Lady Justice Isn’t Blind

The next time that you say ‘Let justice be done to all men,’ or when you portray Lady Justice as a blindfolded goddess that does not see colors, or genders, or economic status, etc, take a moment and think about the countless cases of untold stories of human indignations.

Remember that the earliest Roman coins describing justice was much different from the symbol of scale and blindfold that exists today, the older coin actually portrayed Justitia (justice) without any hypocrisy, standing with her sword in the one hand and her scale in the other hand, but that symbol stood with eyes wide opened and beaming, that to me was the honest portrayal of Justitia as she clearly does have eyes and can see.

And despite the design style of the modern sculptor that symbolizes justice as the supreme authority which weighs every case, and performs an equal administration of the law without corruption, favor or prejudice, it is obvious that in so many instances, the untold stories of human sufferings including political imprisonment, extra-judicial incarceration, systemic corruption etc, indicates that the symbolism of Lady Justice’ being blindfolded only reflects hypocrisy and injustice.

How can we accept that justice is blind and impartial when it clearly appears the opposite?

All across the world, including at the level of the United Nations, we see evidence everyday, that justice can be bias, and preferential, think about the following:

1) Do you remember the Rwandan genocide? It is well documented that despite all the repeated regional accords and international conventions meant to protect human rights and hold perpetrators accountable doing that conflict? Lady Justice turned a blind eye to a people who’s sufferings knew no limits.

 2) In recent years, the United Nations have modified the legal definition of genocide such that it focuses more on the intent of the crime committed rather than its magnitude. This means that in order to punish a perpetrator for genocide, Lady Justice requires that the prosecutor establishes a link between the crime and the intention, thereby creating corridor for many offenders to get away with their crimes.

3) In America for instance, there are countless scenarios of racial discrimination and killings including Sean Bell, Amadour Diallo, Kendrec McDade, Johnny Gammage, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, and John Crawford etc in which Lady Justice turned a blind eye to the plight of a minority group of citizens.

So my point here is, justice really isn’t blind, it is selective, it is discriminatory, and it sees what it wants to see, and as America has established itself as the global arbiter of justice, it almost seems that her friends abroad consistently get a free pass for violating human rights and committing crimes against humanity, while those countries that are not America’s friends get demonized for the same offenses, this again shows that Lady Justice sees what she wants to see, and that she clearly is not blind.

The case of America is not the only indicator that justice sees what it wants to see. Here in our own country Liberia, there have been many instances where the government has gone after its political opponents while ignoring corruption and economic crimes committed by its partisans, there have also been numerous cases where the government has been accused of interfering with the works of the courts to ensure it obtains a desirable outcome, this again to me indicates that justice sees what it wants it see.

It is very important to shine a light on the many cases of miscarriage of justice, and to demand that justice systems near and far, begin to act on merits, not preferences.

Another case of a massive miscarriage of justice at the international level is the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, while we acknowledge that Mr. Hussein was an evil man and needed to be prosecuted, it must be highlighted that the laws used in his trial, and the political views of the handpicked judges involved in the process, clearly demonstrated a substantial misapplication of justice, and the Foundation for Human Rights Defense, concludes that the trial was an unbelievable deviation from standard, and a show trial by a kangaroo court, and Justitia sees what she wants to see.