Our current justice system is far from perfect, laws sometimes do not make sense, are not enforced consistently, the process is often slow, sometimes made worse by bad judges, lawyers, or police officers, there is alot of room for improvement.  That being said, it was alot worse in the not so good old days.

I just got back from a family trip to Europe.  We visited castle towns from the middle ages.  They are pretty to look at now, but, back in the day they were no fun to live in.  Punishment was arbitrary, and brutal.  If you were accused of doing something wrong you did not have a trial as we know it now, you could be beaten or killed for no reason.  In one town we learned about a mayor back in the early 1400s, who did a great job, until his enemies locked him in the town dungeon and killed him.  We say the dungeon, a tiny, damp basement room with no windows.  People accused of even minor offenses were tortured in a variety of creative ways, dunked in rivers to simulate drowning, whipped, put in the stocks for days, wooden clamps that held your arms or legs in place so you could not move.  In the picture is my son trying out a set at a museum we visited.

We all need to keep working to make our justice system better, to fix it’s serious flaws.  As we do that be glad that we are not living in the ‘good old days’.

Ed