Complex Numbers

And Justice for Some

I'd skip this one, but I'm determined to do all the "JAFBG"  [XGC] prompts in random order.

Tell us about a recent injustice you witnessed.

The reason I'd skip it is because I don't recall witnessing any injustices recently. In order to do so, I'd have to participate in the world more. And I don't think a bar opening at 4pm when the hours clearly state they open at 3pm counts as an injustice. Yes, that's the closest thing I've experienced lately.

Going back, well, I'm still drawing a blank. Of course, I've been the victim of injustice before, but that's less "witness" and more "experience." Like the time in high school when someone left a tack on the teacher's chair. The teacher didn't even sit on it. Perhaps being aware of the sociopathy of your average teen, she checked first, held up the tack, and said, "Okay, who's the joker?"

This is legitimately funny even now, but to 15-year-old me, it was the most hilarious thing ever. So I laughed. A lot. Of course, that means that the teacher, my parents, the other students, and most devastatingly, the principal, did not believe me when I said it was not me.

Now, it makes sense that I'd get in trouble for laughing, and I long ago gave up railing against the unfairness of it all. The actual injustice isn't that I got punished, but that the dipshit who actually placed the tack in the teacher's chair never got what he (or she, but come on) deserved.

Again, though, that wasn't recent by any measure of time except maybe geological. I'm just mentioning this here -- though I'm sure I've mentioned it before -- because in this geological epoch, I can laugh about it and maybe make someone else chuckle

Though I have not personally witnessed any injustices recently, well, I do see news stories from time to time, enough to know that the world is an inherently unfair place. This is actually a good thing, by the way. If life were fair, I wouldn't be as lucky as I am. And it would imply that there was some consciousness making it fair, which is far, far more terrible to contemplate than the idea that there's an entity making it unfair.

So, in the spirit of the prompt, I present this news story from Canada about an injustice, thus proving that it's not just the US with stupid laws.

B.C. nurse's driver's licence suspended after she couldn't do breathalyzer test due to facial paralysis  

A B.C. nurse whose face is partially paralyzed says her driver's licence was suspended and her car impounded after she was unable to provide a breathalyzer sample during a roadside check — and that Canadian laws about alcohol breath tests leave people with certain disabilities no way to prove their innocence.

Jamie van der Leek, 44, of Port Alberni, says she developed a severe case of Bell's palsy — damage to the facial nerve, which left her paralyzed on one side of her face — during one of her pregnancies.

It is not, of course, that laws against drunk driving are unjust. I mean, they can be, but you'd think that a civilized country like Canada, they'd allow a person to show her innocence.

The palliative care nurse was vacationing with her husband and children in Penticton, in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley, on Saturday, when an RCMP officer stopped her for a roadside check after a day at the lake. The officer asked van der Leek to provide a breath sample to test for alcohol. She says she tried, but because of her condition, she failed to create a seal over the device and blow in enough air for a viable test.

She says she explained her medical condition to the officer, who told her she was being difficult and said she would be served an immediate roadside suspension.

Where was that Mountie trained? The US?

"It takes about as much effort as blowing through a straw inserted into a glass of water. The likelihood that an individual cannot provide a breath sample is extremely rare and is usually due to reasons other than a physical disability or medical condition."

But I'm pretty sure that even in authoritarian police states like the US, a person can usually (depending on state laws) request a blood test instead of a Breathalyser. Now, we only have her word that she hadn't been drinking, but it wouldn't have taken a lot of effort to determine the truth or falsehood of that through different means.

So, there it is. Not directly witnessed, since I couldn't go to Canada right now even if I wanted to (and I kinda do because, in general, it's rather nice in the summer), but still an injustice.

Again, not the only one. You read about miscarriages of justice all the time. That just happened to be one I remembered reading about yesterday. Today, naturally, will bring its share of wrongs committed against people from various countries, sometimes by said countries. It would be enough to make one mad, if there were room to become angry after you take into account all the other fresh hells in the news.