Dateline, Washington D.C.: The Drug Enforcement Administration, pressed by Congress for answers about its treatment of Andrew Chong, has no answers to give.

I wrote about Andrew Chong before. He's the young man the DEA arrested in San Diego when they caught him smoking dope at a friend's house during a raid. DEA agents handcuffed him, locked him into a room, and left him there five days without food or water. He drank his own urine, eventually attempted suicide, and was close to death when he was discovered. He suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, not surprisingly. DEA agents claimed that he was left there through an oversight and that nobody could hear him shouting for help. An investigation determined that you could very clearly hear someone shouting for help from that room.

The consequences? Four written reprimands, a five-day suspension, and a seven-day suspension.

If I seize someone, handcuff them, lock them in a room, and leave them to die, I will suffer severe consequences. I will lose my job, especially if I acted while performing my duties. I will go to jail. I will suffer catastrophic personal financial losses. My name will be broadcast far and wide.

That's the difference between me and a federal employee.

The DEA agents who arrested Andrew Chong for smoking dope and left him to die got reprimands or suspensions that were shorter than my last tension headache. You and I — the taxpayers — paid Andrew Chong the $4.1 million settlement he secured; the agents did not. They are not named in any of the articles about the incident. They will not go to jail. They will not lose their jobs.

Free of significant consequence, they will continue to exercise their armed authority to inflict consequences on other people who break the law.

Dateline, Texas:

In 2013, Judge Susan Criss presided over the trial of Alisha Marie Drake, who stood accused of the horrific crime of videotaping the rape of a 14-month-old child. During jury selection, a Jehovah's Witness in the jury pool told Judge Criss that he would not view child pornography and that his religion did not allow him to judge others (an issue familiar to anyone who has ever encountered a Jehovah's Witness in a jury pool). Judge Criss berated the juror and belittled his religious beliefs:

So if it grosses you out, then you can take it out on the person in punishment because it can’t possibly gross you out more than it grossed out that child. So that’s what my God tells me.

Eventually Judge Criss ordered the prospective juror arrested:

Juror No. 48: Your Honor, I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and I believe that Jehovah God is a Supreme Judge and it is not in my place to judge anyone else or to have, for that matter, for them to be – – The Court: All right. I understand that. We have Jehovah’s Witnesses all the time. But you know what? If you get picked on this jury, you get picked on this jury, and Jehovah can visit you in the jail. Juror No. 48: Okay. Then – – The Court: Have a seat, sir. Juror No. 48: I guess they have to visit me. The Court: All right. Arrest him. Take him into custody. Take him into custody right now. I’m not playing. See you later.

Judge Criss later explained to the thoroughly cowed jury pool that her experience as a sex crimes prosecutor — which she related in detail — taught her it was difficult to find willing jurors in sex crimes cases, and that she would not be excusing people. "And I'm not playing, and I don't care if anybody likes it or not."

Yesterday the Court of Appeals overturned the conviction. Even though Drake's appointed attorney did not bother to object to Judge Criss' actions, the court found that her comments about the case improperly conveyed her opinion of Drake's guilt, and that her arrest of the prospective juror deprived Drake of an impartial jury by intimidating jurors from confessing possible biases.

But the public opinion by the Court of Appeals did not name Judge Susan Criss. That's a matter of tradition and professional courtesy. You'd have to figure out her name by Googling the case, or by getting it from court records or from someone who knows.

Susan Criss is now in private practice, although she enjoys a public life commenting on her past cases. Criss is defiant about her actions in the Drake case. She won't face any State Bar proceeding. She won't face any consequences at all for her conduct.

These stories are not the exception. They are the rule. The rule is this: citizens generally face consequences for breaking the law and violating the rights of others, but those with the power to administer those laws and impose those consequences rarely face any themselves.

That's the justice system.

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