The
Floyd Caldwell Story,
The story of a black
man wrongly condemned to life in prison
can
be found on 
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along with many other beautifully
written accounts of injustices which diminish us all by their
existance.
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injusticebusters highlight
the Caldwell story not because it is unusual but because it is
all too common. Thousands of such stories can be found
in the United States and hundreds in Canada. The victims of these
injustices may have been victimized because of a particular feature,
such as race, gender, sexual orientation or religion. But the
common thread in all of them is a corrupt justice system.
The corruption begins with sloppy investigation.
It moves to vigorous prosecution despite questionable evidence.
When challenged by defense lawyers, the accused or fair-minded
citizens, it moves to cover-up. Malice doesn't even enter into
it, usually. If these injustices were products of malice, we'd
know we were dealing with something human. The justice system
machine can pile an amazing amount of earth over the truth. And
when a shred of truth manages to crawl into the light of day,
the system calls in its faithful slaves: the media.
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| By and large the media operates as the PR machine
of the system. It takes press releases from the police and prosecution
and runs them as fact without independent investigation. When
the shred of truth is brought to their attention, they give it
an obligatory five minutes of light and go back to business as
usual. The public mistakenly gets the idea that because the truth
has been told, justice will follow. Wrong again. |
| We are a nation
of cynics. There is the garden variety cynic who says, "Where
there's smoke, there's fire," or "Well he may not be
guilty of that but he's guilty of something" or "I
keep my nose clean so it won't affect me." Then there are
the cynics who believe that injustice goes on but that it is
just so widespread that there's nothing can be done about it.
"Human nature," they say. "It's the way it's always
been and always will be." Even "God's will." |
| Then there are the cynics who work in the system.
Decent folks themselves, they turn a blind eye to incompetence
around them either because they are overworked themselves or
for some other reason can't be bothered. They don't want to risk
their jobs. To these people, we say: get some courage. Ask questions.
Do the right thing. And if you need help, contact injusticebusters! |
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| The thread of
inevitablity which is fostered by those who are stupid or careless
or greedy of downright mean is seen clearly in the story of Floyd
Caldwell who, despite the valiant efforts of his wife, Synthia
Caldwell, and others working for his release has not seen any
justice. As Canada moves towards more "tough justice"
with the passing of new and tighter legislation against young
people, we can only hope that more people will wise up to what
is going on and insist that tough justice is rarely justice at
all. Victims seeking revenge might try seeking something else.
The much touted concept of closure does not come with harsh punishment
of an offender. More likely an innocent person will be caught
up in the system and bear the brunt of the brutality, as is the
case with Floyd Caldwell. |
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When we first launched this
website in June, 1998, we couldn't find enough local injustice
stories to "pad" the site so we cribbed a lot of material
from other places. Sadly there are now so many injustices that
it is impossible to keep track of them all, never mind post them!
We hope that there are still
teachers in highschools and universities (and journalism schools?)
who are encouraging their students to actually research and write
thoughtful justice and injustice stories and that this website
will provide material for thought. Go deeply into these stories!
Find new material. Get to know the background!
President George W. Bush makes
the claim that he grew up in a family where he was encouraged
to read and write. He is living testimony that reading and writing
are not enough! You have to learn to think critically, to check
your facts, to shine your light on the truth and never to shade
it. It would be helpful if you even took five minutes to meditate
upon what that sentence means.
|
index
to individual injustice stories
| Index to Saskatoon Police
stories
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