Marissa Bostick | Staff Editor

Does justice really exist anymore?

Time after time and criminal after criminal somehow seem to get away with every crime imaginable.

One has to wonder if the justice system is failing the people or maybe it’s been failing us this whole time and now we’re finally noticing it.

Most times families of victims of violent crimes don’t feel that the offender never truly received the punishment they deserved. Does the fault lie with overworked and underpaid public defenders? Or perhaps the fault lies with easily corrupted officials influenced by corporations that have no business in politics.

The National Rifle Association’s presence in politics shows how easily the justice system can be corrupted. Sure you have a right to bear arms, but that doesn’t mean shoot first ask questions later as they would like you to rally behind. It seems like every time there’s a gun related crime in the news the NRA sticks their hands in it.

Statistics put out by government agencies tell us that crime has been on a steady decline in the United States since the 1990’s, yet today in 2013 it seems only a few hours can go by without a new crime on the news or in the papers.

With an abundance of crime around every corner and police being overextended it’s no wonder that justice can’t properly be served. It seems like when police aren’t harassing young men who fit gang profiles they’re giving tickets out in an effort to hit a quota that supposedly doesn’t exist. With police work like that it appears like their motto, “To Protect and Serve” just isn’t true.

“Every man gets his day in court” or so the saying goes, also no longer seems true.

Overpaid prosecutors seem to get extremely guilty and exceptionally rich people’s charges dropped faster than a hot potato, meanwhile the poor and guilty until proven innocent man rots in jail.

In fact it seems the more money you have the less likely you are to even make it to a jail cell. If a non-celebrities pulled half the crimes Lindsey Lohan has pulled they’d be in a jail a couple times over. Somehow every time Lohan went to court she managed to leave with a proverbial slap on the wrist and sent on her way.

No wonder the American people no longer believe in a system that is supposed to condemn the wicked, when in reality its true purpose is to reward whoever can afford the best lawyer.

Where’s the justice in that?