Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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everyone. Welcome to week four.
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Um, the title for this week is called Pyramid Justice.
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So when you do your reading, your other basically puts
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the justice system into a pyramid.
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Andi, I thought kind of this presentation.
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This graphic here kind of gives us that same idea.
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Right? Um, when we're looking at it and we talk
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about the justice system, um, you know, we understand that
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at the bottom of the system, people are being ignored.
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Justice isn't really there.
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Um, it takes on a whole different meaning.
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And so, um, I thought this graphic kind of really
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brought that through a ZX.
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Well, when you think about it, we have, you know,
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everybody at the bottom.
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We have the foundation of our system, which is supposed
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to go all the way through.
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But then, uh, we still have below the surface where
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all the justices being fast tracked, and then we have
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some cases that eventually reached visibility in our community and
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then the people that in the cases and the justice
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system that is visible to most of society onda reason
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that they probably don't understand what is going on is
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because it's those that air the top there.
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The elite, the ones that can afford justice.
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Right. Um, so that's kind of what we're gonna discuss
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here today.
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Um, so let's look at it.
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Of course, we know the foundation of our justice system
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is the U.
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S. Constitution.
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We have our bill of rights.
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Unfortunately, we also know that it takes monetary value to
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ensure those rights where it's not supposed to.
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That's not what the Constitution was founded on.
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That's not why it was written.
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Um, it literally is supposed to be guaranteed rights for
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every person in the United States, Um, and every citizen
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in the United States and it's it's not something new
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they said you had to pay for.
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There's nothing in the Constitution that says monetarily.
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You have to be well off in order to receive
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these justices.
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This is not, um this is not what it was
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meant to be.
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And so we have the foundation of our justice system.
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Unfortunately, we have lost what that means.
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Um, and over the years, it has been twisted and
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manipulated. Thio Onley go to a certain group of people.
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Yeah. So because of that, we have what we call
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the fast track justice.
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Right. So the strategy of fast tracking justice, um, and
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of the justice system is we have all the legalities
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of the top at the very top.
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We see how the system works.
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It's on the TV.
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We have court trials, all these different things that go
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on. And this is what people see in general.
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So a lot of people do not understand what it
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is we're missing.
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Um, if a case is severe enough, we also hear
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about it, especially in our community.
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Right? Turn on your news.
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You're going to hear about a murder.
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They're gonna You know, if they have suspects that they
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need the community help, they're gonna, you know, put that
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out there.
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But what we don't pay attention to is how people
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are treated in the system by their race, their gender,
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their class.
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Right. Um, we don't understand that most of the crime,
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that is, um, out there.
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Morse is most of what people are, um, arrested for
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or what we consider crime in society is really targeted.
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Um, on these three factors and so we have a
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war on drugs.
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We have a war on race.
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We have a war on poverty.
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Um, and the war on drugs tends to also, um,
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pull in gender.
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And, um, you know, we have a lot of women,
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especially who are moms, that the the system has learned
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to target and starts taking away Children.
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Um, and we find that the percentages are astronomical when
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it comes to parents, Children who have parents that have
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been incarcerated.
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Um, if they have one parent there almost 50% likely
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to follow those footsteps of both parents earn incarcerated at
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some point.
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It's almost ah 100% that the Children, um, end up
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in those footsteps as well.
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And so the system targets more than some of the
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things that we even realize.
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Um, you know the defense counsel issue, you could be
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appointed a lawyer, But the problem is, if you are
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appointed a lawyer and you can't afford one, that person
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is usually overworked, way underpaid, Um, and a ZX, much
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as they want to do their job to the best
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of their ability, they just don't have the resources and
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the time to put into every single case.
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And so therefore we already know that their goal is
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to tempt is a lot of times to help plea
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bargain it out to make sure that the person doesn't
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spend too much time behind bars.
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Um, but it kind of gets their case out of
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the way.
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And, um, you know, it's interesting strategy here to the
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ideological function of law that you're author talks about the
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law in general.
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We already know, um, we're guaranteed rights and we talk
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about this.
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You learn this, An intro to C.
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J. If you know, here's how the system works and
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this is how it's supposed to be applied, and it
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doesn't matter who you are.
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We have all these cases that show these people are,
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um, guaranteed all of this stuff.
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And then we realized that law on Lee functions like
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to have the very tap.
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But as you get towards the bottom, we kind of
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lose, um, the function of law and we based it
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on society's ideals of control.
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Um, control of race, gender in class.
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So, um, I just kind of put a little graphics
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up here.
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Um, right.
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So at the top, we have have O.
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J. Simpson and his dream team.
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Um, if you know about his lawyers because you have
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the money to pay for it.
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Right? Hey, had the money to pay for his trial.
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He had the money to pay for the best lawyers
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out there, and and they were able to present a
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defense, and he was found not guilty.
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Um, then we have the middle ground where you have
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just kind of a fun cartoon.
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Um, but it kind of speaks volumes, right, because this
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guy says, Yeah, represent you, But I don't know how
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I'm gonna get a jury of your peers now.
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Technically, obviously this guy's an alien, but this is more
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true than not In many cases where people end up
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on trialed the ones that we do hear about in
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the news, Um, the, you know, whether it's murder, kidnapping,
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it's some kind of severe crime, and these people end
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up getting arrested in the news follows them Not as
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highly as, like the O.
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J. Trial.
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You're not gonna see the whole trial, but they do
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follow them.
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And then they say, Look, you know, here's, um, you
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know, we have this guy on trial.
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Well, the problem is, we already know that jury duty
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is one of the bigger issues that we have is
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well in getting actual people that are the peers of
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the defendant and whether people realize it or not.
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That's what Juries are.
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It's a jury of the defendant's peers, not a jury
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of the victims peers or a jury of societies.
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Piers, It's supposed to be of the defendant.
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And so it kind of we kind of missed that
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a lot of times in our system on dhe, then
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here at the bottom, right, we have, you know, discrimination,
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right? Uh, race, class, gender.
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So it's crime, crime, discrimination.
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And that's really what a lot of this comes down
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to the lack of equality over punishment.
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And, you know, it's literally based on these three things.
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Yeah. So, like I said, at some point, we do
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finally start seeing the justice system a little bit, but
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we see it in different ways.
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So social media, right?
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We see it all over right now.
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Twitter, instagram, Facebook.
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You go on there, you can almost hold their own
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trials on there at this point.
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Um, with the way that people talk and post the
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problem that we seem to have, um is we have
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people that are almost put on trial on social media,
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no matter what the actual system is set up for.
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And so and it's kind of a good and bad
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thing, uh, in in the sense of we're making things
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visible social media is how we're making the issues of
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the system more visible.
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Now it's a chance to finally get voices out there.
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It's a chance to really put in societies, face the
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issues, right, showing them Hey, well, the justice system isn't
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as visible as you think.
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And so, where this ad is on this graphic and
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you can see you know, kind of the way this
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is set up, you can see where the water line
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is. We're just We use social media as a tool
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to finally start bringing up the bottom of the pyramid,
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sort of speak and bringing it up to where people
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can see the visibility and the lack of actual justice
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that is going on.
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Yes, So other approaches.
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Obviously, I said we talked about this.
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The news media, right?
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We hear about the cases, um, and so the idea
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of crime cells, right?
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So if you turn on the news and you hear
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about all these murders and different things that are going
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on in the cities in your area?
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Why? Because it sells people are interested in that.
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If not, we wouldn't have a million crime shows.
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We wouldn't have thousands of documentaries on Netflix where we
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binge watched.
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Um, I'm guilty, too.
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These air.
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You know, it's interesting.
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The thought process usually has to do more with the
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psychological things behind a criminal.
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But overall, in general, when people were watching the news,
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this is how you hear about what's going in your
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area. And if if it's a tragic enough event, um,
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then it tends to sell on the media.
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And so we have social media and news media that
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helped bring to light the system.
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But it has, over the years, kind of ignored what
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the issues are.
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And thankfully, now we're at a point within this last
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year and a half or so where we're actually able
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to bring out the, um, and start making visible the
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true issues of the criminal justice system and its lack
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of actual justice in equity.
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And so the last you know, the last part of
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the pyramid that your, um, that your author talks about
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here is it's for the elite.
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It really is.
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It's for those who have the money to pay for
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justice. Um, we see trial, full trials on TV.
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Um And so because of this and because of the
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way this is set up, we have a false reality.
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Society in general has a false reality.
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We say, Well, we have the constitution.
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Everybody's guaranteed those rights.
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Yes, but have you ever looked into the fact that
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maybe not everybody, even though they're guaranteed it doesn't?
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People don't pay attention.
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They're really not given that opportunity.
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Um, when you do your reading this week, I think
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you're really enjoy the author because their defense lawyer, uh,
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eso this that makes us a little bit more to
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heart. And the case that they portray in the in
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there, um, in there s a it really brings the
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humanity out of it.
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And that's that's where I think we lack more than
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anything in our system is that we have lacked overall
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the humanity off what we're doing to people way.
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Take the human element out and we just say, Look,
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here's a crime you commit that crime.
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Here's the sentence and the story we don't look at
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what what is it is causing these crimes.
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Do we really want to change that part of it?
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Well, we don't want drugs in our society.
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Okay, Well, why is their drugs in our society?
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Yes, there are people who are gonna want those kind
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of things that's a little bit different.
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But if it's an overall issue where people are getting
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hooked on it because they feel they have no way
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out, then let's look at the rial roots of these
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problems, right?
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So we have to look at the fact that here's
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what the public sees is only what is on the
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top. And, um, hopefully we can start looking at it
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differently, right?
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So the question becomes, you know, how do we get
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everyone to the top to actually ensure that justice does
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its job properly for everyone?
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How do we get the foundation raised up above that
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water so that everybody can see how justice is?
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Um not balancing out the scales air not balanced.
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And lady justice is not being blind at the moment.
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And so hopefully, as you read through the essay this
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week, you'll get a little bit of Ah, um, understanding
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off. You know what is lacking and kind of where
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we need to go when it when it comes to
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policy, because the policy is if we don't see it,
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it's not happening right.
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If you can't see something, we ignore it.
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It's behind a closed door.
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We don't pay attention to it.
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So we have to pull things out and bring it
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up to, um, where things are visible.
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And so hopefully, like I said, as you're reading along,
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you realize, um, a little bit more of a base
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of what we need to be able to promote policy
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change. And I think overall, we actually have to bring
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back the human factor.
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And I think that's what kind of what your author
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is really trying to push here is that we forget
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what we're doing.
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Um, literally involves human lives, So I will talk to
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you guys on Friday