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Thread: If We Fix Racism, Will Government Be Fixed?

  1. #1

    If We Fix Racism, Will Government Be Fixed?

    If We Fix Racism, Will Government Be Fixed?
    http://mises.org/blog/if-we-fix-raci...nment-be-fixed
    Ryan McMaken (18 December 2014)

    The Washington Post reports:

    When George Stinney Jr. was executed for the killings of two white girls in 1944, he was so small that the straps of South Carolina’s electric chair didn’t fit him properly, and he had to sit on a book for his electrocution.

    With the conviction tossed, we now know that we have yet another person convicted and sentenced to death in government courts but who was never proven guilty by any respectable legal standard. In this case, it seems, the courts engaged in no due diligence, denied the defendant numerous rights supposedly guaranteed by the American legal system, and was executed with zero physical evidence. Also — and this is rarely emphasized in cases of wrongful conviction — if Stinney was not the kliller, then the actual killer or killers were never brought to justice: the police and the DA found their scapegoat, won a conviction, and then quickly moved on without any regard to the safety of the community.

    What's the lesson to be learned? An organization that can't deliver the mail on time or deliver health care competently can certainly not be trusted to objectively administer the death penalty. Indeed, government courts should always be viewed with extreme suspicion and a presumption of a tendency toward abuse. The highest possible standards should always be demanded of them, and they should be forced to jump through a myriad of hoops before a conviction can be attained.

    But if one peruses the numerous media articles on this topic, the lesson, apparently, is not that the legal system is broken, that police and DAs have entirely too much power in the courtroom, that children should not be executed, or that capital crimes should perhaps require some actual evidence. Nope, the only lesson to learn here, it seems, is that racism is bad.

    Yes, racism is bad, but it's rather beside the point. Prosecutors, police, and judges are guilty of all kinds of bigotries, prejudices, and malicious feelings toward other people. All human beings are. The idea that "impartial" judges and DAs can be found to administer the legal system has always been a contemptible fantasy. Of course many of them have been racists, and many are racists to the present day. Many are also biased against drug users or people who have unpopular opinions, or people from other countries, or people who are ugly, or short, or stupid, or poor, or practice religions we don't like, or any of the myriad of other characteristics that bias others. How will these people hope to obtain a fair trial?

    Well, they certainly won't get it if we all declare "if we can get non-racist DAs and judges, all will be fine!"

    The reason people like Stinney don't get fair trials is because the police and the courts can get away with unfair trials. Naturally, citizens, if they have any sense of self-preservation, want the police and courts to convict the guilty parties. When an innocent person is convicted, the guilty party goes free. On the other hand, if people have a naive view of police and the courts and simply assume that they will reliably work hard to find the guilty party and provide a fair trial and due process, then the courts can get away with pretty much anything. Were the jurors in the Stinney case racists? Probably. If they were racists, they were probably more than willing to believe that a black person committed the terrible crimes of which Stinney was accused. But, given that they deliberated for ten minutes before convicting, they didn't seem much interested in making sure they convicted the right black person, either, even though convicting the wrong person means they are setting the actual killer free.

    Racism alone might explain things if they were asked to choose between a white defendant and black defendant. But they weren't asked to do that. They were asked to convict based on little more than the government assurances that this guy did it. Racism can explain why they would want to convict a black person, but a pro-government bias does help explain why they so easily convicted this particular black person. The jurors were apparently happy to blindly do what the government told them to do.

    Today, it's definitely progress when we look at police and the courts and doubt their competence and impartiality when racism might be a factor. That's good. But it's not nearly enough. We should also doubt their competence and impartiality if the defendant is white, or foreign, or poor, or ugly, or disabled, or wealthy, or male, or female. Any decent appreciation of the nature of government, and the coercive power it holds over private citizens, demands it.
    The Bastiat Collection · FREE PDF · FREE EPUB · PAPER
    Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

    • "When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of losing his respect for the law."
      -- The Law (p. 54)
    • "Government is that great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
      -- Government (p. 99)
    • "[W]ar is always begun in the interest of the few, and at the expense of the many."
      -- Economic Sophisms - Second Series (p. 312)
    • "There are two principles that can never be reconciled - Liberty and Constraint."
      -- Harmonies of Political Economy - Book One (p. 447)

    · tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito ·



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  3. #2

  4. #3
    I had to read this through a couple of times to see if I concurred. Sorry but I can't. The issue of race isn't dismissed by the fact that the jurors didn't have to chose between a white defendant and a black one. It's also a question of whether their bias towards the government would have been as strong if the defendant had been white. If the facts had been questionable and the defendant had been white would a not guilty verdict have come back in 10 minutes? I doubt it. Would the defense attorney neglected so badly to do his job? I doubt that as well. This reminds me of when a bear or some other wild animal kills a human. Often its the case that the potential human killer is killed first and then the contents of the stomach are examined to see if they got the right animal.

    There is an old saying "It's better for 10 guilty to go free than for 1 innocent to suffer." That's only true if value is placed on the life of the one innocent. Think of examples of "collective punishment" throughout history. For example the Nazis would randomly shoot scores of innocent Poles whenever 1 Nazi soldier was killed. Or in our own U.S.A. where 167 black soldiers were dishonorably discharged over 2 white men that were killed in a riot despite the fact that most of them likely were not involved. Sure, since the jury convicted the wrong man in this case. They may have even known that. But they were likely counting on a deterrent effect. If nobody was punished you had no deterrent. If the killer was black and got away, at least you have a deterrent (supposedly) to those blacks who had not used violence but who might consider it. If the killer was white and got away....well he got away anyway. If some random white boy had been falsely accused, and if that boy was not somehow "different", the jurors might look at him and think "That could be my boy" and not convict.

    It's this same kind of disconnect that allows people to support torture of terror suspects. They keep saying over and over again "All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim." It's interesting how Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols have been conveniently forgotten by these people.
    9/11 Thermate experiments

    Winston Churchhill on why the U.S. should have stayed OUT of World War I

    "I am so %^&*^ sick of this cult of Ron Paul. The Paulites. What is with these %^&*^ people? Why are there so many of them?" YouTube rant by "TheAmazingAtheist"

    "We as a country have lost faith and confidence in freedom." -- Ron Paul

    "It can be a challenge to follow the pronouncements of President Trump, as he often seems to change his position on any number of items from week to week, or from day to day, or even from minute to minute." -- Ron Paul
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    The road to hell is paved with good intentions. No need to make it a superhighway.
    Quote Originally Posted by osan View Post
    The only way I see Trump as likely to affect any real change would be through martial law, and that has zero chances of success without strong buy-in by the JCS at the very minimum.

  5. #4
    The reason we have racism is because government keeps making it an issue. If they would stop, government would still be broken.

    When people accuse me of racism, I ask, "Go ahead and judge. What do your neighbors look like? What kind of artwork is on your walls? Who wrote the books on your shelves?" I'm no example for anyone, but I will not be judged by anyone who lives in a neighborhood that looks like them, who has only authors of one race, or artwork that doesn't reflect any other culture than their own. We raised our child to embrace people of all cultures and abilities, and she is raising her children to do the same.

    So there.
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi

  6. #5
    When George Stinney Jr. was executed for the killings of two white girls in 1944
    I saw a documentary on this case several years ago and it made me cry and cry and sent chills up my spine for months and months to think of it. That was when I became against the death penalty because I realized it is just to easy for our system to railroad someone who is innocent. Just reading about it again right now I am crying bitter tears and morn the death again of this poor child.

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    I had to read this through a couple of times to see if I concurred. Sorry but I can't. [...]
    Yeah, I thought it was a bit too sanguine on the issue as well. But I thought it was a very interesting and thought-provoking article as well, and worth being read and considered. Your response is equally worthy. I'd love to see McMaken reply to it.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Working Poor View Post
    I saw a documentary on this case several years ago and it made me cry and cry and sent chills up my spine for months and months to think of it. That was when I became against the death penalty because I realized it is just to easy for our system to railroad someone who is innocent. Just reading about it again right now I am crying bitter tears and morn the death again of this poor child.
    Is it better for someone to be railroaded and sent to jail for life? The death penalty is not the problem. Government courts are.
    This post represents only the opinions of Christian Liberty and not the rest of the forum. Use discretion when reading

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by FreedomFanatic View Post
    Is it better for someone to be railroaded and sent to jail for life? The death penalty is not the problem. Government courts are.
    I think the person who gets railroaded would rather be imprison for life than be killed. I know I would. At least there would be a chance at exoneration.
    9/11 Thermate experiments

    Winston Churchhill on why the U.S. should have stayed OUT of World War I

    "I am so %^&*^ sick of this cult of Ron Paul. The Paulites. What is with these %^&*^ people? Why are there so many of them?" YouTube rant by "TheAmazingAtheist"

    "We as a country have lost faith and confidence in freedom." -- Ron Paul

    "It can be a challenge to follow the pronouncements of President Trump, as he often seems to change his position on any number of items from week to week, or from day to day, or even from minute to minute." -- Ron Paul
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    The road to hell is paved with good intentions. No need to make it a superhighway.
    Quote Originally Posted by osan View Post
    The only way I see Trump as likely to affect any real change would be through martial law, and that has zero chances of success without strong buy-in by the JCS at the very minimum.



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by FreedomFanatic View Post
    Is it better for someone to be railroaded and sent to jail for life?
    Why don't we ask George Stinney Jr.? Oh, wait ...



    Quote Originally Posted by FreedomFanatic View Post
    The death penalty is not the problem. Government courts are.
    The death penalty IS the problem. Government courts just make the problem worse.

    Getting rid of government courts but keeping the death penalty is STILL going to result in the murder of innocents.
    Last edited by Occam's Banana; 12-19-2014 at 07:30 PM.



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