I ask because some make the distinction between justice and vengeance. For example, when society imprisons a person for committing an offense against another, it is called justice. But when a person who has been wronged responds in kind, it is called vengeance and is condemned by all.
Justice as we know it in the West is the socially accepted standards of what is morally "right".But what has been determined to be morally right for the masses by the few, may not actually be so for the masses.Vengeance than maybe the only recourse. It is still justice that the person seeks, but through means that require operating outside of the socially agreed upon structure that is we call law.
We are told to "turn the other cheek" and that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" but is that really fair? Who are strangers to tell anyone what is a correct punishment for a wrong and what is not?
One also may wonder whether "society" is even capable of rendering an equitable assessment of justice. How many times have we seen a nations with properly elected governments pass or support laws that were discriminatory and cruel? The Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott Decision,Plessey v Ferguson, Nuremberg Laws...to name a few of the morally odious legal decisions in history.
Furthermore, the idea that law is blind is very much in doubt. For example, Hate Crimes laws. While well meaning, they ultimately are unjust because the end result is the unequal weight given to crimes committed as a result of hatred of a race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation over a crime committed simply with malicious intent. A truly blind justice system cannot place the motivations of the actors over the end result.
A beating is a beating no matter what the motivation was. Hate should be considered in the strictly legal sense of why a crime was committed, but it cannot be separated and judged by itself in a system that claims to be "blind". Once you start judging beliefs you open your previously "blind" system to prejudice. A national justice system should only judge actions, not thoughts.
History provides many more examples of how a system constructed and approved by a body of people is quite often not just. The most infamous and egregious example of this was the murder of 14 year old Emmett Till by two white men on the 27th of August, 1955 in Money, Mississippi. After a short trial, the murderers of Emmett Till--Roy Bryant and J.W.Milam--got off because they were fortunate enough to have an all-white jury.
What infuriates one even more is what happened after the trial. This blurb from an About.com article about the Till murder highlights this travesty:
On January 24, 1956, Look magazine published the confession of Milam and Bryant, who had agreed to tell their story for $4,000. According to their confession, they beat Till with a .45 in Milam's barn. They proceeded to take him to the Tallahatchie River where they had him undress and then shot him. A gin fan was tied around his neck with wire in order to weigh the body down in the river. They proceeded to burn Till's clothes and shoes.
Justice? How can any system that does not permit the punishment of those who admit OPENLY to murder, be called "just"?
This leads me back to my initial question of what is justice. Justice is the application of punishment to those who have committed an offense upon another. Whether it is socially accepted or not, it does not matter in my mind. Those two men should have been subjected to the same treatment they afforded Emmett Till. It isn't a matter of bringing back Till or discouraging others from similar acts, but a equitable reaction to a heinous crime committed by low lives.That they were permitted to live out their lives is an injustice that no amount of Christ or Gandhi quotes can erase.
While for many, the philosophy of forgiveness is a foundation of their lives, I cannot accept it as my own.. While I respect such beliefs, they don't satisfy my guidelines for my version of justice.The best form of Justice, in my opinion, is that which punishes those who have done wrong with a punishment that fits the crime. That, to me, is justice.
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