I Believe in the Power of Uncertainty

So, a local public official got himself in some trouble when TSA folks at the airport found a small vial of cocaine on his person. Not a good plan. His employers are standing by him, for now, supporting him as he seeks help. (Because, quite frankly, if you're foolish enough to try to get drugs through airport security when they're restricting our beauty products, well, you need help!)

It got me thinking, though, that had he been an ordinary African-American citizen with the same amount of crack, the response would have been quite different. This wouldn't have been a misdemeanor. And he wouldn't be free on his own recognizance. So, here I am on my soapbox:

Recently I was forwarded one of those chain emails again recently, this one about the Maricopa County Sheriff. The email suggested that inmates should quit complaining about being housed outdoors in tents, or being fed twice a day on surplus food, or other steps the sheriff has taken to reduce costs and keep himself in the limelight.

When asked why I didn't agree with the tone or intent of the email, I had to go back and look up the guy again to remember why he left such a bad taste in my mouth. And it's certainly his grandstanding as well as substandard treatment of prisoners--I believe that if our justice system intends to rehabilitate as well as punish, we need to treat folks with respect. And to those who may not be able to feel that respect for convicted felons, remember that the sheriff treats folks awaiting trial with the same kind of humiliation. And that's a position any of us could find ourselves in.

Probably my greatest concern, though, is the inherent racism of our judicial system, something that becomes most apparent in places like Maricopa County, where the sheriff decided to mount his own posse to round up folks crossing the border illegally. Because apparently he doesn't have enough to do without taking on the Border Patrol's job. In a judicial system that continually treats people of color with greater force than whites, well, I gotta think we need to be extra careful to do the right thing, even while we're trying to fix systemic problems. That is, if the system is this screwed up--and we know it is--then maybe we need to treat everyone who comes through it (accused, victims, families, police, corrections officers, attorneys, social workers, etc.) with all the respect we can manage.

Because we're making mistakes. We're fallible. We are part and parcel of a flawed system, created and sustained by folks like us. Faced with that uncertainty, we must conduct our public lives as if we could be proved wrong at any time. I don't mean that we need to be wishy-washy or not enforce laws. I do mean that we need to behave as if we could be wrong, keeping in mind the innate dignity of all humans, even at their most undignified.