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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Between Shylock’s pound of flesh and rehabilitation of criminals how does the justice system find a balance?
Is it enough to brand the president-elect a felon and waive prison time because of the importance of the office he once held and will shortly hold again?
What punishment does Rudolph Guiliani’s conviction – and subsequent judgment to turn assets over to the Georgia election workers who endured death threats after he falsely accused them of ballot tampering – hold if he persists in defaming the women?
Do the 51 men, including her husband of 50 years, who were convicted of sexually abusing Gisèle Pelicot over a period of ten years deserve the public shaming and prison terms or are they the victims some claim to be for simply participating in a sexual escapade?
In a major Me-Too moment, the real victim waived her right to anonymity to shift the “shame” onto those accused of conniving in multiple rapes while she was drugged.
Just imagine her shame! And the courage it took for Gisèle to embrace a public trial to show rape victims everywhere that they were not alone.
On our side of the Atlantic, many victims and families of victims decry the United States claim that murdering those convicted of certain crimes, whether guilty or not, brings resolution. The same folks who point to the Bible to justify eye-for-an-eye “justice” have obviously forgotten many other Biblical verses that emphasize forgiveness as a fundamental aspect of faith in the Judaic-Christian tradition.
Or the widely accepted moral dictum that two wrongs don’t make a right.
Now the grand purveyors of bloody retribution, in the spirit of Roman gladiatorial spectacle and executions being public entertainment in the States and in England, are genning up excitement for the long and depressing trial of Luigi Mangione through the Federal justice system to ensure the probability of a capital sentence for the murder of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of United Healthcare.
United Healthcare, the company that makes millions by legally condemning too many of its customers to death and their families to bankruptcy.
In other injustice news, the United States continues to supply the murderous regime of Bibi Netanyahu with the weaponry and technology to annihilate people and property in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria.
And that the acceleration of devastating weather systems, a direct result of fossil-fuel driven profiteers’ lies and lobbying, is taking an increasing toll in human lives, eviscerating whole communities.
In 2024, tornadoes caused $46 billion in damage in the U.S., among the highest costs on record.
Do those partially at fault get their just desserts? The fossil fuel purveyors driving climate change, and insurance conglomerates who pulled policies people paid on for years out from under victims… in the nick of time to maintain their profits.
No, they get showered with bonuses for increasing their companies’ bottom lines.
The perfect firestorms in Los Angeles are the result of decades of pandering to the fossil fuel industries, not the preservation of a tiny fish. But the president-to-be continues to politicize the suffering of Angelenos to demonize his opponents.
What next? Will he withhold funds to rebuild until California falls in line behind his objectionable discriminatory policies?
That is not leadership. That is not justice for all but the selfishness of a small-minded, dickless wonder-in-his-own-mind, petulant pervert.
One who would have pushed to the front of the line to abuse Gisèle Pelicot and then denied any guilt.
(Liz Amsden resides in Vermont and is a regular contributor to CityWatch on issues that she is passionate about. She can be reached at [email protected].)
