[Excerpt]
... In his important study based on the experiences of the French Revolution, Benjamin Constant drives this point home. The weak-minded assume that those who hold political power are equipped with tools that allow them to carefully measure the guilt or innocence of men and act in the protection of their fellows. The more penetrating and critical observer knows that those in positions of power are much more likely than their fellow citizens to exercise warped judgment, essentially, to turn the criminal justice system into a vehicle to protect themselves and their exercise of power. Raison d’état will excuse their own crimes and failings, but the great compendium of criminal law will always offer up a clause or two which their political foes have violated. ...
[End of Excerpt, Read the rest @ Harper's Magazine]
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