Customer Reviews

The System Versus the Law

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I found The System Versus The Law inspirational. The author goes from drug addiction/dealing to prison. While in prison he enters a recovery program and uses it to combat and overcome his addiction. His description of his recovery is imaginative to say the least. While in recovery he also creates a spiritual life. After successfully completing the program, he continues creating his spiritual life with the help of Yoga and Meditation. With a clear mind and body he begins to assist his appeals attorney. Together they seek judical relief for two convictions for crimes he did not commit. Throughout the book, the author interweaves his feelings about America's birth and the Bush Administration. He is denied relief by the judical system many times. Yet with out anger he continues to fight for his freedom. As he fights he is also edicated in how the legal system works. After serving nine years for a crime he did not commit, he finally wins his freedom.

Kenneth Brown speaks about his past lifestyle as a cocaine-marijuana drug user, where he watches his life shatters before him. Not only did he loose his family, he also lost his job as a basketball official and security company as a CEO. His former wife put a restraining order to stay away from his family, and later he served jail time for arson. Unbelievably, he admits to his sexual saturated affairs outside of marriage, as a drug addict started as early as Vietnam (U.S. Marine), and a black man in trouble with the law. He reveals it all--three marriages, children, and two other women to discover a part of him he did not experience in his own marriages. He believes Karma played a part in meeting most of his women. Becky, one of his previous wives, stuck it out the longest since she made numerous attempts to save their marriages, but he continued his drug addiction. Wonderful to have close ties like his unsurpassed friend, Larry Williams, who was there for him when no one else. He marvels from Buddhism meditations practices to finally being in tune with God.
He also has kept a journal of his jail sentence, trial experiences, unjust law measures due to perjury, and divorce attorney telling him to sign everything over to his wife, Becky. This makes me realize, do not trust your life to an attorney, take in the initiative to learn the legal system and what you can do to represent yourself. There are still some decent attorneys; we can still research it for our own benefit too.
Deeper message to take from "The System Versus the Law" is when Kenneth Brown acknowledges there are two kinds of wills in life: "free will and God's will. Free will allows us to grow, learn, mature and develop. But when we grow, learn, mature, and develop we come to realize that free will ends up God's will." Moreover, we cannot focus on other people, but ourselves. We are born, live, and die alone. He realized this during his trial of injustice to an immeasurable freedom.

Adrienna Turner
AAMBC Book Reviewer