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s/justice/legal/ I have similar feelings, but I don't see the US and the USSR legal systems as remotely similar. The US system requires a much greater amount
by thephyber 9y ago
s/justice/legal/
I have similar feelings, but I don't see the US and the USSR legal systems as remotely similar.
The US system requires a much greater amount of complicity and culpability of citizens and elected officials. We, the citizens, are completely culpable for the entire system. Our elected representatives (for whom we are responsible for curtailing) have given police+prosecutors:
* far too many tools+laws to invade our liberties,
* detain us with insufficient evidence,
* interrogate us with mentally coercive techniques,
* provide a massive asymmetry to legal information,
* allow the poorest of us to rot in jail awaiting trial
* incentivize those charged with crimes to settle pre-trial 98% of the time
* too much credibility in the mind of juries
and governments underfund the public defender's offices to the point that they are essentially just a tool of the prosecution to help make plea deals faster.
- Clubber 9y agoI agree with everything you've said about problems with the justice system, but I've never been given the option to vote otherwise, state or local. Both parties are happy with this way of doing justice. Until we get a viable third party, this will never change. The two parties we have now made it awful difficult to get a third viable party. We may be responsible for curtailing them, but we have no ability to do so. It's great in theory, but in current day practice, we can't do much about it.