“The process is often the punishment”

@LP5 ‘The process is often the punishment.’

By @Colin Wright

Indeed. Witness the January 6th defendants. Regardless of what the verdict in your case eventually is, you’ve got to be sorry you walked through that door.

Your observation does make one rethink how the justice system actually works.

It would seem to be be: irritate the government, and you will be severely punished. If you actually did something illegal, you may be even more severely punished.

The comparison is melodramatic, but there’s an anecdote in The Gulag Achipelago.

The guard is reading out sentences, and hits one for twenty five years. He’s curious:

‘What did you do?’

‘Nothing.’

‘You’re lying. The sentence for nothing is ten years’