How do you define justice?

This morning I came across John Kass's column in the Chicago Tribune, "Finally, wronged cop gets some support."  Admittedly I've been a very, very busy girl, dealing with some major family issues, deaths in the family and 'life' in general, so I remember reading his earlier column and then forgetting about it.  John, thank you for today's column. 

Part of John Kass's column is here:  " Last Sunday I told you about Mette trying to repeatedly avoid conflict, being chased down the street, then getting pushed hard by the drunk "two or three times," according to the judge's own ruling, before punching the drunk once. And for that he gets 5 years?

"To all the people who read your column, words can't express how it makes me feel to have this much support," Mette said. "Everybody is calling. It's in the news now, and it's tough to describe how good the support makes me feel. I just want people to know that I appreciate them."  So many of you have called and written, I figured it was time for an update. But Mette doesn't have much time.

He's losing his job as a Chicago police officer. If something isn't done, he'll report for prison Nov. 9 and meet the inmates, who'll know he's a cop. 

And what do you say?   "I say I can't believe this is happening, either. But I'm going to prison for defending myself, for landing one punch on somebody who attacked me with both fists? That's what I can't believe."

A defense fund has been established, the Michael Mette Defense Fund, at Northwest Community Credit Union, 7400 N. Waukegan Rd., Niles, IL 60714. And Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police -- the police union -- has come to his side."

Originally I noted the link for the full article by John Kass, but it has been archived.  The Second City Sarge blog has listed reproduced Kass's article here:  http://secondcitysarge.blogspot.com/2007/10/mike-mette.html

I for one, will be both making a contribution and putting in my prayers.  For those of you who are more into praying than donating, please ask that those who are in a position to help Officer Michael Mette be inspired to do so.  In my prayers and thoughts, this includes all who have made errors in judgment...may they be big enough as human beings to recognize what they have done and to turn this around and make it right.

While many of you probably wonder why I am writing this in my Consumer Maven blog, the answer is simply this.  We are all consumers of police protection.  I have friends who are Officers.  Okay, so my current boyfriend is one.  Does that make me overly sensitive about stories in the media involving police officers??  You bet it does, but only because I hear both sides now.  And yes I've had run ins with traffic cops who in the past were less than nice, but I've also (before my current connections) had some incredibly kind officers whose humanity helped me get through some tragic events in my life.  It is the latter that I will always remember, and which helped me have a huge measure of respect for the men in blue, the Officers on the street of the Chicago Police Department.  Yes, there are bad apples - we all know that.  Because these men are in uniform, we expect and hold them to a higher standard.  But because they are in uniform, I know that they deal with unfathomable amounts of seeing human misery, of death, of violent crimes, of things unspeakable that most of us would reel from if we had to see one of them.  Most of these officers see a lot of this, and often daily.  For this, for what you all do and your service to us all, I thank you.