The New American Standard

No, not a version of the Bible. Let me explain.

There was the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent trial and exoneration of George Zimmerman in Sanford, FL. More recently black youth Michael Brown was shot to death by white officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO, black man Eric Garner was choked to death by white officers Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico in New York City, NY, and so it goes. Oscar Grant was killed by a BART officer in Oakland, CA, in 2009. Sean Bell was killed in a hail of bullets in Queens, NY, in 2006. Akai Gurley was shot to death in Brooklyn, NY, just last month. Tamir Rice was a 12-year-old boy shot to death by a rookie police officer while he was playing with a toy pistol in Cleveland, OH. It seems that things are getting tougher out there.

In the wake of all these, protests have surged throughout the country. They want to know the name of the officer(s) and they want justice. When justice isn't delivered, they protest ... long and loud and sometimes with extreme violence. As a minimum they are going to disrupt your day if you're in the vicinity because, after all, they're mad and you exist. Maybe your store is in their reach and needs to be burned down. Maybe you're just on your way to work and they don't want that. When protesters in San Diego, CA, blocked the interstate, Tyree Landrum, a black man on his way to work, confronted them angrily. "I got to go to Ross right now, homie," he said. "If I don't get there, I'm going to get fired." Because, you see, it makes sense that disrupting your life will make their case. Doesn't it?

The title references "the New American Standard". It is not any of this to which I refer. Not the tensions between police and people, between those with guns and those without, between whites and blacks, or even between protesters and the lives they impact. This isn't new. I am most disturbed by the new standard in American jurisprudence.

In some countries you are guilty until proven innocent. If you're charged, it is up to you to prove the charge is false by presenting evidence to that claim. In America, the standard has been the reverse: innocent until proven guilty. If you're charged, it is the prosecution's task to demonstrate "beyond a reasonable doubt" by evidence that you did it. We've now come to a new way, a "third way": "Guilty until we say so."

We saw it in the Rodney King case. The people were irate. They wanted justice. The officers involved were tried and acquitted. And that caused 6 days of rioting, looting, burning, and mayhem. "Justice," they said, "was not served." How? Because the officers were guilty and needed to be punished and that didn't happen. Why? "Because we said so."

We saw it in the Trayvon Martin case when George Zimmerman was exonerated in court and the Michael Brown case when the grand jury decided the evidence didn't merit a trial. We're even seeing it in the case of Bill Cosby where women are coming forward with 30-year-old accusations of rape and molestation. The Navy withdraws its honorary title and the public withdraws its support not because the proof is there, but because the accusations are there. Indeed, the police have stated that they stand ready to investigate any such accusation, but none have been brought to them. Like Zimmerman and Wilson and the rest, Cosby is guilty "until we say otherwise" ... even to the Navy.

This new rule is different than the prior two. They came at it from opposite directions--"guilty until" or "innocent until"--but both required evidence to prove the case. This new one is "guilty until we say otherwise" and no proof is required. "It is true because we feel it is." No amount of evidence will do. "Justice" is "what we say it is" and is not satisfied "until we say it is". Mob rule.

To be fair, this rule has existed since Man began. There have been vendettas, vigilantes, and lynch mobs from the start. I suppose it's just that today our media puts it in your face and makes it appear "normal". Add to that the fact that we live in this "Age of Empathy" where "truth" is defined by "how we feel", and we're on the edge of a dangerous precipice. When mob rule is random, under cover, and rare, it doesn't threaten to overrun society. When it becomes public, united, open and even exalted, we're in trouble. Note that I haven't even considered the merits of any of these cases. That's because in this particular New Standard the merits of cases is irrelevant. Can we simply expect more of this? Is this how America finally tears itself apart? Let's hope not.