Unequal justice
I am pretty sure that when police see me they profile me as a harmless, old White guy and not the "criminal type."
I get the presumption of innocence.
If by any chance I got arrested for something, I would arrange for high quality representation, with money for investigators and experts. I don't think I would get equal justice. I would get very good justice, with access to bail and with all my rights and privileges protected. Everyone is supposed to get the presumption of innocence and access to justice. Lots of people do not.
It isn't fair. It isn't equal justice. But it is how the system works.
College classmate Constance Hilliard brought to mind the reality of this inequality. Constance got her Ph.D. in African and Middle Eastern history from Harvard. She teaches at the University of North Texas. She wrote me after observing the privilege Donald Trump enjoys, especially in comparison with what she sees among people who are poor or who are profiled as suspicious. They get the short end of the inequality.
Hilliard wrote:
Whether Donald Trump ever pays for any of his many crimes, the damage has been done. As a Black mother I cannot unsee the fact that our “democratic” society metes out the same quality of justice as what one might expect from a Somali warlord. Lack of power and money are what determine guilt. We just hide it beneath infinitely more layers of protocol than do the Somalis.
Given all the brilliant minds that engage with matters of justice, why can’t our legal system rise above the habit of merely preying on and stuffing our prisons full of the poor and powerless? Those former prisoners from time to time includes some of my Black male students. Do our top law schools and brilliant legal minds devote any time at all to correcting the imbalance? After all, wouldn’t most human beings define justice as meting out the most punishment to those individuals whose wrongdoing crushes the lives of the most people?
Trump may not get prosecuted even if there is clearly documented evidence that his tax returns contained perjury. He may not be prosecuted even though he acknowledges he took documents from the White House. He may not be prosecuted for leading a multi-pronged plan to overturn an election.
There are perils to prosecuting him. If a president's successor prosecutes the defeated president of the opposite party, it sets a dangerous tit-for-tat precedent, even if the former president is dead-to-rights guilty. What constitutes truth in a courtroom may not translate the same way in the public square, where Trump and others will be adamant in calling the prosecution illegitimate. Trump has uncritical and loyal support. Trump warns that 'terrible things are going to happen" if he is prosecuted. Prosecutors must consider the risk of losing even an airtight case. They may encounter one or two jurors who simply will not betray their hero, no matter what.
However this plays out, the Trump's prosecution--or non-prosecution--is likely to reduce the justice system's reputation for fair and equal justice. Trump and his supporters are already saying the system is rigged against Trump. If Trump escapes prosecution, Americans will see the most privileged of Americans get away with crimes. Trump--like Citibank and AIG and Fannie Mae in the financial crisis 14 years ago--is "too big to fail." Poor Americans will have yet more evidence that our legal system is rigged in favor of the rich. Comfortable, White Americans have the privilege of good justice. The very wealthiest and most powerful Americans have the privilege of no justice at all.