Crazy Justice

Things seem weirder than normal with respect to the law recently.

Joshua Powell is the husband of Susan Powell. Susan has been missing for more than 2 weeks and all Joshua can say is he went camping in a snow storm with their kids (4 and 2 years old) at midnight and when he got back she was gone?

He is still able to come and go as he pleases because the cops don't have enough (any?) evidence so he isn't a suspect. Her family finally today offered a reward to find Susan. It seems that the cops aren't doing all they can or they thought Susan really walked away from her kids. It is weird that more information hasn't been forthcoming.

The next crazy justice thing that comes to mind is Brian David Mitchell. This is the nut job that (allegedly) kidnapped Elizabeth Smart. His accomplice Wanda Barzee has been convicted but Mr. Mitchell continues to be remanded to the psycho ward because he sings in court. I think we should send him to Gitmo for a few week's vacation and let him enjoy some of the extra curricular activities like the therapeutic water boarding pool or the ear splitting disco lounge.

Another strange legal case is the poor American student in Italy that was convicted of killing her roommate in a fit of sexual hedonism. The weird thing is that she was convicted despite her defense insisting that the Italian police messed up the investigation and contaminated the evidence. The international press continued to suggest that she would not be convicted because of the poor job of investigation yet she was found guilty. There is no accounting for the Italian judicial system. Thank the Lord we live in the good old USA.

The most dishartening example is the guy who's son remains in Barzil 7 years after his ex-wife died because the wife's new husband is fighting custody. The ex-wife took the boy to Brazil without authorization from the dad and the boy has remained there ever since despite an international law that says kidnapped kids (custody battles where the kids are removed without one parent's permission is considered kidnapping) must be returned. Recently the Brazillian Supreme Court denied a motion to return the child to his father in the US. This was only the latest in a series of legal attempts by the father to get his son back over the last 7 years.

Of course living in the US provides us some inalienable rights that people in other countries only dream of, except maybe for Utah County. Recently there was a news report of kids from Provo coming up to Salt Lake County to buy heroin in mass quantities. It seems they would take orders from their friends "borrow mom & dad's car to run an errand" as the Salt Lake County officer interviewed said, and buy bulk heroin.

That is really weird, not that Utah County has a drug problem, you would need drugs to live there for any length of time (it seems Utah County has the highest incidence of prescription drug abuse also) but it was a Salt Lake County cop who was interviewed about the drug bust.

Utah County law enforcement must be too busy collaring old ladies with out-of-control weeds or scary rapping drive through order teens at McDonalds. Go get'em guys in blue. Blast past the van full of heroin to get the guy who through his gum wrapper out of his car.