Common Sense vs. the Law
The following is an exchange between Peter Guinta, a reporter, and Assistant St. Johns County Administrator Jerry Camera. It occurred as the result of a hearing on a dangerous dog bite involving a Shih Tzu and a five year old boy in which Jerry Cameron was the Hearing Officer. Peter Guinta was deeply concerned over the potential destruction of the dog. Cameron told Peter the case must be decided strictly according to the law; Peter disagreed. The dog has since been saved through settlement with the County Administrator, Michael Wanchik.
Peter,
This is a scene from “A Man for All Seasons.” This occurs in the time of Henry the VIII when the King is trying to find charges to level against Sir Thomas More because as Chancellor he refuses to ratify a divorce for the King.
This conversation occurs between More, his two daughters, and his son-in-law, Roper. One of the King’s spies has just left More’s house, and the daughters and Roper want More to arrest him.
This was required reading for one of my courses at the FBI Academy in Quantico. It was used to illustrate the importance of being a nation of laws and not men, and to avoid taking the law into your own hands when you are in a position of public trust.
I hope you find it as significant as I did over twenty years ago.
Roper Arrest him.
Alice Yes!
More For what?
Alice He’s dangerous!
Roper For liable; he’s a spy.
Alice He is! Arrest him!
Margaret Father, that man’s bad.
More There is no law against that.
Roper There is! God’s law!
More Then God can arrest him.
Roper Sophistication upon sophistication!
More No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what’s legal not what’s right. And I’ll stick to what’s legal.
Roper Then you set man’s law above God’s!
More No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact-I’m not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can’t navigate. I’m no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I’m a forester. I doubt if there’s a man alive who could follow me there, thank God. . .
Alice While you talk, he’s gone!
More And go he should, if he were the Devil himself, until he broke the law!
Roper So now you’d give the devil the benefit of law!
More Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More Oh? And when the last law was down, and the devil turned around on you—where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man’s laws, not God’s—and if you cut them down and you’re just the man to do it—do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of the law, for my own safety’s sake.
From: Guinta, Peter [mailto:peter.guinta@staugustine.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 7:40 PM
To: Jerry Cameron
Subject: RE: A Man for All Seasons
Jerry:
Thanks for sending that. You are a classy guy. I will be thinking about its concepts for a while.
Despite More’s stance though, the law is a man-made construct, containing all the flaws, lapses, absurdities and wrong turns that mankind included into its structure.
Laws are indeed the framework of civilization. Beasts have no law, except for tooth and claw.
But as a man-made phenomenon, law should contain extra pockets, compassion, nimbleness and adaptability.
It’s been made so formalized that rather than a truth-seeking tool, a legal hearing has become a military exercise on how one side plans to overcome the other.
No one knows what absolute truth is, especially those who think they do.
Former Sheriff Neil Perry let me pick up a training pistol at his small mobile training range one day. The exercise had shady characters (with and without weapons) and innocent civilians intertwined in a crime scenario where the arriving police officer must decide whether to shoot or not shoot.
I held my fire correctly and didn’t hit any hostages, but when the two bad guys released the woman and kid and dropped their guns, I shot both of the dudes anyway.
It wasn’t planned. It just happened. A thuggish coward who threatens deadly force against innocent people is not a valid human being or member of my society.
He should be removed expeditiously. I told Perry, “This is why I could never be a police officer.” He laughed and agreed.
Making the law your standard is questionable.
Many repressive regimes around the world do unspeakable things under color of law. The president of Rwanda and its Hutu lackeys in government sanctioned the genocide in 1994 where 800,000 Tutsis died. The Jewish genocide, one of the most horrific and well-documented historical events in history, was legal, as was the extermination of the American Indians.
Thomas More didn’t have to face those issues. He might have spoken differently.
Even in the US, dozens of innocent Americans, usually poor people, are killed every year when DEA and police drug teams burst into the wrong house, screaming and carrying assault weapons. The owner pulls a gun thinking he’s a victim of home invasion robbery and dies in his living room. The police even shoot the dog.
So, who can we trust? The question remains. I say, “Ourselves.”
The law shouldn’t be obscure, harsh, favor the rich or lucky. It’s written in generalities, not specifics, and allows absolute scum like Bernie Madoff to live while the retirees whose life savings he stole live in pain and poverty. He’s one I’d knock off without feeling the slightest twinge in my conscience.
I’m truly sorry about any grief you are getting now. That was not my intention, of course.
I’m hearing from dozens and dozens of people who say they know of cases where dogs did a hundred times more damage than Cyrus and were allowed to live.
You must do what you must do, I guess. You were given a no-win job.
But there could have been way more heart involved in this decision and a lot less principle.
Peter
From: Jerry Cameron
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 8:24 AM
To: 'Guinta, Peter'
Subject: RE: A Man for All Seasons
Peter, thank you for your candor.
In many ways it would be convenient for me to agree. I do believe the repressive regimes you quoted are totally inappropriate comparisons to the laws passed by duly elected representatives in a free country. A huge price has been paid in blood and treasure to live in a country governed by the authority of law and not by the whims of individuals. Are there laws that are unjust? Absolutely! In individual cases, can more just decisions be reached by moral code of pure and principled people than strictly following the letter of the law? Absolutely! But to do that opens the door to the unprincipled, and we have seen the results of that in the bloody pages of history. To put power in the hands of individuals outside of the law more often than not corrupts those individuals, and eventually leads to unintended consequences that undermine all that we hold dear.
Lord Acton correctly opined “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” James Madison said “If men were angels we would have no need of government, and if we had angels in the form of men to govern us there would be no need for controls.” Those controls come in the form of a Constitution and the laws of the nation. We hold in our hands the power to correct flawed law, but how many Americans are willing to go to the trouble to learn about and participate in their government? The only real participation usually observed is that of special interest for the enrichment of themselves at the expense of others. As you know, I have fought hard against laws I believe to be unjust, but I have never advocated circumventing the law.
I too have a sense of right and wrong, a sense of moral outrage, and the temptation to supplant laws I don’t care for with my own sense of justice, but like Thomas More, “I’d give the Devil the benefit of the law for my own safety’s sake.” I might like to live in a world that operates on the dictates of Jerry Cameron, but all of history has shown both you and I are safer and happier in a free country governed by law.
Jerry Cameron
Assistant County Administrator
Community Services
500 San Sebastian Way
St. Augustine, FL 32084
(904) 209-6198
No comments:
Post a Comment