I started this little mini rant in answer to a post by a friend about how he had seen the Coast Guard seriously damage or sink US registered boats in the USVI and Puerto Rico in search of drugs etc on the boats of innocent people that had nothing to do with drugs or anything illegal.
This happens but most of the time you are not going to get hammered like this by the coast guard.. it’s not so endemic that it happens all the time. Unfortunately the coast guard is made up of human beings and they are given missions that require a lot of judgment to carry out appropriately. As Ben said you get some young 18 to 24 year olds sometimes that their enthusiasm overrides their common sense. In their defense though… up till the current wars around the world the coast guard saw more action than any other military branch in the US and still do see a lot of action. We don’t hear about it a lot but they are never sure when they pull up to someone on the water if they are going to end up in a shoot out with drug runners out of south America etc… I think that with some of them it leaves them more viewing everyone as a potential danger to themselves when they pull them over than as a routine check etc… It lends itself to overreaction on the side of the Coast Guard in some situations. To be honest we see this in most of our myriad law enforcement agency’s. I would recommend that anyone that this happens to do their best to obtain legal representation and pursue it. It needs to be addressed so that it happens less in the future.
When it does happen getting redress sometimes is hard. Not, because your not entitled to redress but because it is so hard to find out what channel to use to get redress. Or to get a toe hold in the system to get someone to listen to you. Sadly justice in the US is more of a “how much justice can you afford”. Not because it is corrupt but more of how indifferent the system is. It is almost impossible to redress a grievance against someone without good legal representation simply to guide you through the navigation and rules of the justice system. Also it is amazing how if you try to talk to a judge in court for yourself you are marginalized because you don’t speak the same language as the judge..
An example of this we recently saw was a young lady have to go to court to defend herself against charges of assault.. (she did it and was guilty as hell but that isn’t the point of the story) She thought she could defend herself and refused court appointed counsel. During the hearing she tried to have some testimony thrown out that technically should have been thrown out if it was correctly protested, however she didn’t protest it correctly. She had watched to many tv court/crime shows. The other side of the case had an attorney appointed by the court that they accepted and that attorney did exactly what the first girl had attempted and failed to do, because he knew how to do it.
Now in many situations a judge might have been nice to the first girl and even thought she didn’t know how to correctly ask for what she was asking let her have it. In this case she had given the judge a lot of attitude and he wasn’t inclined to do more than what he had to meet the requirements of law in his courtroom for her.
The point is that no judge has to do more for you than meet the procedural requirements in their courtroom. If you find one that will go beyond that then your having a good day. A lawyer knows all the stuff you don’t so that you can get a fair chance.
Is this right.. not in my opinion but it is how it works. and from what I have heard from people all over the world it is about the average anywhere you go.. you need someone that speaks the language of that particular judicial system to intermediate for you to get the best results. a judge is much more likely to go the extra mile for a lawyer that he knows and respects in his courtroom than for a stranger that he doesn’t know that has trouble articulating what he wants from the judge. To the judge, unless he is an amazing person it is just a job after he has been doing it for a few years and most of the people he has in front of him are on average true scumbags and this affects his perceptions over time.
I have found that in my dealings with the judicial system that neat dress, extreme courtesy/politeness and doing your best to make the judge and court blink and see you as a real person that they can emphasize with to be of extreme importance. If you can get them to stop seeing you as just the next case and as a real person that they can identify with you will get more than just indifferent procedure. The lawyer most of the time already has that with the judge so can bring that relationship to the courtroom on your behalf. Again, not right, but it is most of the time, reality.
The US is a large country with many states with differing laws and then a mish mash of federal laws that apply everywhere. The bureaucracy is frighteningly large and trying to find out who to go to for what is sometimes bewildering. For the average citizen doing average normal things it works pretty well most of the time as everyone kinda knows how that is supposed to work. When you step out of that rut and do something different such as live on a boat you start to run into a lot of uncertainty because most officials don’t have any clue as to how you fit into their little bureaucratic world. You probably know more about how the law applies to you than they do in your situation as you live in it and to them you are an exception to how their world works. Or the flip side is that there are really silly laws that are on the books that they know about that they can apply to you that you have never heard of.
I think what people would like even more than lower taxes etc.. is a simplification of their dealings with the government. More clarity in what is required and less paper work in trying to provide it.
Corruption and bribery on the level of the average citizen dealing with just about any US or State government body is almost never seen. In my 43 years I have never been asked for a bribe and have known that if I offered one to a government official, cop or general state employee that I would probably go to jail. This holds true for 97% of the people I know that relate with the government. That is one of the nice things about the US. however the incredibly bewildering thicket of regulations, taxes and paper work will make your head spin. It is also very demoralizing when you realize how impersonally any of the bureaucracy’s of local, state or federal government view you.
An example of this is that I got married in August.. that wasn’t that bad bureaucracy wise.. 25 dollar license if I remember right with both of us having to go to the courthouse to apply for it. My wife is resident of a different state than I am.. so we finally get around to changing her drivers license to here. We couldn’t do it. She didn’t meet any of the requirements from the Department of Motor Vehicles to make her a resident of South Carolina. Even though we were both there with a marriage license showing she was married to me and me with a local drivers license. She doesn’t have any bills or bank statements from approved businesses coming to our address in her name. the mortgage is in my name so hers isn’t on it. etc. etc. It is very frustrating at moments like that. end result is that it will take about 30 days for us to get a bill with her name on it to prove she lives here so we can try again. 🙂
Enough of this 🙂
life is good and plan to spend a good chunk of it dealing with stupid paperwork. Other than that go sailing!
Oh and as to the Coast Guard.. They also save an increadable number of lives every year risking their lives to pull people off of sink boats or in other situations during storms and other adverse conditions. Just to be fair. 🙂
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