Janyce C. Katz: Neither terrible Bexley driver nor Donald Trump are above the law

Janyce C. Katz was an assistant attorney general for nearly 25 years. She currently works at General Innovations and Goods, Inc

The day the world heard about 37 charges against Donald Trump, a car ran through a red light and almost hit my car.

I was in Bexley, patiently waiting to turn left from Main St. to College Ave. The light changed to yellow. One car lane slowed to a stop. It looked as if no car was in the curb lane. I started to turn.

Lock him up? 8 cartoons about Donald Trump's arraignment, 37-count federal indictment.

To my surprise, a car tore out of the curb lane at a high speed and zoomed past the nose of my quickly stopped car through the now red light. Clearly that car could have slowed down and stopped, but the driver thought the road was his/hers and that particular traffic law was for others to obey.

I drove home, thankful to have avoided an accident.

It hit me that too many people these days don’t just ignore traffic lights but believe also they are above almost all laws, from tax laws, construction laws, even to laws about classified documents.

It’s as if an “I am above the law” philosophy, meaning laws are for some people, but not for me has become the norm.

Running lights, hiding money from taxation, making sure that elections go to their people and screaming theft if they do not, screaming free speech but condemning anyone who dares contest what they say, even encouraging violence against others etc. It’s not “the Rule of Law” flawed though that might be, it’s the rule of all for me and ‘nothin’ for you – like the song in the musical Oklahoma.

It seems similar to the Social Darwinism/eugenics movement that swept across this country in the late 19^th and early centuries.

They believed the strong win and the strong survive and are above the law but weak need laws and could be destroyed if bothersome. They also defined “superior” people by countries of origin, a made up “Nordic” race being the top group, Blacks were at the bottom and Jews became vermin.

Within each level there were some considered not qualified to be part of the special group, needing to be removed.

This Eugenics/Darwinian movement supported sterilizing both women and men deemed “undesirable” or “imbeciles” and no birth control or abortions for the “right” women.

Nazis not only praised and honored our eugenics leaders but decided murdering those they deemed undesirables would better strengthen the race. Of course, these folks saw themselves above laws.

Columbus drag queen to Nazis: 'Thank you very much for your hate.' Protest backfired.

When Donald Trump ran for president, he condemned Hillary Clinton for using a server independent of the government’s because of the possibility of a leak of classified information.

Others before her had used private servers (and later private phones in the White House) with no consequences. She cooperated, and a few classified documents were found, no war plans or ultra secret ones, and she showed no intent to keep them.

Trump smiled at rallies where people chanted “lock her up," and said as president he would ensure all strictly followed the classification laws that protect our secrets and those who help our country by collecting them.

Cries of “lock her up” were wrong as nothing was proved in a court of law, and in fact, the intent and other elements needed to arrest her didn’t exist.

But, now Trump is accused of not only taking home classified papers that allegedly contained nuclear secrets and descriptions of means to protect our and other countries, but also to concealing them when requested to return them, having people lie about having returned them, storing them in bathrooms, ballrooms, areas where people could see them, showing them to people and saying he didn’t declassify them when in office, etc.

It’s something considerably different from what Clinton did, or former Vice President Mike Pence’s or President Joe Biden’s careless taking home classified materials which they quickly returned; they had no intent to take the materials or to conceal them when requested to return them or to lie about having classified materials.

These claims must be proved in a court of law to be considered valid.

And cries for violence to “protect” this former president are out there now, with one who lost her race for governor threatening use of weapons. 

A few Republicans have spoken out against this, like former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, but the bulk of other Republican candidates for president and far too many other Republicans condemn the system that arrested Trump and would prefer to excuse him from any laws that he might have violated. He, and I suppose they, see themselves above such laws.

Just as that red light running driver was dangerous, so are these people. The question has become is this a country of laws that are (or at least we try) to be applied equally to all or a society where many laws are for only some – like a Russia or Nazi Germany.

Today, our rule of law concept is deeply threatened. Instead, we should be working to ensure it really does apply to everyone in the same manner to everyone.

Janyce C. Katz was an assistant attorney general for nearly 25 years. She currently works at General Innovations and Goods, Inc.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Neither terrible Bexley driver nor Donald Trump are above the law