Fundamental on almost every constitution of sovereign countries, is the bill of rights. Human rights organizations are all over trying to fight for rights which as supposed in our society should be the bottom line of everything. Human rights is a very important factor if people are to live in peace and harmony. It keeps us in peace so we may perform our duties gracefully without harming fellow citizens and being destructive in one way or another. These days in our societies we see that these rights being applied selectively. Based on social class, social media reputation, credibility, authority or how loud the person complains or yells… Paradox… One question always lingers in my mind; are some people’s rights more superior than mine or yours?
There are those news pieces which no one knows about or sees. A great example would be a popular politician in Kenya, (country located in East Africa just in case you thought Africa is a country), even after being suspected to have shot and killed his son, he was still walking free as if no crime had been committed. The area OCS (Officer Commanding Station), accompanied with a few officers, peacefully raided his home and found the aged politician resting at his home. They waited as he prepared himself to accompany them to write a statement at the nearby police station. This reminded me of the cheap movie scenarios with actors who are friends of the cleaner. The police officers, seemingly receiving orders from this murder suspect, trailed as he rode his vehicle to the police station. He even had guts to stop at a nearby shopping center and buy himself some goods before proceeding with his journey to the police station. This was on TV, public saw it… But what can you do?
At the police station he wrote a statement and despite the police department having credible evidence against him, they let him go. They even provided him with escort, comparable to the ones offered to dignitaries, on his way back home. Obama back in the days would have been very jealous looking at this guy.
Many times we see on live TV police arresting law offenders and people like you and me who missed the trash bin or jaywalked. We are not even given a chance to speak out. We are hurriedly handcuffed, surrounded by a dozen of police officers albeit ourselves being unarmed, driven to police stations and locked up in cells waiting trial which might take some days or even months. In many situations people who got behind bars are not even informed why they are being arrested, until the police will apologize if they will not find anything or will create a story, just because their office job is super boring and screwing up people is an entertainment for them (Eastern European speaking here). You are only told to remain silent while being brutally arrested by mean officers and they call that a right. I guess this is the most applicable right to normal citizens. It is one of the rights used without hesitation (United States is a different story).
Politicians are seen day in day out breaking laws and codes of conduct. In political rallies all they talk about is hate speech and inciting comments yet no police officer dares to arrest them. They are involved in corruption scandals yet they are the ones we entrust to sit in finance committees, investigation committees, making laws of the country, passing the budget and we even gave them the power to amend laws. Even when they have lawsuits against them, they are often bailed out, the jury takes years to decide on their cases often times ending up to dismiss the cases on lack of evidence. The few times that judgment is passed against, it is usually a reduced jail sentence or fines. Do we have normal citizens and elite citizens? Are there superior rights and inferior rights? Are some people meant to enjoy rights more than the others? Is the bill of rights applied selectively? you tell me…