Not so blind justice

One point I keep hearing from various corners in the context of Bountygate is "'everybody does it' is no defense." And to a point I agree. It goes without saying that the Saints should be punished for encouraging players to intentionally injure one another. The fact that "everybody does it" isn't a defense of the practice but it does allow us to question the proposition that severe punishment of only one team in this matter actually constitutes justice.

More often than not, the punishment isn't designed to fit the offense as much as to fit the relative circumstances of the offender and the judge. In the Saints' case we can see whatever penalty the league decides to impose on them as a function not just of the fact of the bounty pool but also of ongoing side issues between the Saints and league over Sean Payton's embrace of Mike Ornstein and, to a lesser extent, a long brewing antipathy toward Payton and the Saints in the national media.

That has become a hallmark of the Saints under Payton and Loomis. They've earned the reputation for doing what they want to do. On the Tuesday before their Super Bowl victory, the Saints purposely arrived at media day an hour late. It had never been done. The NFL has an annual day-after Super Bowl news conference with the winning coach and MVP, and Payton had to be strong-armed into going.

Oh they're so bad! They showed up late for our bullshit press event. Surely the "sinners" must be wiped from our sight. And thus the Saints will absorb the most severe penalties meted out by the league on any team ever... partially for something "everybody does", sure, but mostly for just being who they are.

It would be bad enough if this system of non-justice, where the severity of one's punishment depends more on who you are than what you've done were in place only in football. At least then it would be funny. Unfortunately this principle extends to real life as well where, as James Gill points out today, if you're the right sort of person, you can literally get away with murder.

Faced for once with truly momentous and controversial issues, the state Supreme Court has lived up to expectations and chickened out. It was only by the narrowest of margins, but the court refused writs in the Memorial Hospital post-Katrina euthanasia case. An opinion handed down last year by the Court of Appeal stands, and former Attorney General Charlie Foti's investigative files will remain forever secret.

Well at least the doctors probably showed up on time for the right cocktail parties and media events. What's a few more murders in New Orleans anyway? "Everyone does it", right? Even the police.