Balancing The Scales of Justice...

Since the infamous perp walk of Bill Cosby in front of the television cameras for the world to see, I watched Monique Pressley, his attorney, give an interview on CBS This Morning. She is going to give them a fight to the end in her defense of Mr. Cosby. He is lucky to have her. We can only hope that he gets a fair trial which will prove a challenge given the tainted jury pool. Finding someone who has not heard about or who does not have an opinion on this case is all but impossible. One point Ms. Pressley made that seems relevant is that the case for which he has been charged is based on an admission made during his deposition that he purchased quaaludes (in the 70's) with the specific intent to use them to have sex with younger women. He later says, presumably during the deposition, that he misunderstood the question...

Problem for this prosecutor is that he is hanging his hat on that very statement for grounds to reopen this case, grounds that could not be applicable to this complaining witness as in 2004 quaaludes were not manufactured. Unless Mr. Cosby stored these pills for 30 to 40 years, he could not have possibly given them to anyone in 2004. Obviously the prosecutor will try to use other cases, which were never reported and for which the statue of limitation has surely expired, to prove this case. IF the judge is fair, which I don't expect, s/he will not allow admission of any such evidence which I am sure Ms. Pressley will fight to keep out. So it is a stretch for this prosecutor to claim he reopened this case, which was thoroughly investigated and determined to lack sufficient evidence in 2004, based on new information. He is playing to the public. Ms Pressley is adamant that there is nothing revealed in the transcript that sheds any new light on the case involving this witness.

This prosecutor made a campaign promise to reopen this case which was previously closed and settled in a private civil action. The matter should have remained sealed but for the unprecedented decision by a judge who undoubtedly abused his judicial authority when he too caved into public and media pressure and ordered the record unsealed, both he and the overzealous prosecutor are grandstanding and building their careers around this issue. This happens time and time again at all levels of prosecution and most times the public is unaware or unconcerned because we want so desperately to believe in and uphold our justice system. We are too busy or too unaffected to be bothered with demanding an internal review and fix of a system that is undeniably broken. Too busy that is, until it hits home and affects us or our loved ones. Then we are all up in arms wanting the world to come to our defense. It is too late however, our silence has made us complicit in allowing that precedence be set that will now be used against us.

The state had its bite at this apple, the parties settled, the case was closed and now it is reopened. Will this prosecutor stop at the Cosby case for "righting wrongs" of his predecessors? Will he be going back to clean up what I am sure are more legal injustices than we can count that have been adjudicated, or not, in Montgomery County? Given the recent awareness that has now become public knowledge, thanks to camera phones, regarding police brutality, corruption, false arrests and planting evidence, harassment and murders of Black men, will he be revisiting any of those cases to "right previous wrongs"? And how about this "victim"? Did she not accept a civil settlement and thereby enter into an agreement not to discuss the terms of such nor what was discussed in arriving at that settlement? Does her agreeing to work with this hungry prosecutor violate any such agreement? Will she be ordered to return whatever was the monetary settlement reached between she and Mr. Cosby? I'm Just Wonderin'...

For those who question how or why I "defend" Cosby (air quotes because I know not of his guilt or innocence involving private affairs between him and his accusers), understand that it is not about Cosby folks, I see it as a much bigger issue. It is about not tolerating or cheering double standards of "justice" that have been put in place for JUST US by our legal system from time of detainment to ultimate adjudication and all too often conviction; a double standard that we seem to have embraced and/or accepted as SOP where we, Black and/or poor folks, are concerned. If ever you hear yourself responding to the claim that some Black or poor person should have known that they could not expect to do what some other group (usually rich White folks) does, you support and have accepted that you should live your life according a double standard. You have accepted that you expect that you will receive inferior or less just treatment, so don't be surprised when you receive it. We teach folks how to treat us... I will never support a double standard, no matter who the recipient. I made the same claims of unfairness and the legal system playing to the public when Governor Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in Illinois and he is White, so I am consciously consistent in my position. Right is right, wrong is wrong and sometimes it does not feel or smell so good but when consistency and balance of fairness rule the day, there is very little about which one can complain.

We cannot expect that we will get fair treatment when we look the other way and support unfair treatment mostly directed at Blacks and the poor, no matter how grotesque the allegations. I am a woman. I do not advocate what has been alleged in the Cosby case. What I do advocate however is that what is good enough for and applied to us, Blacks and the poor, must be good enough for and applied to all others (i.e. other celebrities, raping police officers, priests). WE must champion to expose the imbalance in the scales of justice and not get caught up in our emotions and manipulated by the press, rubber stamping whatever is put before us. WE must be consistent in our outrage and demand consistency in the application of law no matter who the victim, the act or the perpetrator. As our laws and treatment of some in the justice system is not fair and consistent, I do not support what is happening to Mr. Cosby. This has been my position from the beginning and I exercise my right to free speech to stand firm in that position now. I wish him well...