(Posted on behalf of an anonymous thoughtful person.)
To paraphrase an associate from some years back:
Many of today's "justice system" problems are the
direct consequence of KPI based policing.
KPI = Key Performance Indicator
Similarly for courts as for police - when the KPIs for an individual
human are used for monetary and career assessment and promotion,
such as "number of parking tickets issued in the past year", then
it is almost axiomatic that increasing KPI quantums shall result.
It is also asserted that increasing KPI quantums for police,
magistrates and judges, does not necessarily correspond to the
common man's conception of "justice".
It is only the supreme elevation of statute law above individual
conscience, free will and common sense that even allows for the
"community" to miss the obvious corruption of justice into the
abhorrent proposition that "the more statute laws are enforced,
the more justice we experience in our community".
In the USA, the "gang of 12" trial by jury (or "grand jury"?) is
enshrined as a (remote/frequent?) possibility of having unjust
statute law declared illegal and or unenforceable.
The situation is different here in Australia, where the State
parliaments claim:
- sovereignty,
- the right to pass any law within their state constitutions,
- the right to change their state constitutions with no
involvement by the people (by voting or otherwise)
- that every law they pass is valid before the courts,
- and that all power not reserved to the Federal Commonwealth is
the balance reserved to the states,
thus leaving almost nothing to the lowly humans except for their
right to vote once every 4 years.
Excuses for this despotic corruption of common sense and the
corruption of much of what the common man would call "moral
behaviour" are readily prostrated in the public dialogue, from
everyday conversations between friends to the mainstream media and
more, with the most obvious fallacy being "more enforcement of
statute law equals more justice";
Fallacies of enforcement of statute laws (there are plenty more):
- More enforcement of all statute law equals more justice.
- If we don't enforce all the statute law, we'll have chaos.
- I'm not doing anything wrong, so enforcement of unjust statute
law does not effect me.
- Humans cannot be trusted to exercise conscience and common
sense, so we must impose statute law universally and make no
exception for individual conscientious objection.
- When another human consumes a drug I don't know about, they
must be punished for their exploration and their personal
choices, even though their exploration and choices effect no
one else.
- There might be a few small areas for improvement, but in general
society, justice enforcement, and government, are working really
well, since we have so many shiny things.
So:
1) Are there any studies which directly quantify or otherwise
analyse (e.g. KPI- based) systemic pressure to injustice?
2) If not, it ought be obvious to the entitled class that there
are enormous accolades currently on offer to any and all who
nail this scientifically, e.g. directly correlating KPI based
policing with quantifiable unjust actions/ outcomes.
King makers? How about hero makers - heroes of human rights, justice
and common sense.