This excerpt from Plato’s Republic focuses on the question of
“what is justice?” Thrasymachus made a very valid point in saying that justice
works for the advantage of the strongest; which is sensible in the twenty-first
century, and really throughout history. This does not mean that it works for
the people who are worthy of justice, because everyone deserves justice. This
means that whoever is seen as the most powerful in our society will have
justice. One particular example could be the police in America. Many police
officers do something that would be considered morally wrong, yet get away with
it because they are the law, yet someone who could be defending themselves
against a harmful person could be sentenced to many years in prison. One
perfect example of the first observation involving the police, or the
“strongest” according to what Thrasymachus said, would be the police officer,
Darren Wilson of the Ferguson, MO police department. He was responsible for
shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed and innocent black male. Although it has
been proven that Michael Brown was unarmed and had not robbed the store in that
area, the police department and many others stand by Darren Wilson, who so far,
is going free. In this case, Darren Wilson and the Ferguson police department
would be considered the “strongest” because they are the law.
Further proving this point would be the case
of Marissa Alexander, a black Jacksonville, FL mother who was sentenced twenty
years in prison for firing a warning shot in the air so that her abusive
partner would go away. She was protecting herself, and in a way that did not
harm anyone. Justice did not work for the advantage of Ms. Alexander because
she does not have the power that others may have. For hundreds of years in
America, minorities have had this problem where justice does not apply to them
because of racism, which further proves Thrasymachus’ truth in proclaiming that
justice works for the strongest, or the most powerful people in society.
I believe that this is a race issue because most African American males are presumed as bad guys and a guy lost his life because of that. No one truly knows what the situation was except for the police and mike brown, and being that one is dead the story will only be heard from the officer. There is no justice in this act because it could have been vice versa with a black cop and white guy and people would believe that it was still a race issue. Most people think that police have so much power to take someone's life but before they came to the force they had to make a vow to be honest and that is something some officers are not.
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