Building Baby Brother (continued)

That response gave me pause. I don’t know what I had expected, but I’m pretty certain it wasn’t that.

“I see.”

I didn’t, actually, but it gave me a few additional moments to gather my thoughts again.

“Explain.”

“Laws are designed to protect the citizens.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “That’s essentially it.”

“What do the laws protect them from?”

“Hmm . . .”

I stopped and looked away from the display. It was a good question—one I wasn’t certain I had an equally good answer to.

My knowledge of our legal system extended primarily to my personal experience with traffic laws and the serious crimes that I saw reported in the news. I also knew enough to understand that much of what I saw on television legal dramas wasn’t entirely realistic. In other words, I knew next to nothing.

“From themselves, mostly,” I finally replied.

Gavin said nothing and stared at me. I assumed he wanted more of an explanation.

“Okay,” I continued. “I suppose they’re mostly designed to protect us from other people who might want to harm us or our property.”

“But many of the laws are contradictory,” he said. “As written, they cannot be applied consistently.”

“I’m not surprised,” I responded, nodding by agreement. “That’s why we have lawyers and courts.”

“But if the laws were consistent, those professions would not be needed.”

“True,” I conceded, after considering his statement for a moment. “But that assumes that the reasons why crimes were committed are always consistent. People sometimes do bad things because they feel they have no other choice.” I sighed, remembering a highly publicized domestic abuse case from a few years back. “Sometimes they’re right.”

There was a brief, but noticeable, silence before Gavin spoke to me again.

“I do not understand.”

I sighed, trying to think this through as I spoke.

“Suppose that someone kills another person.”

“Yes.”

“The laws are pretty clear on what should happen, right?”

“Yes.”

“What if it turns out that person killed in self-defense, because their life was threatened?”

“Then a different set of laws apply.”

“That’s right,” I said. I felt a momentary warm glow, something like what a teacher must feel when working with a prized student. “That’s the role of the courts: to determine which laws and appropriate penalties should apply.”

“Why don’t they prevent the crime from happening?”

“Because,” I chuckled briefly in a vain attempt to lighten my mood, “not everyone has your knack for seeing the connections between cause and effect.”

Gavin stared back at me and my improved disposition faded quickly.