Raven, not to be confused with Robin or Robyn, asks in a comment below my thoughts on Nifong, the now disbarred DA in the Duke Lacrosse team rape prosecution.

The first thing I’d say is that most ambitious prosecutors in America would act in the very same way, except that they would be doing so in cases where the defendants were much less powerful and well-heeled; most prosecutors get away with that crap daily.  It’s Justice for Just Us who can afford it in this country.

And, isn’t part of the problem with Alberto Gonzales’ Justice Department identical to the Nifong problem?  Don’t we know for absolute fact that there have been prosecutions at the federal level for purely political reasons?  Real lives of real people forever tarnished, if not downright ruined, by charges meant to make an electoral point rather than the pursuit of making society more safe.

Moving back and taking in a larger scope, I’d say that both the medical and legal professions suffer somewhat the same problem:  a relatively small number of practitioners commit most of the wrongdoing.  If the professions would be more serious about policing their own and get rid of the worst five percent with their respective professional degrees, we would have solved the problems of 90 percent of medical malpractice and about 85 percent of the legal shenanigans that bedevil our justice system.

Imagine what might the world be like if doctors and lawyers actually stood for something in addition to holding a magic ticket to petite bourgoisie wealth.  What if being a doctor or a lawyer also meant that one with that label had personal and professional integrity beyond question.  What if the sobriquet “lawyer” included the meaning of a person with a daily and lifetime concern for the people and society and liberty of all instead of just a money-grubbing vulture fattening on the problems of the few?

I know, I know.  Utopian crap.  I can’t help being a romantic at times.  But, Raven wanted to know, and that’s enough excuse for me to rant.

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