The "Rule Of Law" Requires Equal Application To All

On Monday night, President Obama spoke to the nation after it was learned that no charges would be filed in the murder of Michael Brown (an unarmed black teenager). I give the president credit for trying to calm the raw tensions about this affair, not only in Ferguson, but across the nation. But I wish he had been a little clearer and gone a little further regarding the injustices that occur far too often in this country. The president said:

"We are a nation built on the rule of law, and so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury's to make."

That is true, but it is not the whole truth. We are a nation of laws (laws that are based on our Constitution), and this decision was the Grand Jury's to make. But it is not enough just to have the "rule of law". The Fourteenth Amendment to our Constitution requires that the rule of law must be applied equally to all citizens -- and that just doesn't happen in the United States (at least not right now).

As much as people (especially those on the right) may want to deny or ignore it, the fact is that all American citizens are not treated equally in our system of justice. Not all, but far too many, police officers treat minorities differently than they treat whites. Blacks (and other minorities) are stopped more often, searched more often, arrested more often, mistreated more often, and even killed more often than whites are. It's not right, and it's unconstitutional, but it happens all across this country -- and that is a fact that only a fool or a liar can deny.

And our courts are not much better. Thanks to lingering racism, and flaws in our court system (the main one being those who can afford a great lawyer and payment for their own tests get more justice than those who can't), our courts do not dispense equal justice to all. Whites are treated fairer than minorities, and the rich are treated fairer than the poor. Those are just undeniable facts.

Ferguson is not a lot different than many other cities. It is just the place where these inequalities were exposed for all to see. While it was the Grand Jury's decision on whether to indict the policeman who killed an unarmed teenager or not, it was incumbent on the prosecutor presenting the case to them to treat both the victim and the defendant just as he would in any other case -- but he did not do that.

While in other cases he presented only the information favoring the prosecution, in this case he presented information favoring the defense and put a defense spin on available evidence. In the proceedings, he acted like a defense attorney instead of a prosecutor -- and his later justification for getting the decision he wanted sounded more like a defense attorney's summation than a fair presentation of the facts. In short, Michael Brown was treated differently than other victims are treated -- and that is the problem. Different treatment means unequal treatment. I don't know if it's because he's a racist or just a police apologist, but the prosecutor failed to do his job in a fair and equal manner in this case.

A country based on a secular Constitution establishing a rule of law is a great idea -- but it is not enough. That rule of law must be applied equally to all citizens. If it isn't, then it starts to crumble -- and it can actually become an instrument of discrimination and tyranny. Our justice system is seriously flawed, from the police through the courts, and it must be fixed. If it isn't, then the rule of law just becomes a sick joke.