Beginners Weight Training: Lifting Heavy Metal
May 11, 2021
“It’s sad, (so sad) so sad
It’s a sad, sad situation
And it’s getting more and more absurd”
~ Sir Elton John
Is Law Enforcement Truly Accountable?
The Accountability of Law Enforcement has been questioned since the beginning of Law. How it has been used and misused over time. A topic that has been run into the ground. Lives were destroyed, wrong was declared right and the guilty listened to the sound of music. It still goes on.
So here in my first post on, “NO BAKWAS”, a.k.a “NO NONSENSE”, I have decided to debate this from a human angle. A common man’s point of view, which would give a take on how humans and law have evolved.
No experts here. Just those affected by them.
The Case 
Derek Chauvin, on trial for the unlawful killing of George Floyd during an arrest on May 25, 2020. Mr. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. These charges carry penalties of up to 40 years of imprisonment.
“Key players in trial of ex-officer charged in Floyd’s death”. dailyherald.com.
“VERIFY: What are the charges against Derek Chauvin?”.
The proof shared worldwide is in the form of public smartphone recordings of the incident done in real-time.
The Trial
It is the first criminal trial in Minnesota that is entirely televised and the first in state court to be broadcast live. Considering the movement, #BlackLivesMatter, and the worldwide unrest the incident gave rise to; it isn’t surprising, is it?
Neither is it unjustified.
The Point Being….
Did anyone pay attention to the speed at which the trial is being conducted?
For those of us who have been unfortunate enough to have been involved with or part of, some kind of court case proceedings would know the long drawn out procedures the common man has to endure.
What about the millions of cases of rape, murder, and other hideous crimes around the world that go unnoticed? Drawn out for years and sometimes even decades by those part of the system. Done to milk the limelight time and enhance their monetary benefit.
Example A:
The 16 December 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case of Jyoti Singh, a.k.a Nirbhaya.
“Delhi gangrape: Chronology of events”. The Hindu.
The four convicts, except the minor, were finally executed by hanging on 20 March 2020, at 5:30 a.m. IST. Eight, yes 8, years for justice to take its course for a crime that had no argument in the first place.
Example B:
Stated below would be how the powerful exploit legal loopholes.
Justice delayed by 19 years as of 2020: The Ruchika Girhotra case.
This is a heartbreaking account about how 19 year long trial of a molestation case ended up with a petty 6-month sentence for the guilty. A classic example of how the powerful and wealthy in our world today live beyond the “Long” arm of the Law. I guess the arm is just long enough for the common man.
Forget the result for a minute. “It took 19 years”. The child relived the trauma repeatedly. Numerous visits to the court. The narration of the events. Don’t for one second forget that this case occurred in rural India. A society where families are shunned and girls ridiculed due to a combination of narrow-mindedness and negligible education. Not to mention the milking of this situation by the convicts’ accomplices who never hesitate to humiliate and turn the society against the victim and her family, mostly by installing fear of repercussion.
A child is driven to suicide by the sheer burden of it all.
We have failed her and the countless others who we may have, or have not, heard of.
A warrior this child, who would have by now blossomed into a woman. May she find peace and love in her next life.
The case of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi
On a tangent, here is the Punjab National Bank scam which has been dubbed as the biggest fraud in India’s banking history.
On January 31, 2018, the CBI filed a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of Punjab National Bank that they had been defrauded of Rs 280 crore.
Before the CBI even initiated its investigation, Punjab National Bank (PNB) submitted another letter alleging that the total amount defrauded had increased to more than Rs 13,500 crore. Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi were named the prime accused.
Both the charlatans hastily fled the country (India) in the first week of January 2018. A very convenient;
“Co-inki-dink“, is it not?
Of course, the bank employees involved and the associates of the con-artists were apprehended right on schedule.
Let us now observe how many years it takes to bring the masterminds to justice. It has already been 3+ years.
If sensationalized cases like these in developing countries take this long, what about similar cases but involving the poorest of the poor. Wait… What an idiot I am. They don’t even get a trial.
The Counterpoint
Makes one wonder, would the trial of Derek Chauvin be conducted with such vigor if there wasn’t an uproar and exposure or would it disappear under the blue carpet like so many before.
Psychology of Law
Let us now take a peek at the Chauvin Vs Floyd case.
Consider the testimony of Donald Williams II, a professional MMA gladiator and an unfortunate bystander on that fateful day.
The length to which the law went to legitimize his authenticity is frankly absurd. The years he practiced, from high school to college and beyond. The types of holds he knows and performed. The kinds of disciplines he studied. His wins and losses.
A rigmarole of personal history, detailed MMA techniques, and a desperate attempt to cajole a witness to get a predetermined answer which would facilitate their argument.
For what? To conclude that kneeling on someone’s neck could knock them out or even kill them due to oxygen deprivation. Really?
Maybe because we look at it from a human point of view we knew the answer already.
Now do not get me wrong here, I understand the concept of “beyond any reasonable doubt” and the like, but not to the point of it being absurdly irrelevant.
Do we go to a brain surgeon to cure a common cold? Then why do we need the best expert to mention a fact we all know and understand as human beings who have seen the proof?
Human Law evolution
How did law get this complicated?
Well, due to the exceptional deviousness of man.
Over the years there have been countless cases fought in courts all over the world, wherein those guilty have walked due to loopholes.
Loophole?
{An ambiguity or inadequacy in the law or a set of rules. E.g.: “they exploited tax loopholes”}
This usually resulted in jubilation for the defense and loss for the prosecution. A case won and a wrong set right. However, is that what actually comes to pass.
Man as an animal has always learned things through experience, either personal or that of others. It is only logical that law would follow the same pattern.
The millions of exploited loopholes over a hundred years in a million cases were worked on and improved on, slowly but surely, to get the law to the level of complexity it has reached today.
One has to be so, beyond any reasonable doubt, nowadays that the complexity of the matter is a loophole in itself or the case gets drawn out into infinity and beyond. A place where the matter has lost all interest to the victims, purely due to mental exhaustion.
To maintain, beyond any reasonable doubt, we have made it more difficult to prosecute the guilty and as a result a rough road for the victims.
Accountability:
It is the time when COVID brought the world to its knees and there is a demand for answers from doctors. After all, they are responsible, aren’t they?
It brings me to an important medico-legal question about judiciary systems around the world made by:
Dr. Ramesh Ganesan.
Why there exists the term “Medical Negligence”?
The judiciary should also come under CPA (Consumer Protection Act).
In the Salman Khan hit and run case the LOWER court judge and the HIGH court judge had the same submitted evidence to consider. They also had the same Indian Law to abide by and probably had similar education qualifications too.
Yet, they interpreted the situation in an absolutely contrasting manner and the verdicts were poles apart.
Hypothetically, if a Doctor sitting in a government hospital catering to hundreds of patients in a day had diagnosed a celebrity patient, presenting gastric discomfort, with Gastritis but a second opinion from another hospital had later diagnosed the patient with a Myocardial Infarction. What would be the repercussions faced by the first doctor?
If a doctor making a wrong diagnosis can be prosecuted shouldn’t a judge giving a wrong verdict meet the same fate, especially since a judge gets years to decide on a case, unlike a doctor who has to diagnose and treat in the blink of an eye?
If a hospital can be sued for not admitting poor patients shouldn’t the courts be prosecuted for the hundreds of thousands of cases backlogged, while still ensuring all public holidays and summer closure of courts are followed meticulously. Makes one wonder if oath’s to serve the public and humanity have any precedence over personal comfort and luxury.
The same concept with the police force actually. Oddly, the general public is treated in such a condescending manner by the uniform that they have paid for.
Is it not appalling that a judge taking 12 years to eventually give a wrong verdict gets away unscathed but a doctor making a mistake, in nail-biting real-time, is screwed by the legal system?
Law is 100% man-made and medicine an art which in all its complexity is still not fully understood. Yet the 100% man-made is forgiven errors while the uncertain is condemned.
If doctors and hospitals have a duty towards society, does the judiciary not have a responsibility towards the same society?
A huge hue and cry about hospitals and doctors charging exorbitant fees, (which is true in most cases) however, not a word about the kind of astronomical fees lawyers like Manu Singhvi and Jethmalani charge for court appearances. Both should be capped by law for it is a service for the society.
These are all valid points above. But this is not a blog about doctors’ misfortune. I have included the above points only to put out the fact that the judiciary is only accountable on paper, never seen it happen in reality. Who can take on those who decide the fate of others?
Landing on the point, if there is no accountability how can any system function efficiently and judiciously.
No wonder victims suffer in today’s Law and Order and the rich and powerful have a game of it all.
The loopholes rule as they always have.
The cycle thus goes on, and on shall it go as long as humans make life more complicated when God created it to be so simple.
MAY JUSTICE BE DONE. REST IN PEACE♥
