CommentsMY TURN--The common element of predatory abusers is their power over their victims.
Whether it is the husband who beats his wife or the judge who steals a widow’s income, the abuser’s power over the victim is crucial. The maxim that power tends to corrupt applies to individuals and to the institutions. For generations priests abused young boys. The abusive nature of Catholic schools was no secret in the 1950's, but the Church was too powerful to stop.
Slowly, our society has been turning against predators, but the battle is far from over as the hideous murder of George Floyd proved. Officer Derek Chauvin’s deliberate 7 minute 46 second murder by kneeing on George Floyd’s neck was such a depraved act that we have no word for it.
Under the doctrine of defense of others, a by-stander would have been legally justified to put a bullet into Officer Derek Chauvin, but we all know that person would have been instantly murdered by the other senior cop. Barbarism is too mild to explain why the other officers did not save George Floyd. When Black Lives Matters says that the problem is systemic, they are correct. The only officers who even questioned Chauvin were the trainees. The longer an officer is subjected to the system, the more acceptable a vicious murder becomes.
The Courts Are America’s Most Maliciously Predatory Institution
While there are varying degrees of judicial abuse from state to state, overall the judiciary has become America’s most abusive institution. None of the other predators would have thrived for so many decades without judicial protection. The courts protected the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, predators in entertainment, law enforcement, etc.
When the videotaped beating of Rodney King gave the Los Angeles County District Attorney no choice but to prosecute his buddies in the LAPD, the appellate court protected the officers. Through machinations which should have fooled no one, the appellate courts gave three options for the trial: (1) Simi Valley, a bedroom community for cops, (2) Riverside and (3) far away Alameda County. Since the police, their friends in the DA’s office and Judge Weisberg all wanted the officers acquitted, they selected Simi Valley. Fifty-four people paid with the lives for this judicial manipulation to protect predators from the consequences of their actions.
Why society has recently moved against some powerful predators is somewhat a mystery. The courts themselves are as corrupt as ever, but now they allow the prosecutions of Harvey Weinstein, priests and Scout leaders, etc. The courts have to ask whether the constant mowing down of one predatory institution after another can be stopped. While the judges sit all smug knowing that they get to alter facts and the law at will, they should remember that the worm turns. California’s judiciary faces a question not of if, but of when.
Like the Slave Holding Confederate States, California’s Courts Are among the Most Vicious
California has a tripartite judicial system: (1) the courts themselves, (2) the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP), and (3) the State Bar. Each is dominated by the same individual, Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Too much power in one person’s hands results in too much corruption. Under an absurd interpretation of Cal. Const. Article VI Section 10, the judges may do what they will inside their courtrooms except step on the toes of a more powerful judge. Along with the doctrine of judicial immunity, the role of the CJP is to protect abusive judges, while the State Bar acts like a mafia hit man on attorneys who complain about corruption.
Predators Have to Be Driven out
In the last days of the Third Reich, Hitler ordered the continued extermination of Jews. Auschwitz accelerated its genocide. In the face of the advancing Red Army, the Nazi predators continued unabated. That is the nature of predators. Derek Chauvin proceeded with his murder knowing that he was being videoed.
Most Americans are unaware of the crimes which the courts perpetrate each day. We hear statistics about the disproportionate number of minorities who are incarcerated and naively think, “They must deserve it,” just as Germans thought Jews and Gypsies should be carted off to camps. Unless one has experienced Family Court, one has no idea how families are fodder for the judges’ profit and amusement. The Probate-Conservatorship Court is run to enrich the judges and their avaricious coterie of mediators and court appointed attorneys, while stealing the life savings of the elderly. As lawyer Thomas Girardi shows, attorneys can steal hundreds of millions of dollars from clients as the judges remain silent. The judges and the State Bar knew what Girardi was doing since he wisely became their benefactor. Now, they are scrambling to cover their tracks. Will Thomas Girardi be to the courts what Dr. Larry Nassar was to the Olympics?
As with the #MeToo Movement, the submerged anger against the judges is akin to the molten lava beneath a seemingly dormant volcano. Bill Cosby was advertising Jell-O to children; now he’s in prison. The statute of limitations to sue Catholic Priests and Scout leaders was abated. Judicial immunity does not extend to money laundering with its offshore bank accounts, gifts from attorneys, insurance companies and banks. Louis XVI, slavery, the Third Reich are gone. The judges should fear that when victims turn on them, mercy for the predators will not be the number one goal.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams’ views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.)
-cw
