Thursday, September 16, 2010

What the heck is wrong with the Justice System?

The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,  May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two,  Guiltier than him they try. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure


Other than it's broken! 

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts. Mohandas Gandhi

If you burn some tires in protest in front of the Air Force Base Wing 21 or some old politician's house in Ubon Ratchathani. you may find yourself doing some hard time.  If you are wearing a red shirt that is. According to the Nation, "Twelve red-shirt suspects confessed to taking part in the tire burning at the Air Force headquarters and their penalties were halved to 15 months jail and Bt8,000 fine. They were released on probation, but have to report every three months. Meanwhile, five red shirts who burned tires in front of Suthas's house also confessed and their penalties were halved to 14 months' jail and Bt3,500 fine. They were also released on probation and must report every three months".  That's in addition to the seizure of two cars used in the offenses.  This seem,s a bit harsh to me.  Last February March and April there was so much illegal brush burning that often in the North you could hardly breath.  No one, to my knowledge, was arrested, charged, fined or thrown in jail for any of that.  BUT, burn a few old tires in a red shirt and your on the Terrorist Watch list.
 
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King, Jr.


Just to add insult to injury the same day the Criminal Court, such an apt name never there was, decided in their wisdom to  "drop the Crime Suppression Division's request for arrest warrants against 45 members of the People's Alliance for Democracy in the airport seizure case".  The PAD group had "objected to the form of their arrest warrants", so there was no reason for their arrest. Astonishingly, the court came up with, "the suspects' failure to show up did not hinder investigation".  WTF!!!!!!!!

The Reds have come up with a 4 point demand.  In brief here they are:-

1:- Release "political prisoners"
2:- Reform the economic system by setting up the welfare state system
3:- Reform the judicial system by adopting the trial by jury system
4:- Guarantee commodities' prices for farmers

Of these Point 1 and 3 need urgently to be addressed.  While the Reds were not entirely in the right, they are not entirely in the wrong either.  The Red leaders are being treated wrongly in my opinion and should be allowed bail OR the court should rescind bail for the PAD Leaders charged with "Terrorism".  Oh Wait!! They have not been charged yet. see Demand 3.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both. Eleanor Roosevelt

The courts appear to be totally controlled from outside the judicial system with verdict after verdict appearing to be not only biased but biased against a single group.  This is not justice it's something else entirely.  If it is being controlled from outside the justice system it's much more sinister, much more oppressive, much more subversive and much more of a threat to national security than anything the Reds could throw at Thailand.  For without a free, fair and impartial judiciary you have no justice at all.

In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls.  Lenny Bruce

Some quotes from the Nation and BKK Post

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posted by Ricefield radio @ 6:17 AM   0 Comments

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