When they came for the Socialist...

A news report out of Florida has exposed more problems with the DWI breath machines used to test for the blood alcohol content of DWI suspects.  For years the argument of defense attorneys across the nation is that the machines are not capable of detecting what they say they can detect - an exact blood alcohol concentration of a DWI suspect.  It appears now, however, that the chorus should not be "the machines don't work", but "our government doesn't work." 

There is a philosophical debate among some as to what the job of judges and prosecutors should be about.  Is it to find the truth, execute justice, protect the public, or a mixture of all of these, and more motives?  Our justice system is based on the fundamental concept that it is better to let ten guilty people go than to lock away one innocent.  Unfortunately, any reasonable observer of today's judicial system cannot say that we still adhere to this fundamental concept.

Courts have become a bureaucratic wheel the same as any other government agency.  Guilty pleas and extracting fees, fines, costs, and generating repeat business all seem to be cogs in that wheel.  That is not to say there are not good judges.  There certainly are; just as there are good and honorable District Attorneys.  There are judges that do not take what the prosecutor or the defense say for the God's honest truth until they have researched, analyzed, and thought about the case inside and out.  We need more of these judges. 

Justice should not be a streamlined process.  Streamlining guilty pleas is more efficient and more profitable for the courts, government agencies, and affiliated businesses that thrive on the DWI money machine, but it's not justice - it's the appearance of justice.  That's not what our judicial officers, attorneys, police, and public officials swore to uphold.  They swore to uphold justice, not the appearance of justice. 

If I were on a jury today I would have to have the State answer these questions before I could find someone guilty of DWI:

1. How do I know the field sobriety tests really mean what they say they mean?  Are they scientifically valid?  How were they validated?
2. How does the breath machine really work?  How does breathing into a machine let the machine spit out a BAC number that is reliable?
3. Was the breath machine maintained properly?  Were there any reports of malfunction in the time around the time this defendant was tested?

I would also look at how the judge and prosecutor interact.  Does the judge rule for the prosecutor on every single objection?  If so, then he probably is not objective enough for me to trust that he is trying to make sure I have all of the relevant information to make a good decision in a case.  It is perhaps possible, but not plausible, that any attorney - defense or prosecution -w will be right on every objection.  Real world trials do not work that way. 

As more evidence of governmental misconduct is coming to light across the nation our juries are the last bastion of defense against a government seemingly desperate to take the life, freedoms, and money of our fellow citizens in the form of criminal cases that generate huge profits for government agencies and government affiliated agencies such as MADD. 

I close today with a quote from a man who witnessed government atrocities but did not speak up until it was too late.  It nearly cost him his life.  His silence, when combined with the silence of countless others, led to the slaughter of 6,000,000 innocent lives.  How many of our citizens lives need to be destroyed before we start speaking up against government corruption, lies, and misconduct?

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

MARTIN NIEMÖLLER