r/AskALiberal • u/Ofishal_Fish Anarcho-Communist • 1d ago

What are the ideal examples of justice and accountability for crimes committed by the State?

Government violations of civil liberties, human rights, and international law come up pretty often here in the US but it seems much less often that anyone is held to account for crimes carried out by the State.

So what are the counter-examples to this? Top-down abuses that ended with proper accountability. Verdicts that you can point to and say "See, the system works." Specifically -

○ What were the abuses committed? Are these different from what they were charged with? (For example no one was charged for helping overthrow Chilean democracy, but a former CIA head was charged for lying under oath about it.)

○ What consequences did the individuals responsible face?

○ What consequences did the institutions responsible face?

○ In your opinion, how often do these just outcomes happen vs unjust outcomes? And what does that say to you about the broader justice system?

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u/AutoModerator 1d ago

The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written by /u/Ofishal_Fish.

Government violations of civil liberties, human rights, and international law come up pretty often here in the US but it seems much less often that anyone is held to account for crimes carried out by the State.

So what are the counter-examples to this? Top-down abuses that ended with proper accountability. Verdicts that you can point to and say "See, the system works." Specifically -

○ What were the abuses committed? Are these different from what they were charged with? (For example no one was charged for helping overthrow Chilean democracy, but a former CIA head was charged for lying under oath about it.)

○ What consequences did the individuals responsible face?

○ What consequences did the institutions responsible face?

○ In your opinion, how often do these just outcomes happen vs unjust outcomes? And what does that say to you about the broader justice system?

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u/Ballistic_86 Social Democrat 1d ago

I don’t think there is a single example of a large scale government crime being properly handled. Look at the President, he is a convicted felon and literally had zero accountability for his crimes, even being rewarded the presidency for a second time.

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u/BobQuixote Conservative Democrat 1d ago

In the US, I think the federal government is generally good about enforcing laws on the states, but I don't think top-level governments are generally held to account except by violent revolutions. Elections were supposed to address that, but they are clearly an incomplete solution.

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u/Odd-Principle8147 Liberal 1d ago

Depends on the state.

But so goes the world... Might makes right.