The Rule of Law in these United States

People who know me know that I have been studying History for a very long time. I started with Mythology at 7 years old and that lead me into wanting to understand the people that believed these things and that meant History. And I have never stopped studying.

I just wrapped up reading "John Adams Under Fire: The Founding Father's Fight for Justice in the Boston Massacre Murder Trial" by Dan Abrams and David Fisher. A very well put together piece that really dives into the situation and the out come.

And let me just say that calling what happened the "Boston Massacre" instead of the "Boston Riots and the Outcome" is a masterful piece of enduring Propaganda by Samuel Adams. It really was a riot planned by the "Patriots" with the planned outcome of Death either of the Soldiers, of Civilians, or both. (Totally my Opinion)

John Adams sympathies lie totally with the Patriots. He believes in the Cause. Yet he took on defending the Captain who commanded that night in the first trial, and the Soldiers in another trial, even thought it would, and did, hurt his business as a Lawyer and his social standing in the city. So why did he do this?

I believe that he did this thing for exactly the reasons laid out in this book. He believed that in order for the Nation to survive, and he was thinking of Massachusetts only, it had to be a Nation of Laws who lived by the Rule of Law. And that attitude has survived down to this day. In Theory.

At that time the idea that a defendant is Innocent Until Proven Guilty was a very new idea. And he was a big proponent of that idea. He was a champion of the idea that every defendant should be Represented by Council. IE, have a Attorney to defend them. Another very new idea. And he also believed that Evidence as Presented Under Law must be the Final Arbiter of Guilt or Innocents. That appeals to emotion must not be allowed to sway the final verdict in any way. A VERY new idea. He was in many ways a very forward thinking man.

Yet, he also bore the seeds of all the very things that make Equal Justice Under The Law an unrealized vision to this day. He was, still, a man of his time with everything that goes with that.

So let us look at the failings of the Rule of Law and Equal Justice Under The Law that are still with us today.

First, we have Class Law. The Law does not apply equally to the Rich as it does the Poor. We have the best Law that your Money can buy. If you can afford it you can get away with many things that us normal working folk get thrown away for.

And then we have Race Law. As a White Person the Legal System of this country is, by design, not as harsh with me as it is with any Black, Brown, or Asian person.

And then we have Sex Law. Woman are treated much harsher in our Legal System than Men. Again, by Design. If a Woman kills her abuser she must PROVE the Abuse. A White Male can kill a Person of Color or Woman and has a much easier time proving being in Fear of Their Life.

And then we have the Law Enforcement Law. The supposedly Highly Trained people are allowed to KILL and get away with it despite any evidence that says they had no reason to kill. I am reminded of a case of a Social Worker trying to protect his client, lying on the ground on his back, with his hands in the air, completely unarmed, and shot to death by the Police with no repercussions at all.

So we are still far short of the ideals of the Rule of Law and Equal Justice Under the Law. Far removed. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, shames us all. As a Society, as a Nation, as People. We can do better. And we must. Or "We the People", the 1st Amendment, the 14th Amendment, and all the other Grand Words in our Constitution mean Nothing. And I, personally, find that unacceptable.