Let’s Put the Law on Trial

In my last post, “Is the Law Protecting Police Brutality?” I said that the Law as it exists today is a close cousin to the Jim Crow laws of the post-Civil-War era. The Jim Crow laws were manifestly unjust and abusive. Today’s law is more civilized. It is less manifestly unjust and abusive. But as far as substance is concerned, it is as impersonal and as brutal.

Today’s law is a sugar-coated version of the Jim Crow laws. What has changed is the form. The substance is practically the same. In both cases, the law is a handy tool that is used by those who are in power. They use it in…