Justice must be seen to be done

Justice. It not only has to be done, it has to be seen to be done.

It’s a concept that has, at its core, the idea of protecting the public’s belief that every effort has been made to ensure criminal investigations, court cases and judicial decisions are clear, fair and transparently made. That’s because we have to trust the justice system: everyone in it has to bend over backwards to ensure there is no reason whatsoever to doubt that it always strives for fairness.

The concept springs from a 1924 court decision by British King’s Bench Justice Lord Hewitt, and boils down to his clear statement “Nothing is to be done which creates even a suspicion that there has been an improper interference with the course of justice.”

And right now, that’s not the case to the south of us.

Two American shootings, both captured on video from a number of angles, show American federal agents shooting and killing ordinary citizens.

In the case of the shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, the FBI have apparently decided no charges were warranted. Local police were denied access to the crime scene, and their investigation into the shooting has been repeatedly stymied.

It’s meant federal agents have investigated federal agents, and have apparently seen no reason to file charges. Instead, much of the investigation seems to have been focused on digging up information to attack Good and exonerate the shooter for his actions.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot Good left the scene immediately after the shooting.

In the Alex Pretti case, local police were again kept from the scene by federal officers — despite arriving with a court order granting them full access.

The Customs and Border Protection agents involved in that shooting are now apparently back at work, in other locations, with officials refusing to identify those involved. Hardly the way you’d expected law enforcement officers involved in a shooting death — and potentially facing serious charges — to be treated.

And once again, the investigation into the fatal shooting sems to be being handled in house, which hardly generates even a hint of a good faith effort.

“Trust us” is not an acceptable replacement for a public judicial process — especially when there have been plenty of examples of the Trump administration’s willingness to rush in with false statements.

Both Good and Pretti have been accused by the Trump administration of being domestic terrorists — accusations the administration rolled out mere moments after both shootings occurring, well before the circumstances of either of either of the incidents were known.

Having two separate standards for applying justice — one for ordinary citizens, and a completely different one for masked, anonymous, heavily armed and lightly trained paramilitary officers — is not only a recipe for more shootings.

It’s a recipe for a complete breakdown of trust in the judicial system.

The American justice system is already under considerable threat, as, more and more often, naked political partisanship seems to be the driving force behind high-profile investigations of political figures. The non-stop denigration of judges who don’t rule in the current U.S. government’s favour is its own corroding influence on the concept of judicial fairness.

But the idea that a paramilitary officer might be able to shoot you dead on a city street, without even ever having to reveal his or her face or real name, without an independent investigation of their actions, and simply walk away to live their life as if nothing at all had happened?

That’s not only a case of justice not being seen to be done.

That’s the end of justice as we know it.