"JUSTICE!"
Historically, in the US an impassioned plea for justice evokes a sense of righteous indignation, and has been a plea for either of only two possible courses of action:
- Arrest, trial, and imprisonment
- Lynching
In either case, the end result is assertion of power, through violent force, along with the claim that a wrong has been righted.
But what if the wrong itself has been committed by actors within (or even representing) the system of power? The power structure is then presented with a dilemma: can the appearance of justice - of wrongs being righted - be maintained, while still maintaining the supremacy of power?
This series examines a solution to this dilemma, that is used in the US court system: prosecuting the case as if seeking justice, but doing so in a way that is designed to fail to right the wrongs of power.
A prime example of this solution is the Buck vs. Bell case, appropriately described in a 1994 article as Fixed To Fail.