Episode 190: Day In, Day Out
14Description
When Laura Coates decided to become a prosecutor in Washington, D.C., she was told that the job would be “human misery.” She says she remembers thinking, “If there's one person in the justice system who could do something about human misery, surely, it's the powerful prosecutor.” After four years, she quit.
Laura’s book is Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight For Fairness.
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Every observance by the person interviewed is through a perspective that is requiring that race or gender be a contributing factor. Seeing as justice should always be unbiased these factors should never be part of the justice system. I realize that racial and gender bias is present because racially-biased and gender-biased people are part of the system. That is precisely what stood out about this person. She views everything through her own racial and gender bias, and she feels as though that's acceptable. I wish her well, but the justice system is no place for a person who actively follows those biases. She did well to have left off prosecuting.
It's dispairing when you hear about how deeply is unfairness rooted in the justice system. It just goes beyond one individual's good or bad intentions or actions.