(in)Justice

     Legal systems are designed to deliver justice for transgressions. Typically, the verdict gives recompense to one side, and negative consequence to the other. However, what happens when the justice is not so just. Plessy v. Furgeson ended and coined the phrase, "Separate but Equal," to maintain the requirement of segregation. Court cases in the early days of the Internet, after victims committed suicide, ended with cyberbullies getting off easy because there was no precedent for their actions. "White Bear," episode two of season two of Black Mirror, British television show written by Charlie Brooker, provides an interesting example that may or may not be in the near future. The episode essentially revolves the torture of a criminal, of a violent crime, by making her live the same day filled with fear, and (simulated) near-death experiences, over-and-over again, all the while she is in an amusement center for public participation.

     The situation is  both unjust and implausible for a number of reasons. First, because of the U.S. legal system. The justice center in the show is essentially a place for people and families to participate in the torture by recording and taking pictures of the events as they unfold, essentially a zoo. Under the 8th amendment the government is prohibited from cruel and unusual punishment. The justice center in the show must be a government sanctioned organization because what is the only thing that separates the government from the people? The legal use of force. Therefore, this rehabilitation center is neither just nor plausible.

     Second is the methodology of the center. Assuming this center has the aim of rehabilitation, it will never be achieved by such cruel methods. Erasing one's memory effectively severs their ties to the person they were before mentally. It is not right to put any individual through a fear scape, bringing them to the point where they desire death if they do not have the same mindset as the criminal they once were, and it makes it worse that the public can play along and throw tomatoes at her in the end. You cannot be punished for the same crime twice in the America, and to me, each time she lives the day in the fear scape she's being newly punished for a crime she has no memory of.

     Now, obviously I do not believe this is possible in the United States due to the laws we have in place, but perhaps in some other country it is possible. The difference between the fear scape and the glorification of criminals through today's television shows is that we, the viewers, are not allowed to add to the suffering of the criminals, we can watch from the safety of our homes, and only desire for their continued suffering.

                                                                                   You know you love me, XOXO, Gossip Girl