Why I Do in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

I got into the Law because, frankly, injustice pisses me off. No, injustice is not “bad guys going free” and injustice is not “bad guys getting death sentences.” Injustice is three things (personal opinion.)

(1) Inequality disguised as Equality. Here’s a fun experiment. Drive 85 mph in 35 MPH zone. Dangerous as hell. In the State of Iowa, you could lose your license. You could be charged with reckless endangerment. But you will receive a ticket of exactly $397.50. No matter who you are and no matter what you are driving. It is a scheduled fine of $397.50. Now… how is this an injustice? It is inequality disguised as equality. Here’s how. Say you are a single mom with three kids making $30,000 a year. You’re making $576.92 per week (before taxes) and on a tightly budgeted income. A $397.50 ticket will DESTROY YOU. OR say you are a Trust Fund kid with no concerns and a $7,000 a week allowance. A $397.50 ticket is NOTHING to you. For the single mom, the ticket is 69% of her weekly pay. For the trust fund kid, the ticket is 6% of his weekly income.
Finland has solved this problem by putting in place something that is truly equitable. A fine is not, in the instance of traffic violations, an attempt to “pay off a specific harm.” A fine is meant to deter the violator from doing such actions again. Thus, a low income individual getting hit HARD versus a high income individual feeling virtually nothing… does not properly reflect the goal. Finland has begun income based traffic tickets. It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day, and then divides that by two—the resulting number is considered a reasonable amount of spending money to deprive the offender of. Then, based on the severity of the crime, the system has rules for how many days the offender must go without that money. Going about 15 mph over the speed limit gets you a multiplier of 12 days, and going 25 mph over carries a 22-day multiplier. THUS: Each person is fined 1/2 of their income for a set number of days.

(2) Inequality as a Result of Paternalism. There is good argument against my belief but… I believe right now in American Politics we are seeing a shitload of inequality as a result of paternalism. I mean, shit. The GOP health care bill specifically requires more money and pain from the bottom percent of earners and translates directly to a bigger tax cut on the rich. Ask any GOP member why poor people should have heavier financial obligations than rich people and the GOP responds with, “Job creators should be incentivized!” Now, leaving the argument of whether this move will actually incentivize job creators… the OBVIOUS and VERY TRUE fact is… in a commerce economy; the poor drive the market. I believe it was Will Rogers who said something like, ” The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover was an engineer. He knew that water trickles down. Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the driest little spot. But he didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellows hands.” This paternalism of “The Big Dogs deserve the breaks because we know best how to help everybody else” is inequality injustice bullshit. We’ve typically found that (short term) money to the rich goes into savings. Money to the poor goes into spending. And long term? SOME money to the rich gets reinvested but we have no idea how much. SOME money to the poor goes towards college, housing, and other “investment” opportunities that aren’t considered Financial Investments; but certainly make life better/easier for the poor people.

(3) System Failures. This one is difficult because it will always exist. Some human, some computer, something in the system will always have that percentage of failure. And while those failures aren’t necessarily malicious, they can create injustice to a maximum degree. Particularly when dealing with communication between JAIL and COURT. Two Examples.
(EXAMPLE ONE): In Omaha, Nebraska one of the Corrections Employees had calculated and input the “Accrued Good Time” of the inmates incorrectly. In some cases giving inmates vastly more good time than they had accrued. Thus… first injustice… someone sentenced to 3 years getting out after 3 months. In order to fix this, the police went out to recollect the released inmates. Thus… second injustice… inmates released via legal means being rearrested and re-incarcerated having committed no new crime. Some of these inmates sued the Department of Corrections and won. NOW, this one is tricky. Successfully suing could be seen as justice… these inmates receiving compensation for Injustice 2. BUT… Injustice 2 would not have been possible without Injustice 1.... plus, not all inmates were awarded judgments… only the ones that could afford lawyers in the first place. SO… another example of MONEY creating an INJUSTICE via inequality… all due to System Failures.
(EXAMPLE TWO): Here, in this city, within the last 24 hours! An individual who I admit likely should not be out of jail… signed a plea deal with the State expressly stating “signature of this plea deal concludes the matters of this case. You will be released from jail immediately save for the event that other charges or warrants still exist holding you for other cases.” He was not released from jail. I receive this phone call (BTW) at 7:00 pm. I’m sitting down to some video games, wine, dinner… nope, have to keep working. I do everything I can and discover… the State forgot to dismiss one of the charges. A simple paperwork error. But as it is 7:00… no judges, no lawyers. So I have to say, “You’re staying in jail and I’ll try my best tomorrow to get you out.” THAT is injustice. I don’t like the man. I don’t think the man is destined to re-enter society as a contributing member of society… but the State said, “Sign this and you go home.” He signed… he didn’t go home. That… feels pretty strongly like Injustice.