Alexander the Great is reported to have said “I have met the enemy. It is I”.
I listen to a podcast series on wrongful convictions. It is hosted by three “do-gooder” lawyers who fight for social justice and freeing innocent prisoners. These podcasts highlight police and prosecutors using unethical and sometimes illegal means to get convictions. The series I just finished had a man convicted of a double murder on the testimony of a person who later admitted she was paid $12,000 by the prosecution to provide false evidence. The one I am listening to now is about a man who is on “death row” (this still exists in the 21st century in the U.S.!) based largely on the testimony of a man who was arrested for auto theft and who was told by the police they will pretend the car was found on the side of the road (not charge him) if he would lie.
As typically happens, I was outraged by the behaviour of these “bad actors”. I was listening to the do-gooder hosts’ talk about the intricacies of the American legal system and at one point, to explain why the wrongfully convicted man cannot appeal because his lawyer didn’t meet a deadline. The host said “that’s just the way the legal system works”.
At that moment I had an epiphany. It’s not the bad actors who perpetuate a corrupt system – it’s these “good guys” who validate it by working within it. If they were sufficiently outraged by a system that convicts people based on racism, coercion and lies, they wouldn’t be practicing within that system. And “good” people practicing within a system perpetuate it. It’s what keeps people from refusing to accept an inhumane system and revolting against it.
I was a “do-gooder” lawyer in the U.S. for the last three years before moving permanently to
Australia. So I know I practiced within this system and in the same way as the three podcast hosts, gave the system legitimacy by taking my place as a sort of “loyal opposition”.
Whether it’s a legal system run by corrupt racist judges and unscrupulous prosecutors and police, or a government run by a Hitler, or a Trump, or a Putin, it really isn’t the “bad actors” who are the enemy. They mean nothing in a vacuum. But when we work within it and say “this is just the way it is” we strengthen the system we criticize.
I feel I have definitely met the enemy.
Recent Comments