Yesterday I celebrated along with 300 million others the 235th anniversary of this nation’s birth. I’ve been a resident for 11 of those years and a proud citizen for five.
As a politically involved teen and young adult in Australia, I always read about American politics as well as its judicial systems. I have often been perplexed at the grand jury system as well as with elected judicial officials, but despite those qualms I’ve held the American court system in pretty high regard. Yes, I know there are awful anomalies for those that can’t afford representation and many other issues, but those aren’t unique to the U.S.
When Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested, thrown into Rikers and then indicted by a grand jury, I felt good that despite his international prestige and net worth, justice was not only being done but being seen to be done.
It was hard not to feel sympathy for the recent immigrant working hard as a housekeeper to keep herself and her daughter afloat being abused by this rich banker. And when the stories came out about other DSK liaisons, it seemed more & more likely her allegations were true.
Today, we still don’t know what transpired in Suite 2806 but we do now know that there are many discrepancies in her past life that create doubt on her credibility. Monday morning quarterbacking is an easy sport but as the judicial system went too hard and too fast at DSK initially, I’m concerned that he’s now likely to be deemed innocent, judicially.
And not because he’s not guilty, but because of the initial haste to indict.
Two wrongs? That’s not justice either.
