I have long felt proud (and lucky) to be an American Citizen. One of the sources of that pride had been America's reputation for the wholesome administration of justice. However, long after I qualified as a senior citizen I was shocked to discover what I identify as a "Widespread and Callous Indifference to the Realization of Justice among those Responsible for the Administration of Justice" in my own world.
My late-in-life education relating to this serious social disorder followed from my extensive personal engagement with justice administration operatives ranging from an unranked police officer through to a State Supreme Court Justice while touching every station in between. I am persuaded that my fellow citizens should become aware that this sorry situation can be real. That's what this book is all about.
I seek with this book to expose shortcomings in justice administration practice that l have personally observed to be neither uncommon, nor insubstantial, nor generally acknowledged within the justice administration culture, nor widely recognized outside it. My ultimate goal is to motivate or provoke (or embarrass) justice administration practitioners into more seriously contemplating the unfortunate impact of justice administration indifference on the actual realization of justice and to promote justice administration practices that better foster the realization of justice. My book includes several simple specific proposals for re-tuning justice administration practice.
How My Mission Started -- Late on Christmas Eve, 2002 a huge thug who hated my guts with a passion broke into my standing car (with me in the driver's seat), robbed two traffic control cones I was transporting and, in an ensuing tantrum, assaulted my car with the cones he robbed. Unbeknownst to me at the scene the thug induced the abusive, gullible, responding police officer, with whom he had negotiated two hours earlier, to ultimately charge me with hitting the thug with my car. That rogue policeman gave me no hint of that intention at the scene and forcibly prevented me from engaging witnesses at the scene.
My Continuing Education -- That was the first in a systemic series of five justice system breakdowns, all instigated by the same thug, that introduced me, late in life, to that "Widespread and Callous Indifference" I cited above. This awareness followed from my extensive personal engagement with justice administration operatives ranging from rogue cop to State Supreme Court Justice.
My Remedial Proposals -- My exposures and assessments thereof ultimately led me to propose to Connecticut's nine-judge Rules Committee of the Superior Court some very simple modifications to judicial administration practice that I'm persuaded would significantly reduce the likelihood that other socially competent but judicially naive parties would have their welfare compromised by justice administration shortfalls as did I.
However, I encountered a dedicated indifference in all parts of the system, conspicuously including the robed contingents, assignable in my judgment to what I have classified as the Royal Priesthood Syndrome. My specific relevant experience took place in the State of Connecticut but I sense that the cited Syndrome is cultural and, to one degree or another, impacts the administration of justice throughout the nation.
A Stunning Discovery -- My associated research has exposed the startling fact that the very organization of Connecticut's judicial operations is INconsistent with the state's constitution even though Connecticut claims, on its auto license plates, to be the "Constitution State"!