Fifty-One Fucking Percent

Well, that was… enlightening.

I went to court yesterday. Tribal court in Tesuque. This was in connection with the careless-driving ticket I received.

And, of course, I take fucking issue with that.

There isn’t anything careless about how I fucking ride. Not ever.

But the facts of the ticket itself aren’t really what stood out to me yesterday, and quite frankly, I’m not done with that part yet. Because yes, I’m going back to court. I chose that. The fine is something like eighty bucks, and I could make the whole thing disappear by paying it. But that isn’t the fucking point.

This is about right and wrong, and the cop got it wrong.

On a whole bunch of fucking levels.

I even told the judge that.

Because it’s tribal court, the terminology was a little different, although the process looked pretty goddamned familiar. There was their version of an arraignment, where we had to respond to the allegations. I forget the exact language. I think it was “deny” rather than “not guilty.”

When it got to me, I said something along the lines of, “The rules of the road are different on two wheels. I didn’t do anything wrong, and I think every cop should understand that. So of course I’m taking this to court. Deny, or whatever you said the trial option was.”

Yeah. I might have been a little fucking salty.

But again, that wasn’t what stayed with me yesterday.

Before anyone was heard, the judge explained the tribal court process to all of us unfortunate fucks summoned to answer for our horrible crimes against humanity.

She explained that the traffic laws essentially mirror state code.

Yeah. No shit. I had already figured that much out.

Then she explained that these matters are handled as civil cases.

That got my attention.

Because the burden of proof is different.

A lot fucking different.

In a criminal case, the government generally has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That is deliberately a high bar because the government is accusing someone of a crime and potentially taking away their liberty.

In a civil case, the standard is a preponderance of the evidence.

More likely than not.

Fifty-one fucking percent.

You know, kind of like fucking democracy. Fifty-one percent wins. The slimmest majority gets to impose its judgment on the minority. Exactly the kind of majoritarian power our system was supposedly designed to keep from trampling individual liberty.

And when it’s the fucking government on one side and the individual on the other, I find that incredibly revealing.

Because this whole thing began with a police officer using government authority to stop me on the side of the road. For that period of time, I was not free to simply continue on my way. An armed agent of the government detained me, accused me of wrongdoing, and issued an order requiring me either to pay the government or appear before its court.

And the standard required to uphold that accusation is essentially: Eh, probably.

That’s fucking remarkable to me.

Now, I’m sure somebody will read this and tell me that traffic violations being handled civilly is perfectly normal.

Great.

That doesn’t mean I have to think it’s fucking right.

We have become so accustomed to government exercising power over us that we rarely stop to ask how high the bar should be before that power is exercised.

Well, I fucking do.

And maybe that makes me difficult.

I’m okay with that.

Because when the government stops a citizen, accuses that citizen of wrongdoing, takes their time, demands their presence in court, and ultimately seeks money from them, I think the burden ought to rest very fucking heavily on the government.

Not fifty-one percent heavily.

Actually fucking prove it heavily.

And this is where my recent obsession with the word justice comes roaring back into the room.

I’ve written a lot lately about how our justice system increasingly seems more interested in process, compliance, bureaucracy, and revenue than in anything resembling actual justice.

Yesterday didn’t exactly improve my opinion.

Here, nobody was even pretending this was a criminal prosecution.

It was a civil matter.

A police officer makes an allegation. The government seeks a civil penalty. And the question becomes whether the accusation is more likely than not to be true.

That may be legally sufficient.

I’m increasingly unconvinced that legally sufficient and just are NOT the same fucking thing.

Maybe that’s the part we’ve stopped asking.

Not whether government can do something. But whether it fucking should.

Because I believe in liberty. Deeply.

And if a government agent is going to flip on the lights, order me to stop, temporarily restrict my freedom of movement, accuse me of wrongdoing, and compel me into a government proceeding, then I believe the government ought to carry one hell of a burden.

Not because I hate cops.

Not because I think roads shouldn’t have rules.

Not because I believe nobody should ever be held accountable.

But because government power should be difficult to wield against an individual.

That’s the fucking point of our liberty-forward fucking governmental design.

Our founding fathers weren’t fucking stupid. They were brilliant.

And trying a case where the accusations are pulled straight from the criminal code as a civil fucking matter spits in the face of that design. Spits in the face of fucking liberty.

Which brings me back to the larger point running through damn near everything I’ve written this week about justice.

We have collectively become far too comfortable standing powerless before government institutions. We complain about them. We bitch about them. We roll our eyes at them. And then, when they tell us what they’re going to do, we shrug our fucking shoulders and comply because, well, what can you do?

Fuck that.

Government derives its power from the consent of the governed. Those aren’t decorative words. That’s the entire fucking arrangement.

So maybe it’s time we start acting like it.

Question the cop. Challenge the ticket. Contest the ordinance. Show up in court. Call the councilor. Demand an explanation. Vote the fuckers out. Make government justify the power it exercises instead of meekly accepting that power simply because somebody with a badge, a robe, or an elected title says so.

And when government wants to wield its power against an individual, demand that it do so with accountability, restraint, and a profound fucking reverence for the liberty it is interfering with.

Because liberty doesn’t survive by government benevolence.

It survives because the governed fucking demand it.