for the commonwealth, but why not let our judicial system have a sovereign. Where if they are to make a mistake there should be consequences. We cannot just be one without having our top officials not being scared of their social contract with society. It starts from the top and the way down to lead by example and by this give us a better understanding of justice.

· Getlen, Larry. “Corrupt ‘Kids for Cash’ judge ruined more than 2,000 lives.” NY Post, 23 Feb. 2014, nypost.com/2014/02/23/film-details-teens-struggles-in-state-detention-in-payoff-scandal/.

· Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679. Leviathan. Baltimore :Penguin Books, 1968. Print.

· Smith, Mitch. “Minnesota Officer Acquitted in Killing of Philando Castile.” The New York Times, 16 June 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/police-shooting-trial-philando-castile.html.