JUSTUS with Jack & Gonzo

By: Jack D’Aurora and John Gonzales
  • Summary

  • Social justice means applying the law equally to all people. But in practice, that doesn’t always happen. We’re business and trial lawyers with over 60 years experience of practice. Together, we practice law, we seek social justice, and we reveal the conflict between the two. And in this podcast, we bring together guests from a variety of backgrounds to discuss the current issues surrounding social justice and the inequity between these issues and their relation to the legal system. Join with us, so that it’s not Just Us.
    Copyright 2024 Jack D’Aurora and John Gonzales
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Episodes
  • 96. We're entering an age of new robber barons
    Jan 31 2025

    With billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos circling in President Trump’s orbit, we are witnessing a new age of extremely wealthy business owners seeking to expand their influence on the government. The robbers barons of the late 19th century—JP Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie—had nothing on these fellows.

    As we moved into the mid-20th century, the wealthy wanted to hide their wealth—as if they were like everyone else. When Fortune magazine first published its list of the wealthiest Americans in the 1970s, the people listed weren’t happy about it. They wanted that information kept private.

    Things are different now. Society, it seems, is on a new wave of revering people of great wealth, and wealth is seen as an indicator of wisdom and intellect, and men like Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy act as if they know everything, even when it comes to running the federal government.

    But the difference between running a business and running the government is huge. With a business, there is one goal: profitability. With government comes the obligation of doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It's rare to see a business person who can make that kind of transition.

    Men like Musk and tech moguls Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen exhibit a libertarian ideology. They seem to think they don’t owe anything to anybody, never mind how they may have made their money or who helped them get their start. And they don’t want to be hampered in any way in how they do business, and so they resent government interference.

    These titans of business are poised to exert their influence in ways we haven’t seen before. Just take a look at who was seated closest to President Trump during his second inauguration.

    Listen to our conversation with Steve Conn, professor of history at Miami University.

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    46 mins
  • 96. The truth about immigrants in America
    Dec 22 2024

    Are immigrants a drain on society, or does America benefit from their presence? It’s a hot topic, with Republic politicians telling lies during the last election about Haitians in Springfield eating dogs and cats—and telling these stories solely for the purpose of political gain. What was really stunning is that those lies resonated with some number of people, and Haitians were threatened with violence.

    We talk with Flannery Rokey-Jackson of Community Refugee & Immigration Services here in Columbus, Ohio, about two classes of immigrants. Because of the crisis in Haiti, the Haitians were granted temporary protection status by the U.S. government. Other immigrants have fled their homes because of race, religion, nationality, membership in certain social groups, or political opinion, and have met the criteria set by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to merit refugee status.

    Whether we’re talking about temporary protected status or refugees, these are people who want to integrate into society, educate their children and become productive citizens.

    Here’s a snippet of the conversation with Flannery:

    “So first, your first question about criminality, I've personally never experienced. Helping a family resettle here and then seeing them turn to any kind of crime, especially with refugees who … are required to apply for their green card after one year in the United States, and if they are commit any kind of crime, even a misdemeanor, that could jeopardize that ability to get their green card.

    “So, I have worked with families who won't even jaywalk across the street with me because they don't want to break the law. They're also so excited to start their new lives, and to join the workforce, get jobs, go to school, and become contributing members of society.

    “And of course, we see refugees using benefits more earlier on in their resettlement and then once they're, you know, 10 years after resettlement, they are paying back into the system quite significantly.”

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    45 mins
  • 94. Let's talk about police shootings.
    Dec 3 2024

    Do police officers get it right more often than not when it comes to shooting a suspected threat? Are police trained adequately in terms of simulated scenarios and stressful situations? Are small police departments able to access the same level of training as police departments in large metropolitan areas? Do people suspected of a crime, who fail to comply with police commands, bear responsibility for being shot?

    We talk with retired police officer Bob Meader, who served as a commander at the Columbus Police Academy, about the challenges that come with police work.

    As Bob puts it, how many skills do you need to have to play a certain sport versus how many skills a law enforcement officer must have? Officers are tasked with dealing with myriad situations, ranging from intervening in an emotional domestic dispute to stopping an armed robbery in a convenience store.

    And then there’s the matter of stress… “You have the epinephrine dump, the heart becomes quicker, the breathing becomes more shallow, the pupils become constricted, and what goes is your finite motor skills, which you need to hit that target 50 feet away.” That’s a different situation than just shooting at paper targets.”

    Bob calls police work “the hardest job in America, and everything officers are doing today is recorded, and then guys like you and me get to sit in a temperature controlled office and hit rewind.”

    Complexities of the job aside, there are shootings where you scratch your head and say, “What in the world was that cop thinking? I didn’t see anything close to a threat.” Sure, officers face prosecutions for bad shootings and incarceration, but still we’re left with someone dead who shouldn’t be dead. And these are the stories that make the news.

    Do we judge police shootings fairly? Do we expect too much? Do we give officers more deference than we should. Listen to the conversation.

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    52 mins

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