Peace Through Justice

Peace through Justice: An American Justice System of Imprisonment  
4 South Carolina Officers, One K-9 Shot in Shootout, OJ Simpson: Guilty or Not?
In a South Carolina shootout, an officer was shot and fought for his life. This occurred following a domestic violence call. After openly firing at four officers and a police dog, Christian Thomas McCall (47) was taken into custody. In pain and agony, McCall was wounded during the shootout and was rushed to the hospital. Christian was also previously arrested for assaulting an officer. Waiting to be prosecuted, Christian will most definitely be spending the rest of his life imprisoned.
A horrific event, but a great display of peace through justice.“Peace is the absence of violence and conflict, sometimes underpinned by a level of deeper equity and harmony”(3, Murphy). Prosecuting someone, incarcerating them and stripping them from their freedom sounds inhumane, but taking the lives of others is also strongly considered inhumane. Prosecution has been a way that the American justice systems have created peace for many years.
Think of it this way, now that McCall has had his freedom taken from him and is under close governmental watch, he is unable to commit any crimes that will affect the greater amount of people. This means, he is unable to beat his wife, he also can not obtain a weapon and openly shoot at police officers, dogs, and put many others lives in danger.
Although American justice systems may seem harsh, it is not very easy to obtain life imprisonment, as there are very specific crimes needed to be committed. “A person could receive this sentence include murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, blasphemy, terrorism, severe child abuse, rape, espionage, treason, high treason, drug dealing, drug trafficking, drug possession, human trafficking, severe cases of fraud, severe cases of financial crimes, aggravated criminal damage in English law, and aggravated cases of arson, kidnapping, burglary, or robbery which result in death or grievous bodily harm, piracy, aircraft hijacking, and in certain cases genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, certain war crimes or any three felonies in case of three strikes law.”(6,Life Imprisonment) As you can see the sentence is not just given to anyone.
Peace and justice are very complex on their own. The definition of peace can be verified  by four key elements, that present either the absence or presence of peace, as illustrated in the image below. Equity, Harmony, Trauma, and Conflict. Each individual part serving its own role in the definition of peace. Briefly describing these four parts, we will start with equity. Equity: “political equality, economic equality, equal opportunities and access, and equality before law”(3, Murphy). Harmony: “A harmonious society is one in which all individuals within a society work together despite differences of race, ethnicity, class or caste, religion, gender, sexual orientation or age”(3). Violence Is any kind of physical as well as psychological harm. “This can be by groups in conflict, or by structures of society or government”(3). Trauma: “Trauma is emotional shock following the stress of conflict or violence”(3). Once you multiply equity and harmony, divide it by trauma times conflict, you are left with a specific kind of peace.      
Finally we get to justice, which can be split up into three types of definitions. First description, “the quality of being just; righteousness, or moral rightness”. Secondly, “rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of ground orreason”. Lastly, “the moral principle determining just conduct”.  
Another example of peace through justice is the infamous OJ Simpson murder case. OJ Simpson, a former NFL player, Actor, and broadcaster was served on June 12, 1994 with two counts of murder. These two murders consisting of  a waiter by the name of Ronald Goldman and OJ’s ex wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. OJ’s defence team was in fact one of the best around, taking the name, “The Dream Team”. The trial had taken eleven months of intense research, questioning, and justification. On October 3, 1995, OJ was declared not guilty of both murders. “But on February 4, 1997, the Jury unanimously found Simpson responsible for both deaths. The families were awarded compensatory and punitive damages totaling $33.5 million ($51.1 million in 2017 dollars), but have received only a small portion of that” (5, O. J. Simpson Murder Case).  
On September 13, 1997, OJ was also involved in a armed robbery. Three day following the robbery Simpson was arrested and held without bail. Ironically on October 3, 2008, Simpson was found guilty of 10 different charges, exactly 13 years following his murder case. Sentenced to jail for 33 years, he had an opportunity for parole after nine years. On October 1, 2017, Simpson was released, in tears of joy.
The OJ hearings are perfect examples of peace through justice. It can arguably be said that these two cases were also violence turned into peace. As the murder case proved OJ’s innocence, calming everyone down and letting OJ keep his freedom. The robbery trial pleading Simpson guilty, showing him that life has meaning, that the actions he takes have consequences, creating peace for everyone.  
Work Cited:
1) Brown, Benjamin, and Katherine Lam. “4 South Carolina Officers Shot; 1 Fighting for His Life.”


2)Wertheim, Michael McCann and Jon. “Why Is O.J. Simpson In Prison?” SI.com, 20 June 2017,   


3) Murphy, Robert, and Charles Gleek. Global Politics: Supporting Every Learner across the IB


Continuum. Pearson Education Limited, 2016.
4) Linder, Douglas O. “O. J. Simpson.” Famous Trials, UMKC School of Law, 2009,


famous-trials.com/simpson.
5) Not Listed. “O. J. Simpson Murder Case.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Jan. 2018,


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._J._Simpson_murder_case.
6) Not Listed . “Life imprisonment.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Feb. 2018,


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imprisonment.








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