Speechless

It's harder than you think to write about something when you are completely incapable of forming sentances. That's exactly the quandary I find myself in at this point. I want to put my feelings into words about what I just read, but I cannot. As a result, let me just give a recap of what you are about to read. In towns and villages all throughout N.Y. state, they have what are called "Justice Courts." Mainly they are supposed to be for traffic related cases (speeding, parking tickets etc). However, they also handle a small amout of criminal hearings and can send you to jail. Now you would like to think that these courts are held to the same standards as normal courts, but they are not. Many of the "Justices" are poorly edjucated, a good amount of which have not even graduated high school. The only requirement for the job is, that they have is to pass a True False test. If they fail, they can retake it(passing is a 70). They are also incredibly hard to keep track of and as a result even harder to discipline. So basically we have stupid people, with the power to take away your rights, with no one to oversee their power. It is a deadly combination that can only lead to bad situations. Fortunately, the N.Y. Times spent a year on this article to bring it into the public eye.

Here are a few excerpts from the article:

• And Carson F. Arnold Sr., a contractor from a nearby town, was jailed for five days after a woman who knew Justice Buckley complained that Mr. Arnold had threatened her, the commission said. There was no trial. The justice simply told Mr. Arnold to shut up, then sentenced him without bail.


• A woman in Malone, N.Y., was not amused. A mother of four, she went to court in that North Country village seeking an order of protection against her husband, who the police said had choked her, kicked her in the stomach and threatened to kill her. The justice, Donald R. Roberts, a former state trooper with a high school diploma, not only refused, according to state officials, but later told the court clerk, “Every woman needs a good pounding every now and then.”


• A black soldier charged in a bar fight near Fort Drum became alarmed when his accuser described him in court as “that colored man.” But the village justice, Charles A. Pennington, a boat hauler and a high school graduate, denied his objections and later convicted him. “You know,” the justice said, “I could understand if he would have called you a Negro, or he had called you a nigger.”

And that's just from the first page of the article. Anyways, read the times arcticle here