Sirius' sense of justice (from Re: Sirius Black-What a Guy!)

[Anne Ehrenberger]

No: HPFGUIDX 44310





Millergal18 writes:
> vigilante
> justice, ... is exactly what Black is endorsing
> here.  I shudder to think 
> what the world would be like if everyone took legal
> matters into their own 
> hands.  There is a reason why we have a defined
> court system today.  Simply 
> because someone has been wronged does not give that
> person the right to take 
> the matter into their own hands.  I am sorry, but if
> Black had killed Peter 
> in that shack, he would have been no better than
> Peter, in my eyes.  

Now me:
But a court system is not necessarily justice, either.
 Sirius has personal knowledge of that, since in GoF
he reveals to H, H, and R that Crouch Sr. sent him to
Azkaban without a trial (see the chapter where they
visit Sirius in the cave outside of Hogsmeade).  A
defined and *trustworthy* justice system is obviously
better than vigilante-ism, but it does not always
exist.  We don't really know that much about wizard
justice yet, but there are some definite points
against it:

1. The use of Azkaban and dementors is much too cruel
for many offenses which seem to be punished there.
2. It is too easy to be sent to Az. without a trial
(even Hagrid was sent there for a time in CoS when the
ministry realized the chamber had been reopened).
3. This may be off the point, but even Buckbeak was
railroaded.

Sirius obviously has no faith whatever in achieving
justice in the wizard court system.

Annemehr



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