Can we do some due process please?

I generally try to avoid thinking about politics because I don’t think I can have much impact on it. But my mind keeps going back to it this week.

I’m depressed about the eroding of rule of law and due process.

I don’t know what’s legally appropriate to happen in the case of the shooting of Renée Good. I have my own opinions from my own moral compass, watching the footage, and reading analysis. But mostly I don’t want public Facebook comments to decide what happens.

I want a process of law to happen that we can all get behind and feel confident enough in that we don’t burn things down.

Depending on what side you’re on, you have a different political interest in how the story is framed. If you’re someone who supports Trump, you may want to promote a tough-justice view of the world, and paint protesters on the left as unruly and interfering with order. On the other side, you may want to paint Trump as evil, and ICE as evil, and maybe other things as evil: colonialism, law enforcement, or white supremacy.

I don’t expect to change people’s political bias. But, I want us to attempt to appeal to a higher system even if we’re all super biased. Because I think the abandonment of that completely imperfect attempt is even worse.

Instead of arguing about what happened, can we argue about the impartiality of the system? I know a lot of people are doing this, I just want to see more.

The protest is about her killing. But I want to see protests about the FBI not working with local law enforcement in a collaborative effort. Protestors could ring out “more data, more truth!” Or because it seems unprecedented, “Let’s uphold traditional law enforcement investigation practices!”

If you’re on the right, and you believe that local authorities can’t be trusted because they are too politically biased, then you could emphasize the unbiased nature of the FBI investigation. Or claim you will work with local officials only if certain conditions can be met like following certain unbiased practices.

Assuming we all want a fair system of justice, we should be emphasizing that process.

Instead, Kristi Noem calls Renée Good a domestic terrorist, and protestors respond that ICE are the domestic terrorists. This is operating in the wrong frame

I beg you, let’s please pop-up one level.

Internationally, I want similar processes for how we decide what to do. This week, seeing the moves in Venezuela, and discussions about Greenland, I’m longing for Trump to appeal to shared higher principles not just power. (My husband read a draft of this and said, “well, I want Trump to give me a cookie, so what?”)

Even if leaders are biased because certain moves increase their power, if we talk about higher principles there’s at least a foothold for people who care about the truth to have arguments about it. At each step, it gives chances for leaders to choose the principle over a pure power grab.

If there’s a complete abandonment of the appeal to shared principles, and nothing but power as the principle we use to decide things by, I think we are in a much more divided world.