This morning I read something that pissed me off to no end. Ordinarily there’s not much that gets to me. But my one pet peeve, if you want to call it that, is injustice.Of all the things that take place in this world, the one to most likely to lead to me ‘going postal’ is to either be a victim of injustice or watch someone else suffering some injustice.

Here’s the issue…

On one of the forums I frequent, a fellow copywriter was asking for feedback on a product designed to help drunk drivers get their cases dismissed, without penalties.

The product isn’t designed to make the person own up to their actions. It isn’t designed to help them get help for their drinking problem. It has one purpose… to skirt the law. To “exploit loopholes”. To get the loser off without punishment or responsibility for his or her actions.

Here’s my thoughts I want posted to the forum in reply to the unethical request for help:

To me there are projects that are too unethical to take on. I recall an ad in Reader’s Digest that said 9 out of 10 doctors preferred this certain brand of cigarettes, and that the filter in that cigarette prevented nicotine from reaching your lungs, and claimed the filter made the cigarette safe for smoking.No one today could argue the dishonest nature of that ad. We’ve matured as a society to recognize that was just wrong. The copywriter of that ad should have been taken out and shot.

Screw ‘overturning convictions’. Give drunk drivers the chair.

One member of that forum flamed me saying, “if you like the Philippines move there”.

That mentality is just what is wrong with the legal system and many of the people who are ‘protected’ by it. Here’s what was said:

“It seems a lot of you forget that most of us live in a country of laws and procedures and we all have some fundamental rights granted to us. One of the most critical is that we are innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.”

My motto isn’t innocent until proven guilty. It’s “if you did the crime do the time”. Period. If you didn’t do it, walk. No penalty. If you did do it, pay. The penalty should match the crime.

Lawyers don’t like that concept (there’d be fewer cases to try). Politicians don’t like that concept either (many of them have DUIs). Our ‘no fault’ mindset guilty ones don’t like that either because then they’d be at fault.

The idea among our current generation seems to be, if you can’t catch me and prove it, I’m innocent. You are not innocent. You simply benefited from an imperfect legal system.

This legal system has provided some outstanding freedoms that I really cherish. That I truly appreciate. But the concept that it’s “designed to err on the side of letting guilty people go” is just wrong. I would go so far as to say the system needs replacing. But that would be akin to words of revolt. Perhaps even be viewed as ‘non American’. I don’t care. Far too many innocent people are in jail and too many guilty ones walk the streets.

No law can bring my friend Sam back from the dead because of the idiot who got behind the wheel and _chose_ to drink while drunk. No law will ever erase from his mom’s mind the vision of her oldest son dead with his insides flung across the vehicle that was so badly crushed she didn’t even recognize it as their own. No law will reverse his teenager brother’s feelings of guilt for insisting even pestering Sam to take the movies back to avoid late payment fees.

“When you are arrested, you have every right to pursue every legal means possible to attain a dismissal or a not guilty verdict.”

Says who? Maybe by man’s laws but not by God’s. Not even the non-biblical concept of Karma supports such a twisted view of responsibility. The principles behind ancient laws have not changed. Take responsibility for your actions, not try to get off the hook.

That mentality is exactly why the law needs to be rewritten, if not replaced altogether.

Any copywriter who promotes causes of any kind that harm others should be taken out and given the same treatment as the victims who are harmed by the supported cause. In this case, run over by drunk drivers until their innards explode!

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Oh, I almost forgot one… a high school buddy of mine who was killed by a drunk driver. He was the funniest, most spontaneous student I knew. If anyone was going to make it big in film from that school it would have been Pat, Federal Way High School class of ‘82. Life snuffed out by a drunk.

Give them all the chair for all I care!