Flaws in the Criminal Justice System
Arlen Booth’s Cocaine Coma uses a fast-paced, dynamic story to present readers with perspectives on serious flaws in our criminal justice system and resounding social commentary. Cocaine Coma chronicles the story of tough-on-crime Chicago police detective, Mike Daniels, who loses his only daughter on New Year’s Eve to a prank cocaine overdose, the very same drug that he fights every day at work.
While reviewing the files of drug lords and drug dealers that he will prospectively catch, Mike’s discoveries on why they are not already in jail provides a strong social commentary that is seamlessly interwoven within the story. It makes Mike “sick to his stomach” to see all of the criminals who never went to prison “protected by the legal system that was supposed to put them behind bars.” Booth illuminates the myriad trivialities for which criminals are released; “Judges had thrown their cases out of court because someone didn’t read them their rights, didn’t have legal search papers, or they couldn’t understand English the day of the arrest.” His insights give pause for thought and inspire readers to question our legal system; “Daniels wondered how many people were dead victims on the streets today caused from drugs they had distributed” asking the provocative question; “whose constitutional rights were being defended?”
Booth sheds light on the corruption that exists in the legal system, in addition to the investigational flaws that contribute to many criminals being released, such as “lack of evidence (someone had stolen it out of the police vaults); improper search (policeman shined a flashlight under the guy’s car seat, found a gun, but didn’t have a search warrant); improper court procedures (pronounced the criminal’s name improperly too many times), the judge threw it out; records lost or stolen when the attorney arrived in court (no continuance allowed because the judge was paid more by the criminal).” Cocaine Coma asks readers to question, “Who are they protecting?”
Booth’s novel serves an important social purpose, presenting these problems and flaws in a provocative way, since the law abiding public remains largely ignorant of the workings of the legal system, and too often do not care when the court reporters attempt to reveal the truth in the newspaper, with no one reading “beyond the sports or the funnies.” Albeit hidden under a fictional tale with fictional judges and attorneys, Booth’s assertions are predicated on real problems that exist within the social and legal system of America; “Every one of these files smelled of payoffs. Fifteen of them had the same judge and lawyer. Five others had never seen the inside of a jail because of plea bargains or technicalities.”
Daniels questions whether or not his investigation will be effective-since the good people in the legal system who attempt to put criminals behind bars and protect the American public are too often overridden by the intricate system of payoffs and corruption; “Too many hands and mouths in this assignment and it won’t work.” The men that he and his department attempt to imprison are often too deeply entrenched in the higher working of the legal system, using the power of drug money to influence the courts; “These guys have an inside track on the legal system and the police department.
Drug money is the powerful venom of these lowlife snakes, and their poison has bit many in the City of Chicago.” Cocaine Coma provides a valuable function, illuminating the problems that Americans ignore in the newspapers and from which they are often shielded, interweaving an important message and provoking assertions underneath a fictional story. Presented as fiction in an entertaining and compelling manner, perhaps
readers may finally be awakened to the poison and corruption that exists in our legal system.
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