The Roughton Report

Orlando, FL -  When is it okay to ignore the constitutional rights of the accused?  When is it okay for the authorities to ignore the rule of law to get what they think is justice?  Is it okay for those in authority to do abuse their authority in order to get what they want?

This is what the TV writers are building episodes of your favorite TV shows to promote.  They are systematically using the story lines of their series to desensitize the American TV viewing public to the corruption going on around them.  They are pulling on the heart strings of the viewer in order to promote a “the end justifies the means” mentality in the public.  All this does is make the public less likely to object when it happens in real life so that the offending official is not penalized for violating the law to get results.

Case in point:

Question:  Is it okay for a police officer to take the law into his own hands by hunting down and killing someone he suspects of murder when he is unable to provide the proof needed to convict the suspect in a court of law?

Answer:  No it is not.  We are a nation of laws and, under the constitution, all people are entitled to be confronted by their accuser and have the evidence produced that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he/she is guilty before judgement is passed against them.  Yet, one of TV’s most popular shows, “CSI: Miami”, had two of the main characters leave the country and murder the man that they suspected of ordering the murder of Horatio Cane’s new wife.  No consequences were dealt out and the whole murder was glorified by the show.

Question:  Is it okay for officers to make money from drug sales in their beat in return for protection from arrest and raids.

Answer:  No it is not.  The laws of the state and the United States are to be equally enforced.  They are there for a reason.  Yet, “The Shield” justifies the officers of the drug task force’s corruption by stating that, on their beat, violence as a result of drug dealing rival gangs is lower as a result of their interaction with the gangs and sales to children at schools has stopped as a direct result of the rules they set to allow the drug dealers to stay in business.  The laws are there to stop drug dealers, not regulate them!

I could go on and on about how the writers for these series’ have made corruption seem palatable to the viewer.  The only way that our Constitution will survive is when we speak up and tell these people that we refuse to allow them to sway our thinking on right and wrong by justifying it or glamorizing it in the mainstream media.

What ever happened to right is right and wrong is wrong.  They would have us believe that right is right and wrong is only wrong when it is not justified in our own minds. 

Fight corruption wherever we find it!