LETTER: Be wary of justice system

As presented in Rich Timothy’s column in the March 9 issue of the Statesman, the law enforcement officers of our country are generally out there protecting the rights of the citizen and get wrongly criticized by law-breakers when they are caught. While this is largely true, the fact is the police are human and sometimes make mistakes and abuse their power.

Innocent people are languishing in jails throughout the nation right now.

Let me share the story of “Jim,” an acquaintance of mine. Jim had some disagreeable neighbors, and they didn’t get along. One day, Jim wanted something returned that his neighbor had borrowed. In a heated argument, Jim entered his neighbor’s house (with the neighbor) and retrieved the item. They were angry at each other, but that was the end of that. Weeks later, Jim had a parking ticket to take care of, so he went to the county courthouse. During the proceedings, the judge pondered punishment for the ticket. He informed Jim that since he already had charges of burglary, he’d be in jail for three months anyway, and instead of just a fine gave him the maximum sentence for the ticket (presumably to pad his conviction record). They took him into custody, where he remained for three months.

The police did not previously inform Jim of the burglary charges (filed by his angry neighbor), and nobody bothered to check out the allegations. The judge acted on the assumption that Jim was guilty, and that his upcoming burglary charges would cause him to be in jail longer than the sentence for the ticket would. The charges were later dropped due to their spurious nature, but by the time any legal challenges could be made to the parking ticket conviction, the three months had passed. Jim had lost his job, his freedom and his faith in the system.

We shouldn’t assume that our justice system nor those responsible for its execution are infallible. Any infractions should be harshly condemned and corrected. It’s in the interest of every citizen to be aware of what legal authorities do, and why.

Quinn Kelly